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The analyst’s latest report states that for the final quarter of 2007, publishers have backed the Wii with the greatest number of titles – 86 in total.
This puts the Nintendo console some distance ahead of Xbox 360 and PS3, which have 47 and 38 titles lined up respectively. A quarter of Wii releases are exclusive to the platform, compared with eight for 360 and five for PS3.
The Screen Digest report suggests that Wii is the most attractive proposition due to its rapidly growing installed base and low development costs compared with its more powerful counterparts – meaning that the number of Wii titles on the market will surpass that of Xbox 360 by early 2008, according to estimates.
While Wii and Xbox 360 are forecast to have strong end of year sales, the report is less positive when it comes to PS3. Sony’s release schedule ‘lacks the firepower to command consumer attention’ and consequently it is ‘difficult to see how the catalogue will drive hardware sales in such a competitive environment.’
Ed Barton, Screen Digest games analyst adds: Halo 3 commanded the attention of the mass market and we expect Super Mario Galaxy for Wii to continue the process of educating the consumer as to the benefits of the current generation of home consoles.”
Given present publishing activity levels and hardware sales rates, we expect 256 bit gaming to have moved out of transition and squarely into the mass adoption phase by year end.”
While Wii and Xbox 360 are likely to look back on 2007 with some satisfaction, the same cannot be said for PS3. Given the platform’s release schedule this Christmas, it is not a surprise that Sony is focusing on lowering the cost of entry to PS3 platform to maintain parity with its rivals this Christmas.”
