Christmas shortages will benefit all our fandoms

Not everybody who wants a Wii or PS3 this Christmas is going to get one. Face it. Reuters says this is good news for Sony and Nintendo. Why? Because you need to buy something else to satisfy your gaming fix. So what do you do? Buy more games for your existing console – or even buy an old-model or current-gen console.

And this is good news for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft fanboys alike. Here’s why:

Videogame player scarcity may lift old-model sales – Reuter’s headline says it all. It’s an old article (October 18), and we’ve been passing it around, and nobody wanted to write about it until now. Because now we have some theories. Here they are:

Is Sony stupid? Try “Stupid like a fox!” – should this have been Reuter’s headline? Think about it. So many people think that Sony is stupid for shipping only two million PS3 units this fall. Ah, but even though they won’t sell as many PS3s this Christmas, their PS2 sales should go up (and we’re thinking maybe PSP sales too?).

Didn’t Sony tell us that they committed to a long-term plan for the PS2 and PS3? Reuters says the PS2 currently controls 60 percent of the console gaming market (there’s 106 million units sold out there in the world). And Reuters adds that “data from recent months show that U.S. consumers are continuing to buy both PS2 consoles and games.” “It will be one of the top-selling consoles for the holiday season,” Sony spokesman Dave Karraker said.

Don’t forget the Xbox 360! – maybe this should have been the title of Reuter’s article? We expect to play with a lot more noobs on Xbox Live come January, because the parents of doe-eyed kids who have been good this year have to buy their kids something, and Reuters thinks so, and Microsoft’s Robbie Bach says so, “I think we’re set up to have a good holiday.”

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says at least three million Xbox 360s will sell in November and December. We’re also thinking: since there are 5 million units out there, will those gamers try to get a Wii or PS3, or will they go to the shorter lines for Xbox 360 games instead?

Inexpensive Wii will sell quickly. Analysts expect a severe shortage for the Wii. At $250, it’s about half the price of the PS3, after all. In other words, if you come from Boone, IA, there might not be enough Wii units there to go around (unless you drive to Des Moines, or worse, head north to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota).

So what are you going to ask Santa this year?

Not everybody who wants a Wii or PS3 this Christmas is going to get one. Face it. Reuters says this is good news for Sony and Nintendo. Why? Because you need to buy something else to satisfy your gaming fix. So what do you do? Buy more games for your existing console – or even buy an old-model or current-gen console.

And this is good news for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft fanboys alike. Here’s why:

Videogame player scarcity may lift old-model sales – Reuter’s headline says it all. It’s an old article (October 18), and we’ve been passing it around, and nobody wanted to write about it until now. Because now we have some theories. Here they are:

Is Sony stupid? Try “Stupid like a fox!” – should this have been Reuter’s headline? Think about it. So many people think that Sony is stupid for shipping only two million PS3 units this fall. Ah, but even though they won’t sell as many PS3s this Christmas, their PS2 sales should go up (and we’re thinking maybe PSP sales too?).

Didn’t Sony tell us that they committed to a long-term plan for the PS2 and PS3? Reuters says the PS2 currently controls 60 percent of the console gaming market (there’s 106 million units sold out there in the world). And Reuters adds that “data from recent months show that U.S. consumers are continuing to buy both PS2 consoles and games.” “It will be one of the top-selling consoles for the holiday season,” Sony spokesman Dave Karraker said.

Don’t forget the Xbox 360! – maybe this should have been the title of Reuter’s article? We expect to play with a lot more noobs on Xbox Live come January, because the parents of doe-eyed kids who have been good this year have to buy their kids something, and Reuters thinks so, and Microsoft’s Robbie Bach says so, “I think we’re set up to have a good holiday.”

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says at least three million Xbox 360s will sell in November and December. We’re also thinking: since there are 5 million units out there, will those gamers try to get a Wii or PS3, or will they go to the shorter lines for Xbox 360 games instead?

Inexpensive Wii will sell quickly. Analysts expect a severe shortage for the Wii. At $250, it’s about half the price of the PS3, after all. In other words, if you come from Boone, IA, there might not be enough Wii units there to go around (unless you drive to Des Moines, or worse, head north to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota).

So what are you going to ask Santa this year?