203w ago - As part of an absolutely massive 210-page report from Wedbush Morgan Securities on the future of the video game industry, analyst Michael Pachter has predicted that Japan will be the Achilles heel for Microsoft, enabling Sony's PS3 to overtake Xbox 360 on the global market.

Wii, however, will maintain its leadership role until the end (with a little help from a new "Wii HD").

To quote: "We expect the dominant console at the end of the this cycle to be the Wii, as we think that the console's low price point, innovative control mechanism, and compatibility with standard definition televisions will provide it with a competitive advantage over the next two years.

We expect Nintendo to sustain this competitive advantage by introducing a high definition version of the Wii, perhaps as early as the end of 2010, in order to convert its large installed base into true 'next generation' households," Pachter said.

"We think that the PS3 will capture significant market share, primarily due to Sony's victory in the high definition DVD format war, and will end up in second place by 2015.

Although Microsoft's Xbox 360 enjoyed a first mover advantage, we think that its market position will fade to third place due to lack of penetration in Japan."

206w ago - With E3 2009 being over, some are left wondering why Sony didn't announce a PS3 price cut as speculated through this year's conference.

Sony answered during a recent interview with Kotaku, as follows:

Despite expectations that Sony would lower the price of the PS3 at E3, the company announced no price drop at the big show. We asked why.

"From our perspective, this show is all about content," Sony's head of PlayStation marketing in the U.S., Peter Dille, told Kotaku in an interview yesterday. "We believe that our content story is unrivaled.

It's really a relentless line-up of great exclusive games that will speak volumes to the value inherent in the PS3. Obviously people come to E3 expecting all sorts of announces.

We've got a plan in place for the platform. A price drop at the show wasn't part of it."

243w ago - Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price has said that he believes video game legislation has no place in America.

"It saddens me to see legislators stomping all over our First Amendment rights for their own specific interests." he said.

Price believes people should write a letters to their Congressman about bills that are happening in their state in order to make a difference.

"Otherwise, legislators don't know that their constituents care and they're just simply, I think, walking blindly, following what they think is the mainstream opinion." he said.

To quote: "We're going through what every other entertainment industry has gone through, and that's being the temporary scapegoat for society's ills," Price reasoned. "I think that we as an industry do a fantastic job of policing ourselves, we have one of the most effective, if not the most effective rating system in any entertainment industry right now."

"It won't be until we have more gamers running for office that this will calm down," he added. "It's something that we'll weather, because we are right, what we do is defensible under the Constitution and shouldn't be regulated by the government."

246w ago - Don Mattrick, senior vice-president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, has said he expects the XBox 360 to secure second place in the current generation console war.

"We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony," Mattrick told Business Week.

He made the comments as Microsoft announced it was slashing the price of all three of its Xbox 360 models in the US, having recently done so in Japan also. As a result of the move, the entry level Xbox 360 Arcade is now priced at $199, making it the cheapest of the current generation of consoles on the market.

However, Mattrick said he was less confident of the Xbox 360 catching this generation's current market leader, Nintendo's Wii.

"I'm not at a point where I can say we're going to beat Nintendo," he said.