Nintendo Wii Takes First Place

VG Chartz, a site that gathers unofficial sales numbers for the videogames industry, has announced that Nintendo has taken over the first place position in worldwide market share for the next generation with the Nintendo Wii. I emphasize worldwide market share because the Wii is still about 3 million or so behind the Xbox 360 in market share in North America. The key to Nintendo's success is the fact that they have sold well in all three major regions (North America, Japan, and Europe) rather than extremely well in one region, decent in the other, and totally awful in the third (Japan). According to VG Chartz, the Nintendo Wii holds just over 41% total market share while the Xbox 360 holds right at 41%. The PS3 is currently holding third place with about 17%.

There are a few things to mention with these numbers though. Microsoft's Xbox 360 just released a huge game in Bioshock (receiving rave reviews) and they have the massively selling Halo 3 coming out in September. Granted Nintendo has a decent line-up for the next few months but I could very easily see the next few months going back in favor of the Xbox 360. This holiday season looks to be more trouble for the PS3 with their biggest seller Grand Theft Auto IV being delayed until next year and their next biggest games being Heavenly Sword and Haze, both new IPs that tend not to sell quite as well. This generation seems to be a total flip of last generation. It will be interesting to see where the rest of this battle leads us.