So while the top dog at Sony is lyin... er, boasting his way through press conference after press conference:

"I think Kutaragi-san (PlayStation chief Ken Kutaragi) said that it would be break-even by the end of the year, at the end of '07. PS2 was not profitable in the first year. You make it up on the content as the content gathers momentum, the licensees from that and so forth..." - Howard Stringer, CEO (full text)

Look man, I love Sony. I really do. But no way. I'm calling you out on this one.

So, with lines and sales numbers like these, is it any wonder that the PS3 launch is the defining example of consumer FUD regarding an appliance? That's Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt to you and me, and it's the 3-letter name for what's keeping the PS3 on shelves and $600 clams in everyone's pocket...

...a real faceful. Seriously, ouch, ouch, ouch. I mean, how do you recover from things like:

"Gabe Newell suggested that Sony should scrap plans to release PS3 and develop an entirely new system."

This from the daddy of Half-Life. NOT small potatoes. Also, notably:

"'The happy story is the Wii,' he added. 'I’m betting that by Christmas of next year, the Wii has a larger installed base than the 360. Other people think I’m crazy. I really like everything that Nintendo is doing.'"

So basically, Sony gets a beatdown, Mario gets a handjob.

In the recently released 4th Quarter 2006 numbers (compiled by the research firm NPD), Nintendo pretty much mopped up the competition. Kotaku has done a rather thorough analysis of the numbers, and while the Xbox 360 outsold the Wii in December, Nintendo totally hit their target and sold 1.1 million Wii units in 2006 from launch to Dec. 31st! In the same story, the DS Lite kicked the living crap out of the PSP, which should be surprising to no one, but the lead they've established is shocking: 2.5 million more DS/Lite units sold than PSPs. Ouch. In fact, the DS and (of all the darndest things) the PS2 were the real winners last month, with Nintendo selling 1.6 million new DS units, and the PS2 selling an impressive 1.4 million. This over the "next-gen" console sales for December, which clock in at 1.1 million for the Xbox 360, 604,200 for the Wii and an anemic 490,700 PS3s.

So, in short, Nintendo hit their launch goal (1 million by year end), and sold more DS systems than any other system. Microsoft won December, and has sold 4.5 million Xbox 360 units since its launch in 2005 (though this means in a month and a half, the Wii sold enough systems to make up 25% of the 360-owner market). Sony sales are in the shitter - PSP losing badly to DS, and the PS3 is finding more of a home back on store shelves rather than in people's homes or selling like hotcakes on eBay.

But the PS2? Sony's saving grace? What could be up with this? I've got an idea, but I'll talk more about that later...

So at any rate, because all of Sony's current systems are falling short of everyone's expectations, Microsoft is now taking note of the real competition: Nintendo. Bill Gates himself acknowledged that Nintendo is their "toughest competition," even though the company isn't directly aiming at any of their users. This is an interesting admission, and is a double-slap in the face of Sony, especially after such a smackdown on the PS3's nascent online service by MS reps recently.

Poor Sony. My heart breaks, and yet my Wii elbow throbs on...

The PS3 is NOT doing well. In fact, the 360 is making a strong comeback, and happily the Wii seems to be kicking everybody's ass. Down under, the Wii is shattering sales records as well, and is causing fights and riots in stores by the typically peaceful (?) Dutch. When it's this fun, how can you blame em:

Anyhow, back to the PS3. Analysts are taking note of the PS3's sales numbers, launch follies and long term potential, and with Sony's fate hanging in balance, this is serious stuff. Not to mention growing Blu-ray gripes: most owners either don't care or resent the fact that it's in there, and many analysts have pointed out that integrated drive ultimately won't matter in deciding the format war, and may in fact be hurting Blu-ray's chances, if it's having any effect at all. And speakaing of games, that's another area the PS3 is surprisingly lagging in: the leading game in the PS3-vs-Xbox360-tug-of-war-FPS-shooter-genre is on Xbox, Japanese sales of the PS3 are down by half, and in addition to already getting its butt kicked by Xbox 360 and Wii, the Wii might get even cheaper, which would only blow the doors off of Sony even harder. Combine that with the fact that most PS3 units are now moving off of eBay at cost, and...

Not to mention that sketchy cops and violence still dominate the PS3 headlines. Wii owners, on the other hand, are beating the crap out of themselves, but they seem to be having a blast doing it.

Meanwhile, on a completely different note that draws a stark contrast to the grim PS3 forcasts, the Wii is being heralded as a potential savior of a long-lost genre that based on recent re-releases for download services, people are quite hungry for.

At any rate, it'll be interesting to watch this continue to unfold as more PS3 units become available. Wouldn't it be sad if they ended up gathering dust after all that launch-related chaos?

Lines can be fun, can be dangerous, and ultimately take a lot of time and energy away from the rest of your life. Plus they don't guarantee you the system you want, since quantities are always limited, and it's basically a crapshoot anyhow.

So since it's a crapshoot, why not do it in your slippers from home? In front of your computer? With no frantic reload clicking? Just sign up, come back on Tuesday, and order one if you want it!

Register to eligible to purchase a 20 GB or 60 GB PS3, or a Nintendo Wii at Amazon.com!

It costs you nothing to sign up, so why not?

Dear people of the US and A. You're really, really making my stripes lose some of their shine lately. Both as a taxpaying, voting, conscience-having citizen, and a gamer as well. Why? This whole next gen console launch has people stooping to all new lows I didn't think even we were possible of. To be blunt, it's nothing short of sickening.

For starters, there's the whole PS3 launch-capade. Where to begin? How about with the full-on riots while waiting to get one of the $600 bricks? Or the whole lines-don't-matter-mall-riot in Boston's Copley Center, or the asshole Wal-Mart manager that deputized himself to be Caesar and had waiting gamers fight for their consoles? People getting shot with BB's, shot for REAL... madness. Deplorable, senseless madness. Why? For the System? Probably not. When these things were going for $2,000+ on eBay (and are still getting 200% of the purchase price), the morons literally killing each other aren't doing it to play the damn things, they're doing it for a profit.

And then... and then you have these other folks. Fucktards, really, ones that take a) several hundred bucks that could have been used for lord knows what, b) a game system people are literally killing for, c) a chainsaw and some gasoline...

And then there are people that truly deserve to be sterilized. And of course, brat copy cats that should spend some time living in a world where mummy and poppop don't throw handfuls of money at you to shut up your incessant spoiled whining. Like, you know, the reality where most of the rest of us in the country live.

I mean, really. Aside from seeing an incredible piece of engineering destroyed, we're talking about $600 wasted. Gone. No salvage, no second chance, nothing. Gone. They might have well as set it on fire (though it does the retailers good enough) when it was in their wallets. Personally, I find it wasteful, shameful, and pitifully ignorant when there are any number of places/charities/causes that would love to get $600 that needed to be put to some use. Combine all this with the bitter lingering taste of the riots, and it paints a pretty sad picture. And speaking of painting pictures, while any number of objects have been destroyed in the name of art, this doesn't even come close. It's rage, waste, mockery, and a whole bunch of other things that'll bump you closer to the bottom of Santa's list.

You know the only other place I've ever seen people that frantic to get their hands on limit quantity items? Videos from BBC where UN food trucks arrive in refugee camps.

Want to ask a refugee if they could find a way to make $600 disappear?