Kotaku: Console Wars

What It Will Take to Win the Next Console War

Stephen Totilo — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:40:00 EDT

Veteran video game designer Soren Johnson doesn't pick Great Motion Controls or Best Graphics as the most important weapon in the next generation of video game console wars. He picks the thing that Apple's doing so well. More »

Why Does the iPad Need to Kill Consoles?

Joel Johnson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EDT

Rovio's Angry Birds is huge. Cultural touchpoint. The sort of thing Jon Stewart can joke about on The Daily Show without qualification. But that doesn't make Rovio executive Peter Vesterbacka an expert on the videogame market. iPads aren't killing consoles. More »

Game Consoles Transformed Into Hot Women Should Be More Exciting Than Hyperdimension Neptunia

Mike Fahey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:30:00 EST

Hyperdimension Neptunia" alt="Click here to read Game Consoles Transformed Into Hot Women Should Be More Exciting Than Hyperdimension Neptunia" src="http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2011/03/small_hn.jpg"/>

In the future, all wars will be fought by Japanese anime women wearing revealing battle suits. For the console wars the future in now, thanks to Hyperdimension Neptunia. More »

The Console Wars In Sexy Comic Book Form

Mike Fahey — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:20:00 EDT

When one gamer's FoxBox630 fails, he trades up to the ESexy3. When the FoxBox630 returns from the shop, it's war. This is Ryan Kinnaird's Next Gen Warz, a two-issue comic series due in September from Image Comics. More »

Nintendo Continues Hardware Kill Streak In Slow April

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:00:00 EDT

The Wii and Nintendo DS killed the competition in the United States last month, partly because the other hardware makers didn't put up much of a fight. It was, bluntly, an ugly month for video game sales. More »

Firm: Sony Brand Less Valuable than Microsoft, Cigarettes, Beer, Toothpaste

Owen Good — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EDT

Millward Brown Optimor, a "global brand strategy" analyst firm, just stepped into a heaping pile of fanboy doodoo with its latest rankings of the 100 most valuable brands in the world, pegging Sony at 94th. Nintendo is 32nd, Microsoft fourth. More »

Pokémon Helps Nintendo Walk To March Hardware Victory

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:00:00 EDT

As it is wont to do, Nintendo dominated hardware sales in the United States in March, the Nintendo DS and Wii combining to move more than a million shiny new game machines last month. More »

Capcom's France Boss: "The Future is on PS3 and 360"

Owen Good — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST

Capcom's director general for France sounds very pessimistic about development for the Wii, feeling that its user base has "radically changed" into something that is no longer interested in core games such as the poor-selling Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. More »

Xbox 360 Owners "Defecting" To PS3 For Sequels?

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST

Multi-platform console gamers may be making the switch to the PlayStation 3 for sequels to games they may have owned on the Xbox 360, analysis from consumer research and consulting firm OTX shows. More »

PS3 Price Drop Makes It September's Top Console

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:40:00 EDT

The newer, slimmer, cheaper PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 and Wii during the month of September, according to new data from the NPD Group, the first time the console has bested both of its console rivals in the U.S. More »

Analyst: The PlayStation 3 Could Dominate The Holidays

Mike Fahey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:20:00 EDT

Industry analyst Michael Pachter predicts that strong sales for the new PlayStation 3 Slim could give Sony their biggest holiday season yet, potentially outselling the 360 for the rest of the year. More »

Tretton: What's Good for Sony is What's Good for Gaming

Owen Good — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:40:00 EDT

File this also under "What they say when we're not listening." Speaking to Forbes, the SCEA chief Jack Tretton answers a few softballs about the PS3 Slim, then says, "the environment where PlayStation wins is best for this industry." More »

Kotaku Talk Radio is Live, Come Chat With Ken Levine

Brian Crecente — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:50:00 EDT

In this week's episode of Kotaku Talk Radio we'll be talking about the reinvigorated console wars, the downside of pre-order goodies, whether we finally have a great Batman game, Jonathan Coulton's latest album and of course fielding calls from you. More »

Kotaku Talk Radio is Live, Join in the Conversation

Brian Crecente — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:55:00 EDT

A Reignited Console War Means A Happy Holiday For Gamers

Brian Crecente — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EDT

The long-simmering war between the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 has boiled over in time for the holidays thanks to dual price drops that put all three consoles within $50 of each other. More »

PS3 Slim Vs. Xbox 360 Elite: Tale of the Tape

Brian Crecente — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EDT

For the first time in the history of the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 console wars, gamers have a chance to pay the same cash for very similar hardware. More »

NPD: U.S. Hardware Sales Continue Decline, Xbox Holds Strong

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:40:59 EDT

It was another depressing month for the video game industry in the United States, the fifth consecutive monthly drop in a row. Hardware sales fell across the board, with the Wii, PSP and PlayStation 3 seeing the biggest year-over-year declines. More »

Epic Honcho Says Money Woes Made PS3 Cut Impossible

Owen Good — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:00:00 EDT

We always love it when one business comments on another business's business. In this case, Epic's Mark Rein says a PS3 price cut everyone's whined for would have made a bad year worse for Sony. More »

U.S. Console Sales Take Another Big Hit In June

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:40:00 EDT

The NPD Group's sales figures for the month of June are in and they are not pretty. On the hardware side, sales dropped a painful 38% year-over-year, with nearly every console seeing a drop in sales from June of 2008. More »

Nintendo DSi Helps Nintendo Win April Hardware Sales Contest, Industry Still Down

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:40:58 EDT

The launch of the Nintendo DSi appears to have been the sole saving grace of the video game industry in the U.S. during April, according to NPD Group sales data. More »

Nintendo Continues U.S. Hardware Dominance, Industry Hit Hard In March

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:40:00 EDT

Nintendo hardware continued to move in excess of over one million units a month in March, but the video game industry saw a severe drop in spending year-over-year, resulting in a 17% drop in revenue. More »

Sony: The PlayStation 3 Pushes More Blockbusters

Mike Fahey — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Sony contends that the PlayStation 3 maintains a higher attach rate for blockbuster games than the Xbox 360, and has the numbers to back up the claim. More »

Nielsen Drops the Ball on Console Usage Numbers

Brian Crecente — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:53:21 EDT

Remember that study of video gamer habits Nielsen released earlier this week showing the Wii in third place and the Playstation 3 in seventh, last even after the GameCube and original Xbox? It was wrong. More »

Nintendo "Not Particularly Concerned" With Weakening Wii Sales In Japan

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:20:00 EDT

With the PlayStation 3 outselling the Wii in Japan for the month of March, one might think that Nintendo executives are in a panic, concerned this whole motion control thing is a fad. Not so! More »

PlayStation 3 Outsells Wii In Japan For Second Month In A Row

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:20:00 EDT

Last year, the Wii made headlines for its trouncing of the PlayStation 3, when Nintendo's console was outselling its current-gen competition from Sony in Japan. But 2009 has started to work out a little differently. More »

If Only The Consoles Got Along This Well In Real Life

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:30:00 EST

The console wars can be brutal. It'll divide families, end friendships. But it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to devote your every waking moment to loving/hating a piece of consumer electronics. More »

So Who's Playing Each Console, And For How Long? [Update]

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:30:00 EST

Nielsen, masters of the survey and the percentage point, have come up with a rough idea of how long you play each of the three consoles for. And by "you", they mean "everybody". More »

Nintendo Dominates US Hardware Sales Again With Big, Big January

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:40:06 EST

No one was expecting Nintendo to sell Wii and Nintendo DS hardware at the record-breaking rate it had in December, but January's take was no drop in the pond, with the Wii dominating sales charts. More »

2008 Australian Console Sales Figures

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:30:00 EST

Let's take a moment to visit a peripheral theatre in the great global tussle for console supremacy, and see how each of the three machines is faring in the Australian market. More »

Pachter Breaks Up Fight Between Kaz, Greenberg, Claims Both Are Right

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:40:22 EST

Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. Why don't we stop all this console manufacturer bickering and make peace? Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai and Xbox 360 director Aaron Greenberg are both right. More »

Microsoft: Peddling Add-Ons Works For Us

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:40:00 EST

Sony recently called out Microsoft and Nintendo for having consoles that require add-ons in order to offer the total package. Now Xbox 360 group PR manager David Dennis responds, and fires right back. More »

Sony Calls Out 360 And Wii For Peddling Add-Ons

Mike Fahey — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:20:00 EST

In a rather pointed media alert distributed yesterday, Sony illustrates why they believe the PlayStation 3 is the most complete console entertainment experience, complete with a handy table to highlight the competition's shortcomings. More »

"Sony Is Doomed!" Ray Redirected Toward PSP

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:00:37 EST

It's been a rough couple of months for Sony and the PlayStation 3, particularly in the mainstream press. Now that the two year old console has been sufficiently thrashed, we think the PSP is due. More »

Sony Europe Boss Denies Spring Price Cut, Says It's Still Beating Xbox In Europe

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:30:00 EST

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss David Reeves issued a strong "nuh-uh" to his Xbox competition, saying that the PlayStation 3 is still outpacing Microsoft's console in PAL land. By a good 300,000 too! More »

Microsoft: Xbox 360 Outsold PS3 3-to-1 On Black Friday

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:20:00 EST

The Xbox 360 experienced "record-breaking console sales" during the post-Thanksgiving weekend, Microsoft corporately gloated today. It estimated a 25% increase in sales from Black Friday 2007 and boasted that it outsold the PlayStation 3 three-to-one. More »

What Makes Fanboys Tick?

Maggie Greene — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:00:00 EDT

Building off of his essay where he asked 'who's winning the battle for the hardcore?', Chris Bateman has posted an essay on 'what makes fanboys tick?'. His answer? Much like fanatics on any side of sports rivalry, political divides, or religious divides, it's cognitive dissonance at work. As Bateman explains, "When we come across situations that radically contradict our beliefs, we are filled with an uncomfortable feeling: to lessen this unpleasant experience (which is termed cognitive dissonance) we modify our beliefs in a way that will lessen the cognitive dissonance." What does this have to do with console wars (and warring factions?): More »

Jane Wells' Son - The Epic Conclusion, With A Twist!

Mike Fahey — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:30:00 EDT

We've been following the epic saga of CNBC reporter Jane Wells' son and his on and off love affair with the PlayStation 3 with bated breath here at Kotaku Tower, sitting on the very edge of our seats, feet littered with discarded popcorn containers as we wait and see just what happens next. First he trades in his Xbox 360 for a PlayStation 3, then he misses his Xbox Live friends and turns to World of Warcraft for comfort. Now for the finale which ties it all together!

So this weekend, he dragged his PS3 back to the same Game Stop where he bought it to trade it in for another Xbox. This, even as a friend in line with us complained about his Xbox acting up now that it's out of warranty.

I gasp! Instead of letting the consoles live in harmony, saving his money so he could have both a PS3 and an Xbox 360, young Master Wells instead went the trade-in route, at GameStop, no less. But how could he possibly make enough money to get a console and games with just the PS3? The answer may terrify you. More »

Would You Buy An Apple Gaming Console?

Mike Fahey — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:30:00 EDT

The prospect of another company jumping into the console market is laughable to most people, and for good reasons. It isn't a market you can just leap right into. You need connections, capital, and consumers hungry for any product you put on the market. Over at Cnet's The Digital Home, Don Reisinger suggests that only one such company exists - Apple.

Apple has the infrastructure in place through iTunes to create a real value proposition for those that want to extend the capability of their console beyond gaming and has the cash — about $20 billion — to not only invest in the best components on the market, but in an online gaming experience that could rival Xbox Live. That cash could also be put to good use by acquiring major developers (did someone say Take-Two?) that could go from third-party powerhouse to Apple's first-party publisher."

Having just bought an iPod Touch last week despite having a perfectly functional Zune with 10 times the storage space, I can see Don's point. Apple has gone beyond making products. Now they simply create things people want. Would you want an Apple gaming console? Apple is the only other company that can release a game console [The Digital Home] More »

Madden's Millions Rule August Software Sales

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:20:01 EDT

Why is this man smirking? His EA Sports division sold over 2.3 million copies of Madden NFL 09 to U.S. gamers last month, putting a serious hurting on the competition and lining up with his "prediction." Madden performed best on the Xbox 360, with over a million copies sold for that platform alone. The PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 versions sold over a million combined, so we doubt Peter Moore will be playing favorites. More »

Nintendo Rules U.S. Hardware Sales In August Amid Slowing Growth

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:40:52 EDT

Nintendo was in no danger of giving up the American console crown with its performance in August, selling just shy of another million Wiis and Nintendo DSs. More Nintendo hardware was sold to U.S. consumers than on all other platforms combined. More »