Matti Robinson
31 Dec 2006 1:32
The extremely interesting year of 2006 is coming to an end, and the games industry has given us a lot to smile about, but also a lot to frown about. The year was definitely the year of consoles, both home consoles and hand-helds.
2006 started off with bold estimates of 7 million PS3 shipping in the first 90 days and record-breaking DS became the fastest selling video game machine in Japan. Few weeks later the rumors around PS3 launch delays became public, as Sony announced their trouble getting hardware.
In March, the journey of PSOne ended, the production was shut down after over 100 million units sold, and the original PS3 worldwide launch was announced. Revolution changed its name to at first controversial Wii and the E3, or Electronic Entertainment Expo, was held the last time as an expo.
The end of first half of 2006 introduced us to a few innocent lawsuits, that started a boom. The second half however wasn't all about law and order, analysts predicted every single scenario that could ever happen during the next-gen console war during 2006.
"Eyes to Live", Xbox 360 Live Vision launched in September and Sony announced the disappointing European PS3 delay. In October, Nintendo reported a $459.5 million profit for the first half and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division reported a $96 million loss for the first quarter.
Then came PS3 and Wii, both sold out, then Wii sold a few more. A total of 3,5 million Wiis sold and 1,2 million PS3s sold, and the next-gen war is just beginning.
There were also tons of great game titles released this year so I won't go into detail, but to name a few that deserve to be mentioned, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Final Fantasy XII, Wii Sports, Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Guitar Hero II, are all worth of the money.
But without further nonsense, Happy New Year 2007!