The Wii has truly been an amazing success story for Nintendo. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that the Wii is now nearing the Xbox 360 in units sold. You have to wonder how far the Xbox would be behind if it were not for the incredibly powerful Halo line.
"You'll be able to see who's gaining traction and losing traction," said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. However, Pachter predicted that the 2008 holidays will be even more competitive if the Wii is in better supply and if prices of all three consoles drop further.
The Wii, which sells for $250 and features a motion-sensitive controller, sold 13.2 million units worldwide as of September, Nintendo said. Microsoft reported that the Xbox 360 -- in models priced from $280 to $450 -- had sold 13.4 million units at the time. Then, in October, U.S. sales of the Wii exceeded Xbox 360 sales, according to the NPD Group. Combined with the Nintendo console's strength in the Japanese market, that effectively would bring the two into a dead heat in cumulative sales.
The PlayStation 3, which sells for $400 and $500, has sold 5.6 million units worldwide, a company spokesman said. Sony's PlayStation 2 dominated the previous console generation.
The article says holiday sales may determine who pulls ahead. Any supply shortage from Nintendo could prevent the Wii from overtaking Microsoft's Xbox 360.
