"The customer of [the Wii] has turned into something [of a] much broader audience. It is a disappointment," says Seux (pictured) in an interview translated from French via Google Translate. Seux, speaking to the blog Gamekult, also calls developing for the Wii "difficult" and goes on to say "for us, Capcom, the future is the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360."

It's likely we're hearing Seux's offhand opinion of the future, not official Capcom messaging here. Still, the words, coming from such a stalwart brand on Nintendo's platforms, are eyebrow raising.

It's clear Seux is frustrated. He points out sales of just 16,000 for Darkside Chronicles in the first three weeks of its release, compared to 140,000 for Resident Evil 4 on the Wii at release in in 2007. Seux's explanation for the disparity: the market has moved on.

One feels that there is a problem very clear on this style of game on the Wii, where gamers have obviously moved on. Resident Evil 4 on Wii worked well, but [it was released] when the market had nothing!

While Seux says the Wii is "still an important part of sales," he calls it "very much a family [console] with low attachment rates."

"This is the year of the emergence of so-called 'new console generation'," Seux concludes. "So for us, Capcom, the future is the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360."

Capcom: Less Wii After Darkside Chronicles Sells Only 16k [Spong]

Gamasutra's report on that OTX Gameplan Insight research shows that, for at least two titles, Xbox 360 owners are planning to invest in the PS3 versions of holiday sequels more so than the other way around. Both Assassin's Creed II and Modern Warfare 2 are seeing a shift in platform choice that favors the PS3, according to OTX.

Why defect? Gamasutra's report doesn't speculate on that, but one might assume the reasons are two-fold. In the case of Modern Warfare 2, the option to play the game's multiplayer portions without the need for an Xbox Live Gold account may be a factor.

The other may simply be the expanded PS3 console ownership following the system's recent price drop. Both titles appear to be feature equal, but the allure of buying games for the new console you just invested in, well, that might be enough to make the switch. Any other theories?

Analysis: Xbox 360 Gamers Defecting To PS3 For Holiday Sequels? [Gamasutra]

Sony's recent price drop was in effect for the full month of September, more than doubling month-to-month PS3 sales to the tune of 491,800. That's easily better than its nearest competitor, the Wii, which managed 462,800 units sold in the United States last month and well beyond what the Xbox 360 sold.

None of those consoles, however, managed to outsell Nintendo's DS platform, which continues its six month streak atop the NPD Group's hardware chart with another half-million plus sold.

• Nintendo DS - 524,200
• PlayStation 3 - 491,800
• Wii - 462,800
• Xbox 360 - 352,600
• PSP - 190,400
• PlayStation 2 - 146,000

Total hardware sales in the U.S. amounted to $472.28 million during the month of September, which runs from 8/30 to 10/03, according to the NPD Group's window. Speaking of NPD, here's what analyst Anita Frazier had to say.

"All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August)."

"Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales," Frazier notes, pointing to last September's less than impressive fifth place finish for the PlayStation 3. "This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month."

September's NPD numbers drop next week, and more than one analyst is predicting that the PlayStation 3 will finally come out on top for the first time since its 2006 launch. Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter predicts that the PS3 sold 410K units in September compared to 390K for the Wii and 350K for the 360. Furthermore, he thinks the PS3 over 360 trend could continue until at least the end of the year.

"We believe that the recent round of price cuts may benefit the PS3 the most in coming months, given that unit sales last year were only 1.5 million for the September – December 2008 period. The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 for the past 13 months, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition (the Xbox 360 "core" model was priced $100 lower than the PS3). We think that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 in September, and may continue to do so for the rest of the year,"

Pachter goes on to predict a 250GB version of the Xbox 360 in 2010 to help combat Sony's increase in market share, and a potential price cut for the Nintendo DS Lite to $99 should the PSP and PSPgo start taking a larger percentage of the handheld market.

Of course Pachter predicts a lot of things. We'll see how accurate he is once the NPD numbers are published next week.

PS3 to Dominate as September Game Sales Expected to See Double Digit Growth [Industry Gamers]

To use a sports metaphor, we hear the same thing every time the Lakers, the Yankees, and the University of North Carolina suffer a couple years of disappointment and then come back to contention, as if their rising tide really lifts all boats. But in this case, while Sony might be an overdog brand, the PS3 Slim has definitely provoked a price drop on the other two consoles, and that is objectively a good thing for the video game consumer.

Tretton then gets a little punchy and positions Sony as out-monied by Nintendo - but only because it's the people's choice. "We don't have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience," he says. "I think we're willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo is and ultimately we deliver to the masses on a worldwide basis and that's what we've done for the last 15 years."

We'll go with Tretton as far as the PS3 Slim - or at least its price - driving competition to the benefit of the gamer. Portraying Nintendo as a risk-averse console without a mass market, no.

Watch the entire video here.

Sony Winning is Best for the Industry [Destructoid]

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In a much anticipated move, Sony announced a new $300 model for their Playstation 3 in Cologne, Germany during the Gamescom convention on Aug. 18. The PS3, nicknamed the Playstation 3 Slim, features a 120GB harddrive and is a third smaller and more than a third lighter than its predecessors.

Ten days later, Microsoft announced that their top-of-the-line Xbox 360 Elite, which also features a 120GB harddrive, was getting a $100 price drop to $300.

The new Xbox 360 price kicked in on Aug. 28, Sony's new lower-priced model started showing up in stores the same week.

The Xbox 360's director of product management, Aaron Greenberg, told Kotaku that the timing was coincidental, driven more by Microsoft's ability to save money on internal components than by Sony's news.

"I think it's a bit coincidental, but it's also somewhat logical with both (Sony and Microsoft) making price adjustments at this time of the year because we are turning the corner of the holiday season," he said.

But Greenberg acknowledged that, with both consoles coming in at the same price, people will be more likely to compare the two when shopping for a new gaming platform.

"We feel like we shape up pretty well to that comparison," he said, pointing out that Microsoft also sells a basic version of the Xbox 360 for $200.

"I really think that we are at a point now where it's less about the back of the box and more about the types of experiences," he added. "We have a larger line-up (of games) and this holiday, look at our exclusives: Halo 3: ODST, Forza 3, new Grand Theft Auto content.

"If you say (Microsoft and Sony) have two SKUs at the same price point, we are the hands down winner. That's why, I think, we are the only company growing this year, while Sony is seeing sharp declines."

On paper at least, Sony's Playstation 3 does seem to have some obvious advantages, most notably a built-in Blu-ray player, something the company will make sure consumers don't forget.

"PlayStation 3 has always had incredible value and now at an even more attractive $299 price point, paired with a new, and aggressive, advertising campaign, we expect to have an incredible holiday in both hardware and content sales," said Patrick Seybold, Senior Director, Corporate Communications for Sony Computer Entertainment of America. "PlayStation 3 is the most superior entertainment console on the market and while the price point and the size of the HDD may be at parity between the two consoles, the similarities stop there. With a BD drive, built in wi-fi, free access to PlayStation Network and the best gaming content available, there really is no comparison to PlayStation 3."

Seybold declined to speculate on the timing of Microsoft's price drop, but said Sony's not concerned about it.

"We're confident the value of PS3 at $299 surpasses anything else on the market, and our amazing line up of first and third party titles, matched with the incredible evolution of PlayStation Network make PlayStation the clear choice for those looking for the best in entertainment."

Dropping the price of both Sony and Microsoft's top-tier consoles to $300 also means that Nintendo could see a bit more direct competition with its $250 Wii.

Nintendo has come under increasing pressure to drop the price of their console, which still sells at the same price as the day it launched in 2006.

During an investors meeting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told those present that a slowdown in sales wasn't due to the console's price, but the number of big hits coming to the Wii.

He added that there currently "aren't a lot of discussions going on about what exactly to do about hardware pricing."

But with Wii sales flattening and consumers looking for more bang for their buck this holiday, it would be a smart decision.

Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs, said that Nintendo sales forecast remains unchanged despite the PS3 and Xbox 360's price drops.

"Our focus has always been on creating fun and engaging game-play experiences," Kaigler said. "Because of that focus, Wii has been the best-selling video game system in the United States for two years and counting. It offers the most fun and the best value for consumers. Wii can be played by every member of the family the moment it comes out of the box. It's the only console that offers the option of precision motion controls right now, with the Wii MotionPlus accessory. And Nintendo systems are the only place you can play new and classic Nintendo franchises. Wii games that will be on people's lists through the holidays include Wii Sports Resort, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

"Nintendo offers something for everyone."

Microsoft and Sony both told Kotaku that they plan to heavily market their new prices during the holidays pointing out to consumers all the things they get for their $300.

"This holiday," Greenberg said, "is all about value."

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

For $299 a happy gamer can land themselves a PS3 Slim or an Xbox 360 Elite. Let's go to the numbers to see how they compare.

Looking at just the hardware the PS3 Slim seems to win the match-up offering both built-in WiFi support and a Blu-ray player for the same price as the Xbox 360 Elite, which has neither but does include backwards compatibility.

Of course, the bigger, most important deciding factor will likely boil down to game selection. And that's a whole other article.

While Nintendo managed to dominate on the portable front—the Nintendo DS and DSi sold 538,900 units combined according to the NPD Group—the Wii didn't have a great July. It sold a little more than a quarter million units last month, less than half of what it did in July of 2008.

PSP and PlayStation 3 sales tell a similar story. Sony's handheld platform sold 122,800 in July, with its PS3 lagging just behind with 121,800 units sold. A stark change from last year, when the PlayStation 3 was enjoying better sales than the Xbox 360 during the summer. This July, however, Microsoft's console dipped only slightly in comparison to its competitors.

Will rumored hardware price drops on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 help reverse the video game industry's fortunes?

Here's how the hardware race went down in July, according to the NPD Group.

• Nintendo DS - 538,900
• Wii - 252,200
• Xbox 360 - 202,900
• PSP - 122,800
• PlayStation 3 - 121,800
• PlayStation 2 - 108,000

All told, U.S. consumers snapped up $280.94 million worth of video game hardware in July. That's a 37% drop from the year prior, likely ensuring that the industry won't come close to matching its record breaking revenue in 2008.

"Hardware sales have slowed considerably on nearly every platform," NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out. "The Xbox 360 is the only console system showing a unit sales increase year-to-date, while the NDS has the highest sales of all hardware platforms both for the month, and year-to-date."

Speaking to Eurogamer, Rein, the Epic vice president, said Sony has "their own financial issues to solve and lowering the price of the console would probably have made their situation worse,"

"They will get around to it in their own good time," he said. "If you're willing to look at this as a long-term play, they're going to be just fine."

Epic's Mark Rein [Eurogamer via GamesIndustry.biz]

Month-to-month, things improved over May's sales. But seeing big declines from the previous June were the Wii, PlayStation 3 and PSP, with only the Xbox 360 improving upon its performance from June of last year. The hardware contest finished as it has for the majority of 2009, with the Wii and Nintendo DS/DSi topping sales charts, the Xbox 360 taking third place, and a trio of PlayStation consoles occupying the bottom half of the list.

Thanks to the combined Nintendo DS Lite and DSi sales, Nintendo's portable platforms topped the chart with 766,500 units sold, a less frightening drop from the 783,000 sold in June 2008. On the other end of the scale, without the help of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV, PS3 sales dipped from 405,500 last June, to 164,700 this June.

Here are the NPD Group's video game hardware sales figures for the month of June, a 35 day reporting period.

• Nintendo DS - 766,500
• Wii - 361,700
• Xbox 360 - 240,600
• PlayStation 3 - 164,700
• PSP - 163,500
• PlayStation 2 - 152,700

U.S. consumers bought $382.62 million worth of consoles last month, compared to $617.25 million a year ago.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier weighs in...

"The Xbox 360 is the only platform to have realized a unit sales increase over last June. YTD, both the 360 and NDS have generated an increase in unit sales. Although many track month-to-month sales changes, comparisons to May must take into account that June is a five-week reporting month while May spanned four weeks."

"While Wii sales are down from last year, the platform is still realizing very strong sales month after month. Compared against historical performance of other systems this far into the console lifecycle, the unit sales performance is still strong."

The new Nintendo handheld helped the DS platform move more than a million units in April, almost double what the Nintendo DS sold during March. The million-plus figure is also an improvement over the platform's performance from April 2008, when the DS sold a comparatively paltry 414,800 units in the United States.

Also showing signs of improvement was the $99 PlayStation 2, which sold 172,000 units last month, up from the 112,000 previous gen Sony consoles sold in March.

And that's the good news.

The bad news is that every other platform was down. Sales of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 declined. That's both on a month-to-month and year-over-year sense.

Part of the year-to-year sales drop for home consoles can be attributed to this April's software releases. Last year, the effects of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and Grand Theft Auto IV were felt in the form of console sales spikes. This year, not so much.

Here's how April worked out.

• Nintendo DSi - 827,000
• Wii - 340,000
• Nintendo DS Lite - 215,000
• Xbox 360 - 175,000
• PlayStation 2 - 172,000
• PlayStation 3 - 127,000
• PSP - 116,000

"The big story for the month is the performance of portable game hardware sales as propelled by the release of Nintendo's DSi," commented NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The NDS platform accounted for 31 percent of total industry unit sales this month across all categories."

Sorry, we don't have Nintendo DSi versus Nintendo DS sales figures. The NPD Group considers them a singular platform in their reporting. Update: But we did get those figures from Nintendo.

Video game hardware sales for the month of April 2009 were $391.63 million, down 8% from the $426.94 million in hardware spend from April 2008.

That puts total year-to-date hardware sales at $1.83 billion, down a percentage point from the same point last year.

Nintendo's Wii and DS platforms held strong as the best and second-best selling hardware in March, moving a combined 1.16 million-plus units last month. That's a drop from March 2008, when Nintendo hardware racked up 1.42 million in total Wii and DS sales, boosted by the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which shifted 2.7 million copies that month.

Hardware sales were down across the board for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, month-to-month. Year-over-year, however, the Xbox 360 actually saw an uptick in sales, moving 330,000 consoles last month as opposed to 262,000 during March of last year.

Here's how the U.S. console war went down in March, with the NPD Group reporting sales from 3/1/09 to 4/4/09.

• Wii - 601,000
• Nintendo DS - 563,000
• Xbox 360 - 330,000
• PlayStation 3 - 218,000
• PSP - 168,000
• PlayStation 2 - 112,000

NPD analyst Anita Frazier commented on the down month.

"If there was one area that surprised me this month, it was hardware sales," Frazier said. "While it's not unusual for March hardware sales to be lower than February, I thought we'd see higher unit sales on most platforms. The Xbox 360 was the only platform to achieve a year-over-year unit sales increase."

She also adds that the PlayStation 2, which saw a price drop on April 1 in the United States, should be reflected in April's sales.

"The PS2 price decrease occurred on April 1, so this month included only 4 days of sales as the new retail price. We would expect to see an increase in PS2 hardware sell-through in the April data."

Information delivered to Gamasutra in preparation for an interview with Sony's Peter Dille included several examples of the how blockbuster titles sell nearly as many or more copies on the PlayStation 3 than on the Xbox 360. Take the example of Street Fighter IV. Sony says that Capcom's eagerly-anticipated sequel has only sold around 44,000 copies more on the Xbox 360 than the PlayStation 3, with a much higher overall attach rate. 402,919 copies of the game sold represents a 5.5% game to console percentage for the PS3, while the Xbox 360's 446,435 units only represents 3.1% of consoles in North America.

Tomb Raider: Underworld represents the biggest triumph cited by Sony in terms of sales numbers, with the PlayStation 3 version outselling the 360 136,245 to 108,784, though with numbers that low I wouldn't exactly be calling Underworld a blockbuster title.

Other examples provided include Ubisoft's Prince of Persia and Grand Theft Auto 4, both of while have sold more copies on the Xbox 360, but maintain a higher attach rate on the PS3.

In case those numbers weren't enough, Sony also takes the opportunity to challenge Microsoft's response to the February NPD results, in which they boasted 130 games rated 80 or above on Metacritic, pointing out that while in sheer size the number is impressive, as of April Sony has a larger percentage of games scoring over 80%, with 31% of their games scoring in the upper reaches as compared to Microsoft's 23%.

Sony also notes that the majority of the 360's 80%+ scores are for games published in 2006 and 2007, "when the console had little to no competition".

It's all a matter of twisting and turning numbers around to make them look better. Which numbers look better to you?

Sony: PS3 Attach Rate For Blockbusters Is Higher [Gamasutra]

Fast Company reports that they've been told that the graph was mislabeled. The real graph, which now appears in the official report and in the image above, shows that the Wii is in second place, after the PS2, for console usage and the PS3 is in fifth place, beating out the GameCube and original Xbox.

Whoops. I hope there aren't any other mistakes in the oft-cited, typically trusted data. Reached for comment this morning, a Nielsen representative said the report does not contain any other errors.

Who Really Gets the Most Play? Nielsen's Revised Chart Upends the Video Game Market

Nintendo seems rather nonplussed by the monthly change in console domination on its home turf, which by Enterbrain's figures meant 146,948 PlayStation 3s sold in the five weeks to March 29 versus 99,335 Wii units sold.

Enterbrain's figures are a little different from the Media Create hardware sales data we regularly follow. We have PS3 sales at 116,000 for March, with Wii sales just under 70,000, looking at a four-week period.

"It is still the first few months of the year when sales are slow for the industry, so we are not particularly concerned," Nintendo said.

Nintendo says that the current software slump affecting Wii sales overseas isn't cause for worry, as it hopes "to line up strong software to support hardware sales in the second half of the year". With Wii Sports Resort coming at some unknown point this year, we'd imagine that'd do the trick!

PS3 outstrips Wii in Japanese sales [Financial Times]

For the past two months, Sony's PlayStation 3 has outsold the Wii. It hasn't outsold it by the impressive margins that Nintendo was doing in Japan, when it was selling six Wiis for every PS3 sold, but Sony's higher priced platform is currently holding its own. Since the Wii got so much press for its massive sales in 2008, we'd expect that Sony is enjoying its time in the sun.

In February, the PS3 managed to sell approximately 87,000 units, according to Media Create. That's enough to put it past the Wii, which sold about 76,000 units. In March, however, Sony's lead grew, with PS3 sales reaching 116,000, Wii sales declining to less than 70,000.

That change can likely be chalked up to the PlayStation 3's recent lineup in Japan, which include Yakuza 3, Resident Evil 5 and Musou Orochi Z. The Wii, on the other hand, is suffering through a bit of a software slump, surviving on GameCube to Wii remakes and evergreen titles like Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii.

Obviously, those numbers are very different from sales in the U.S., which is a much bigger market. In February, the Wii moved about three times as many PS3s, according to the NPD Group.

You could instead take the view that these delightful little comics - sadly, uncredited - take. It's all cool! Everyone's friends! Everyone's friends, and everything's great.

The console war is officially over [IGN]

So it's not just the 18-35 year-old male that's been surveyed. We're talking kids, adults, the elderly, and across both genders to boot. So, yeah, everybody.

Their findings? Let's find out.

Basically, as you can see from the "Avg Usage Days", men use the 360 most (and by "most", the survey means "most days spent playing it"). And women? They use the 360 most as well. At least, those amongst the surveyed group do.

*Note - the chart below shows only October. If you hit the link below, you'll see many of the more hotly-contested categories switch places in November and/or December

Of course, there are exceptions to that rule. Women over 55 spent more time playing the Wii than the others, while 18-24 year-old men spent most time on the PS3.

UPDATE - Reader Travis, a statistician of all things, let us know that some of the original conclusions drawn from these statistics were incorrect. They've since been updated.

Nielsen Study [Nielsen, via GameDaily] [Image]