Wii means Whee

Well, both the PS3 and the XBox 360 are apparently having disappointing seasonal sales. The PS3 is low because they haven't been able to make enough, and the XBox 360 is low because, well, they're sitting on shelves collecting dust, I guess. But the Wii has been selling strongly, and apparently, there are lots of people on Craigslist looking to trade their $700 PS3's for $250 Wii's.

I can understand why. The Wii is just plain fun in ways that the other consoles can't be. This phenomenon is discussed in a new Gamasutra article that details the developer's perspective on the console wars, and I have to agree. When I think of the possibility of developing games to be delivered on the network services of the different console systems, it's the Wii that actually gets my creative juices percolating. Sure, we could do something cool for XBox 360 or PS3 as a downloadable, but the Wii is just plain sexier. I want people who play my game to be jumping up and being active, physically engaged with my game and loving it. What developer wouldn't want that?

It's still too early to tell who will dominate this generation of the console wars, but it really wouldn't surprise me to see the Wii let Nintendo leapfrog from third place to first place. The XBox 360 and the PS3 are locked in an "arms race" (which the PS3 has won hands-down), but the Wii is the one that took risks and bet the farm on fun rather than frame rates. I hope it sticks.