By Vamien McKalin email: v.mckalin@mobilenapps.com | Jan 16, 2013 12:16 PM EST
The Xbox 360 currently sits in the second spot, behind the Nintendo Wii, in overall U.S. sales. However, research firm DFC Intelligence predicts that it is highly possible for the Xbox 360 to triumph over the Wii and come away as the winner of current generation of consoles.
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Due to how well the Xbox 360 has been doing in the U.S. for the past two years, it is likely that the Microsoft-branded console could muster the sales to slide above the Nintendo Wii U before the release of the Xbox 720 and PS4.
DFC believes that the Xbox 360 will topple the Wii in the U.S. by the end of 2017 with 46.1 million units versus the Wii's 42.1 million. Considering 2017 is far away, anything could happen by then; however, it is possible this prediction could bear fruition since the Nintendo Wii has been on a downward spiral while the Xbox 360 and PS3 sales are seeing a rise.
"Amazingly Microsoft didn't have to do much exaggerating as in its seventh full year on the market the Xbox 360 had a stellar performance. For its generation, the Xbox 360, not the Wii, will end up as the number one selling console system in the US," noted DFC.
"Shockingly it was in the later years of its life that the Xbox 360 really took off," DFC added. "The success of Microsoft and the Xbox 360 during the past two years highlights a radical changing of the guard in the game industry. Much has been made about a steady video game sales decline in the past three years."
DFC didn't end there, the research firm went on to drop some harsh words about the Wii's fate and blamed the decline on aging console systems.
"In reality the decline has mainly been due to the aging console systems and more importantly because of Nintendo's collapse," opined DFC. "Unlike Microsoft, Nintendo has been in a major downward cycle, much of it self-inflicted. Nintendo's spin for the Wii U focused on how it made more revenue than the Wii at launch. Of course, the Wii was supply constrained at launch and sold at a lower price so that is not surprising. The reality is that many Wii U systems were sitting unsold on shelves at year end. Consumers love games more than ever but a new order of game providers is resulting in market shifts that are proving painful for Nintendo and other established game companies."
Believing DFC's claim is particularly not difficult, unless one is biased towards the Wii. Nintendo launched an innovative console that revolutionized gaming, but it failed to garner third-party developers' interest over time along with the hardcore gamer. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is more value for money and should take the top spot in the U.S eventually if not in 2017.
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