Console Companies Wage Gaming Wars

And now, Sony vs. Nintendo vs. Microsoft.

In a video game industry that has experienced a rush of popularity and an explosion of profits in recent years, these three companies are fighting a war of business deals and bottom lines. Sony's Playstation 2, Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox have been duking it out for consumer dollars.

The greatest success story for Xbox so far has been "Halo," a smash-hit first-person shooter with a man-versus-alien storyline. Nintendo's "Super Mario Sunshine" is the latest vehicle for the beloved Italian plumber. Sony's system has seen many first-class games come its way -- "Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec," "Final Fantasy X" and "Grand Theft Auto 3" have brought favorable reviews and huge sales.

Games are like bombs in this industry -- the really good ones can sell hardware for one company while cutting into the sales of the other two. At times, the console wars have proved to be especially costly for the participants.

Sega, whose Genesis console battled the Super Nintendo Entertainment System for top dollar in the early 1990s, recently gave up the console fight and switched its focus to making games. The Sega Dreamcast had been eclipsed by the next-generation systems of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

"They were leaking money like a sieve," said David Smith, PSX/PS2 editor for IGN.com. "Over the life of the Dreamcast, Sega repeatedly required massive cash infusions from its parent company to stay in business.

"Microsoft is in the same position, in a way, but the difference there is that Microsoft can blow all the money it wants on a long-term gamble."

With the Xbox, Bill Gates and company have shot for the moon on their first try. The system's hardware is more capable than that of the Playstation 2 and the GameCube. But in this war, allied support is just as effective as the power of a company's weaponry. At this point, Sony has the largest game library and the success of its first Playstation to help the PS2.

"This generation has shown, more than anything else, the power of an established brand as opposed to an immediate advertising campaign," Smith said. "People seem to have bought the Playstation 2 almost out of reflex. That was the brand they trusted."

Sony got a head start on the Nintendo 64 with the first Playstation and managed to take control of the market with a wealth of good games. Nintendo, previously the industry's giant, saw its power diminish as the Nintendo 64 struggled to compete.

Nintendo, the home of the Mario and Zelda franchises, may have lost some of its luster, but the company still has plenty of fight left in it.

"(Nintendo) still makes a tremendous amount of money by selling these games that are made in-house," said Ben Silverman, editor in chief of game-revolution.com.

A new aspect of video games -- how well they play online -- also could be a strong factor in their monetary performances. Each of the three consoles has the ability to connect gamers from all parts of the world.

Microsoft has been the most ambitious in its online aspirations, drawing from its experience in the market of personal computers. The company's subscription-based Xbox Live online service allows Microsoft to operate each game's network. Sony and Nintendo have been quieter on the online front. They have both released network adapters to little fanfare, and both have given developers the bulk of control over online games.

As a result, third-party corporations that devote themselves to making noteworthy titles are looking at each system's online setup. But most of them aren't limiting their efforts to a single console.

"The companies have learned over the years that if you put all your eggs in one basket, you can really hurt yourself that way," Silverman said.

Regardless of whether more third-party companies are becoming "platform-agnostic," as Silverman put it, one of the major players clearly has come out on top.

"The PS2 has a comfortably insurmountable lead," Smith said. "In any of the three major territories and worldwide, it has Nintendo and Microsoft each beat by three to five times, depending on which figures you look at."

Playstation 2 is the king -- for now. But new blockbuster titles and the growing online realm will open up new battlefields in this competition.

With so much money and market power at stake, no one's going to surrender any time soon.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.