Wii to outpace XBox 360?

Family gamers have led a surge in sales of Nintendo’s next gen console, the Wii , with 150,000 units sold in the first half of the year. The console is reported to be close to achieving the 0.5 million mark in Australian sales.

According to reports in today’s Australian, Microsoft’s X Box 360 has been unseated as the most popular game console – having been unable to match the growth of the Wii. Meanwhile the PS3 is also reporting strong growth – with a 50% increase in sales over the last six months taking the consoles total Aussie sales to 248,000 units.

While the rest of the retail industry struggles from the rebound of high interest rates and the credit crunch, the gaming industry seems to have been largely unaffected.

According to Jason Williams (National Product Manager – Entertainment) the games sector had been largely insulated from negative consumer sentiment because of two factors: the industry opening up to new markets, and the saturation of the early adopter and hard-core games audience.

Thanks to more interactive games such as Singstar and Buzz and the impact of the Wii, gaming is losing a lot of the social stigma which previously saw the public perception of gaming as the domain of nerds and computer boffins…

Source: The Australian IT