The video game industry is booming around the world despite economic
downturns seen in some countries like America. Three firms are battling for the
gamers’ money around the world including Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
Bloomberg reports that the Nintendo
Wii outsold the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 in the U.S. last month.
Nintendo sold 666,000 of its Wii consoles in June compared to the 405,500 PS3’s
sold and 219,800 Xbox 360’s. It’s interesting to note that the PS3 sold nearly
200,000 more units for the month than the Xbox 360.
Both Sony and Microsoft recently increased the size of the hard drive inside
their respective consoles to lure new buyers. The minimum hard
drive on the PS3 will now increase to 80GB with the Xbox 360 growing to
60GB. NPD Group says 10.9 million Wii consoles have been sold since it launched
in November of 2006 – that tally pushes the Wii past the Xbox 360 in total U.S.
sales despite the Microsoft’s consoles one-year head start.
The Nintendo Wii is still all but impossible to find in many areas of the
country, something Nintendo keeps promising to remedy with increased production
of the consoles. The gaming industry as a whole is booming right now with total
industry sales rising by 53% to $1.69 billion in June, up from $1.1 billion in
June of 2007.
Bloomberg reports that console sales have grown 54% to $615.1 million
from $399.2 million last year despite. NPD analyst Anita Frazier says that
total sales for the gaming industry in 2008 are likely to reach $22 billion.