Re: Has Sony Officially Lost this Generation?
 

you made the point that Mario titles sell (I am a fan) that does not make the point that Mario is a system seller... I would venture the bulk of the sales came to people who already owned the Wii system. Did they buy the Wii knowing that they could only play a huge number of Mario themed titles on the Wii, sure but when that is the bulk of the brand the bulk of the titles your company releases it just goes back to the cumulitive effect of titles not a single title (Wii Fit as a single stand alone title probably sold the most systems)

this I agree on .... the system seller for the Wii was the novelty, the inclusion of a game showcasing the novelty, and what I would call creative marketing (limiting supply to create demand)

Re: Has Sony Officially Lost this Generation?
 

to the point I was making .... it isn't about one title being a savior or system seller it is about the cumulative effect.
Sony started later and still has established or newly developed franchises that have seen 1 or less releases to date .... compare that with the glut of titles bearing the Mario name on them for the Wii

Re: Has Sony Officially Lost this Generation?
 

I understand what you are saying but to that I point to the April data that has Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario & Mario Kart Wii. These games are nearly 4 years old, 3 years old, and 1 year old respectively yet still sold a half a million copies combined last month. Somehow I doubt there were 500,000 people out there that already owned systems that have just been sitting on buying those games for 3 years. It's old software. The people that buy those games are the people that are buying a system, whether it's the DS, DSi or Wii.

Also Mario acts as a seal of approval if you will. People considering a Wii see all those Mario titles on the shelf and they are more likely to pull the trigger. He's the Mickey Mouse of gaming.

Re: Has Sony Officially Lost this Generation?
 

Didn't the PS3 sell 3 times the amount of 360's the month MGS 4 came out? If it did, I would say it did it's job in pushing the PS3 then.

Re: Has Sony Officially Lost this Generation?
 

just to be clear ....
no need to site Mario Kart DS or New Super Mario, I am not talking about the DS or DSi
I have an easier time believing a lower priced handheld can have "a" title be a system seller

and I agree with your last statement when you say "all those Mario titles"
again, it is the cumulative effect of branding the bulk of your games/genres a Mario title not a single unbundled title selling the hardware

the PS3 doesn't use such a "mascot" to throw on all its titles but they are building up a library of titles and key franchises to be able to move more units (if that matters to somone and carries some weight regarding the quality of the console ... I don't believe it does)

Re: Has Sony Officially Lost this Generation?
 

Looks like it was about double both the amount it sold the previous month and the number of 360's, but I think large part of that was because of the MGS4 bundle which was at the time, pretty much a free game and I know a lot of people were saying they were waiting for that bundle to purchase a PS3.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6194691.html

It definitely helped sell systems, although I think sales went back to normal shortly after.