Gaming console winners announced

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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2009 was an interesting year for console gaming. It saw a number of new dynamics developing within the market which in turn made for somewhat unexpected shifts in sales figures.

The most significant of these was certainly Sony’s acknowledgement and subsequent release of its PS3 Slim console as well as a significant pricing reduction on its previous version. This paved the way for a price war between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo which eventually resulted in significant price reductions across the gaming console market.

A number of exclusive titles were released for each console which served to boost sales across the board. Some of the most notable releases were Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the PS3, Forza 3 for Xbox 360 and New Super Mario Bros. for Wii.

Each of these factors affected total console sales for 2009. Below are the total global console sales figures for 2009 as compiled by popular measurement website VGChartz.

Based on these figures the console which saw the greatest success in 2009 was undoubtedly the PS3, which sold over 2.5 million units more than in 2008. As previously mentioned this was bolstered by significant price reductions and the release of the PS3 Slim at an international pricing point of $299.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 remained largely static, declining by only a small percentage year on year. This reduction may have been worse had Microsoft not swiftly responded to Sony’s PS3 price drop by reducing prices on Xbox 360 consoles and introducing new ‘super elite’ bundles featuring 250GB hard drives.

The biggest loser in the console market however was Nintendo’s Wii which sold 3 million fewer units in 2009 compared to 2008 figures. This could be attributed to a waning in the gaming market’s interest towards the motion controlled console. Despite the drop in sales the Wii sold only slightly fewer units that the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined, making it the most popular among consumers worldwide for the year.

Gaming console sales – comments and views