The console wars continue. While the Xbox 360 is riding the Halo 3 wave, and the Wii is enjoying tremendous sales because of its revolutionary new style of controller (being the cheapest console helps too), the Sony PS3 has been struggling ...

Consider the sales figures: Microsoft's Xbox has been on the market the longest-two years-and has sold close to 13.5 million units thus far. The Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii were launched at approximately the same time-one year ago-with the PS3 selling a mere 5.6 million units thus far. The Wii, however, is king of the console ring by a huge margin. Nintendo has shipped over 13.2 million uni ts-and will soon overtake the Xbox 360 in terms of total sales.





The Wii has never had to cut prices, or even depend on huge game titles to increase sales-being unique has always paid off. The Xbox sales have doubled because of Halo 3¬so even though Microsoft sells its 360 at loss (as do most console manufacturers), they're more than making up for this with huge titles such as Halo 3-they made $170 million (Rs 680 crore) on Halo 3 sales, on the day of the launch alone!

Meanwhile, the PS3 languishes with no real console-selling games and the distinction of being the most expensive console. Recently, however, they decided to cut the price of the PS3, and the 80 GB model is being sold for $100 (Rs 4,000) cheaper than the original $599 (Rs 24,000) price. But a price cut is not all they need, and execs at Sony knew they needed some great games to help sell their console. Even right here in India, despite all the consoles being available-officially or in the grey-as are a lot of the games, people are buying more Xboxes and
Wiis than PS3s, because they aren't really interested in the games that are available on Sony's platform.

They're hoping that this lowering of the bar will bring in newer game developers, who will hopefully increase the number of games for the PS3. Incidentally, those who already own PS3s need not worry about the future of the platform, because Sony's not likely to give up on their technological marvel in a hurry. Besides, it's still the best deal you can get on a 1080p B1u-Ray DVD player!