People have tried to foresee who will eventually win the video gaming consoles’ war since Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was just an idea, Sony did not know when its BluRay unit was to be released and Nintendo’s Wii was also just a project in the company’s engineers’ minds.

However, the first important hit came from Microsoft, which was able to release its video gaming console months before its rivals. Back in November 2005 the company was launching Xbox 360 with much ado. And thanks to its rivals’ technical problems in quickly developing their projects, Xbox 360 remained the unique next-gen console on the market for about a year.

But in November 2006, after postponing the event for few times, Sony did eventually launch its long-waited for PlayStation 3, almost at the same as Nintendo released Wii.

And now, just nine month later, Nintendo’s Wii rules the video gaming consoles’ world. Just from the first month of release, Nintendo’s “tiny” console succeeded in selling constantly some hundreds of thousands units every month. It has usually got ahead of PS3 and Xbox360’s sales put together.

NPD Group’s every month long-waited for estimations have always indicated that Nintendo’s Wii rules over its rivals, which are however superior from the technological point of view.

Next week, according to VGChartz’ estimations (http://www.vgchartz.com/news/), Nintendo’s Wii will surpass Microsoft’s number of sold units.

The two companies have both succeeded in exceeding the threshold of 10 million sold video gaming consoles; but Nintendo has needed only 9 months to reach Microsoft’s performance.

On the other hand, although it represents the most powerful console on the market Sony’s PS3 hasn’t surpassed the number of 4.3 million sold units, which means a market share of only 16%.

Taking into account the numbers indicated by the companies themselves, VG Chartz’ estimations seem to be quite accurate.

In July, the Japanese maker of the gaming console Wii, Nintendo, said that in the April-June quarter it sold 3.43 million Wii machines worldwide, which means that the total number of the units sold is 9.27 million units. From these 3.81 million were sold in the Americas, 2.95 million in Japan and another 2.51 million in other territories. Also Microsoft confirmed it has pass the 10 million mark for its Xbox 360

But it is not accuracy that matters the most now. The question is in fact what Nintendo’s Wii’s secret is. Is it its highly competitive price comparing to the other gaming industry’s famous companies, its innovative controller feature, or its way of hooking even non-gaming audiences to become its customers? It’s obvious that Wii’s success is made out from all of these “ingredients”.

But, as the video gaming consoles’ war is not over yet, the next question arising is for how long Wii will be able to get through its rivals. As the new winter holiday season is coming, each of the companies is highly preparing its weapons.

Microsoft is to launch “Halo 3”, which is an emblematic game highly related to Xbox 360’s trademark. On the other hand, the company has appeared to eventually understand that superior technique is not everything; so Microsoft has already cut its console’s price and we shall probably see another price cut in November too.

For the moment, as Microsoft previously announced, the 20GB Xbox 360 pack will now cost $349.99, offering a wireless controller and a headset, while the Core Pack will retail for $279.99. The Black Elite Xbox 360 will have an estimated retail price (ERP) of $449.99, while the highly anticipated Halo 3-themed console, which will hit stores’ shelves in September, will be available for $399.99.

Sony, the third competitor on the market, hasn’t seemed either to surrender, although the company’s situation seems to be quite complicated.

Ever since the price of PS3 was announced, Sony has been heavily criticized for its decision to put a price tag of $600 on a gaming console. Sony argued that given the technical specifications, the price is right, but the last few months has demonstrated that the gamers had another opinion. Now, Sony is struggling to put PS3 back on track, but again the Japanese electronics maker doesn’t consider the price as a problem. Although Sony announced a price cut for US version of PS3, the company will not extend this policy to other territories.

But Sony is ready to unveil a lot of games during the next months as Sony’s CEO, Howard Stringer, has revealed some time ago during a meeting with share holders in Tokyo. Stringer vowed to have no less than 380 “software titles” for the PlayStation 3 by March 2008. Of the 380, 200 will be boxed, retail titles with the remaining 180 to be downloadable.

And as Leipzig’s Game Convention 2007 is ready to start next week, you can bet all of three rivals will have something new to announce.

But will Microsoft and Sony succeed to even represent a threat to Nintendo’s Wii? It’s obvious that this won’t happen till the end of 2007. Wii is still the most convenient video gaming console in price terms and thanks to some well-positioned game titles, Nintendo will keep on selling. Maybe, it won’t reach the same rhythm in sales, but its position on the market will obviously get consolidated.

This won’t mean, anyway, that Nintendo will be spared for the year to come. The company will need to come up with something new on the market, as the innovative controller and its low price will not be sufficient for facing the rivals’ attack.

Early 2008 will surely mean a new beginning in the video gaming consoles’ war. Will Nintendo succeed in remaining the leader or not? We shall just wait and see how the rival companies will keep on surprising us.