Now the Other Shoe Drops…

So here we are finally, in the middle of the start of the real beginning of the next generation of the Console Wars TM (we’re on Episode V for all of you who have been tuning out these last 21 years). Once again Nintendo will be last out of the gate, although only by a mere two days since Sony launched their PS3 yesterday (Friday). This one, like the Liberal leadership race and the 2006 election, is shaping up to be a much closer battle than pundits expected a year prior.

Ever since E3 2006 in May, Sony could do no right and Nintendo and Microsoft could do no wrong. While Sony did gather attention due to the muggings and destruction that its console launch caused yesterday, a lot of that was based on the fact that they’ve only launched with 500,000 PS3s worldwide. Nintendo, by comparision, is launching with 2 million (and XBox 360 launched with 1 million last year, also resulting in shortages!). While there are no official numbers released yet, it is widely expected in the gaming community that Nintendo will outsell Sony for the first year, if for no other reason than the fact that the PS3′s plagued hardware specs are causing its parent company nothing but grief on the production line. One popularly held view is that Sony purposely reduced its launch capacity due to hostilities that have been growing since the early summer when it was announced that the PS3 would launch for $650 Canadian (Nintendo’s Wii goes for $280 CAD).