After careful thought, I'm announcing my prediction for what console will end up in 2nd place. Before I announce that prediction, I'm going to overview which console will win the current console war: Nintendo Wii.
I predicted that the Nintendo Wii would overtake the (at the time) #1 console in this current generation; that is, Xbox 360. I predicted that the Nintendo Wii would overtake the Xbox 360 in sales in less than 1 year. I predicted that 3rd party games for the Wii would surpass that of the Gamecube. It turns out that I predicted right.
Most Xbox 360 fanboys throught otherwise and predicted that the Wii would be hot at launch - but will fade in a few months like the Gamecube. Well it turns out that the Wii is still sold out in stores...
The Nintendo Wii has many advantages over the competition:
Innovative motion controls: Would you prefer to play a baseball game pressing the A button or actually swinging the controller like a bat?
Appeals to casual gamers: These are the kind of people who aren't that much into gaming.
Appeals to hardcore gamers: These are the kind of people who enjoys the latest kick ass gaming.
Appeals to old school gamers: These are the kind of people who aren't that much into 3D gaming because they much rather play old school games.
Cheapest console: $250
Nintendo only games: Come on!
Now that I got that part over with, the Playstation 3 (PS3) will beat the Xbox 360 in sales before the end of 2009. People have been spitting crap saying that the PS3 is selling worst than the Xbox 360 but that's false. The PS3 is selling nearly identical to that of the Xbox 360 if you compare both systems starting with each of their launches.
Now if the PS3 is selling as well as the Xbox 360 without the need of a bunch of AAA titles, how will the PS3 fair when the bigs guns start to come out?
Once Final Fantasy XIII hits the PS3, millions of Japanese gamers are sure to run out and purchase a PS3... does Microsoft have that kind of power in Japan? No. Will Final Fantasy XIII come to the Xbox 360? No. Why? Because Microsoft used the wrong storage format for their console.
Developers are starting to bitch about the limited capacity of the DVD format Microsoft used for the Xbox 360. Rockstar Games are having a hard time porting Grand Theft Auto IV from the PS3 to the Xbox 360 because of that limited capacity. The PS3 on the other hand utilizes a format called Blu-Ray which can hold over 5 (for single layer discs) times the amount of data than the DVD format.
Nintendo made this same mistake when they sticked with the cartridge format for the Nintendo 64, and now Microsoft is making a simular mistake. You would think that everyone would have learned a serious lesson by now...
Before anyone jumps on my ass Nintendo also used the DVD format for the Wii - but the catch here is that the Wii isn't an HD system, therefore games requires much less space than their HD counterparts. For example, 480p video takes up much less space than 1080p video.
Now if a developer wants to port a 23.5 GB PS3 game to the Xbox 360 they would have somehow put the game on 5 discs. In the long run high-end games are going to require a serious amount of space and the Xbox 360 was outdated from the get go.
There's a huge war between the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD format and Microsoft was stupid not to use their HD-DVD format for the Xbox 360. That mistake will bite them in the ass in the near future. If Fox (world leader in movies) doesn't support the HD-DVD format, I just don't see how HD-DVD will win... but that's for a whole other debate.
Microsoft will never be able to sell well in Japan, therefore, Japan is the defining point in the whole PS3 vs Xbox 360 war. Currently the Wii is kicking every consoles ass in Japan (actually worldwide), and it will be that way because Nintendo says so - but there's always room for one other popular console: Sony Playstation 3.
If anyone talks smack I'll mention Grand Turismo 5 and Metal Gear Solid 4 and the whole debate will end.
