The Big N Smacks Down Sony

Ah, the infamous PlayStation 3. They have tried a new market strategy. Want to know what it is?

It seems their market managers have "increased the price to get more sales." Wow, I bet that'll work. Let's all look at the numbers.

Sony just INCREASED the price of getting one by $100 by eliminating the $499 model. I can't wait till next month so we can see if the strategy of, "increasing the price to get more sales" works.

If Nintendo had stopped producing Gamecubes last month, the PS3 would be getting beat by:

• All current-gen consoles
• All current-gen portables
• All last-gen consoles
• All last-gen portables
• Every serious video game device currently being manufactured and sold on Earth.

And by serious I'm suggsting that we not count things like those $39 101 game portable things that they sell on TV.

Congrats to Nintendo! It's about time the world saw what people wanted, and that Nintendo fangirls (and boys) actually do have a good argument for the big N being the best out there. After almost a century of Nintendo getting being stamped as "kiddie", they are finally rewarded for their philosophy in making videogames. Seeing those PS3-sales decline/stay at such an embarrassing low level is kind of a satisfaction.

Console hardware sales tallied $239.4 million, a 56 percent year-on-year increase. The big winner was the Wii, which sold 360,000 units despite being almost impossible to find at retailers. The PlayStation 2 sold 194,000 units, followed by the Xbox 360 with 174,000 units. The controversy-racked PlayStation 3 was far behind--selling just 82,000 units--but was ahead of the discontinued Gamecube's weak 13,000-unit total. (NPD no longer tracks original Xbox hardware, which has also ceased production.)

The PS3 was entirely absent from NPD's top 10 software chart, which was dominated by Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl for the DS. The dynamic duo sold a combined 1.75 million units in just 14 days, with the former (1.045 milllion) handily besting the latter (712,000 units). Pearl's haul was more than double the 352,000 copies that third-place finisher Super Paper Mario sold, and nearly three times that of fourth-place Wii Play's 249,000 units.

APRIL 2007 US HARDWARE SALES (All numbers approximate)

• DS:(471,0002)
• Wii: (360,0003)
• PlayStation 2: (194,0004)
• PlayStation Portable: (183,0005)
• Xbox 360: (174,0006)
• Game Boy Advance: (84,0007)
• PlayStation 3: (82,0008)
• GameCube: (13,000

OVERHEARD

Wii=awesomenessxbox

360=awesomeness

PS3=Michael jackson of consoles