Let’s face it, as much as we all try to be mature in the world of video games, there are certain indulgent behaviors we all love to fall back on. The console wars are a product of one of these indulgent behaviors. While there is no particular reason why we can’t all sit back and go “yeah, all the consoles have their good points and bad points” we instead decide to follow our consoles of choice with a fervor that you’d expect from a patriot defending his country. All around message boards you see people shouting about how much the Wii sucks, and how the Xbox is better than the PS3 and vice versa. It’s a grudge match that won’t end any time soon.

So how are the console wars doing? Well, quoting numbers is the easiest way to go about this. The Wii still has the most sales. It sells the most games and consoles, nearly twice as many as both the Xbox and PS3. The DS also sells way more units than the PSP does. So by numbers alone, Nintendo pretty much has the war won. Coming in second we have the Xbox 360, and after that the PS3, still suffering from a poor launch.

Is that the whole story though? Well, no, not totally. The majority of hardcore gamers love to talk about how useless the Wii is for anything other than casual gaming, and there is something to this. It’s easy to attribute the Wii’s success to the casual gaming push, but of course you can’t just throw around that statement without proof too. Looking at the numbers reveals that three of the top five selling games right now are PS3 games, with God of War III leading, accompanied by Yakuza 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. The PS3 also has some of the most popular games (with popular meaning “amount searched for on the internet”). Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, and Resonance of Fate all add to its popularity.

So what does this mean? Well, for one, the PS3 certainly is aided by its overseas numbers. In America, the Xbox has 10% more of the market than the PS3 and the Wii has nearly 20% more than that. However, in Japan, the PS3 leads over the Xbox by 20 percent, and the Wii excels beyond that by another 30. Second, PS3 game sales have been on the rise for the past few months. This shows that the PS3 is finally starting to catch up. Even so, it is nowhere near the sales point of the Xbox, which in February actually outsold the Wii.

The PS3 is currently the fastest “growing” console. Last year, more PS3s were sold than Xboxes, with most months ending up a back and forth battle between the Xbox and the PS3 for second place. Considering that the Xbox had a one year head start, the PS3 is catching up at an alarming rate. Both consoles also drum up more buzz with their exclusive releases than the Wii does.

So who is winning? Well just by sales, the Wii has it. By popularity and growth the PS3 has it world-wide, while the Xbox 360 has it in America. So the question is, where do the console wars go in the future? Well, I sincerely doubt that either of the hardcore consoles will be able to make a dent in the Wii’s rock solid hold on the casual market. They are both more expensive and they both require extra peripherals for the implementation of motion controls, and neither is very family friendly. Not only that, but the Wii has quite the lineup this year, with many new titles coming out that may appeal to the hardcore audience. The Wii has won in terms of sales, but the Wii also doesn’t do what most hardcore gamers want, so for them, second is the new first, and considering that we have 3-5 years before we see any sort of new console hit the market the PS3 may triumph over the Xbox yet.

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