Summary
Sony should lead in the next gen video game space.
Competition will be more fierce.
Japan is key to global leadership.
Analysis
This article points our several key points as to why Sony will once again dominate as the video game leader. With next generation machines arriving from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft everyone who tracks this market will be interested in who will be the next leader and the answer appears to be Sony. The Sony brand clearly has global awareness in the video game world much more so than Nintendo and Microsoft. The global market in this sector now includes North America, Europe and Japan and as this article correctly points out Microsoft has experienced difficulty in reaching the Japanese consumer. It also points out Nintendo's success in Japan especially with the DS and the fact that the revolutionary controller associated with the Wii is causing a lot of attention. So Microsoft is looking at being a distant third in that part of the world. The article also points out some interesting aspects of the blue-ray functionality of the PS 3. It certainly reminds me of the debate between VHS and Beta many years ago. Another point to consider is the on-line models that each system will making available to the consumer. Sony is offering a free option vs. Microsoft's XB Live pay format. In the short term it will be a very tight race especially when you consider that availability issues of the PS 3. But as this article points out, in the long run Sony will prevail.............I agree.
