In the grand scheme of things, the outcome of the console wars between Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's two-year old Xbox 360 shouldn't matter too much to the individual gamer. But, in a way, the outcome of the most competitive three-way race for console dominance in history affects you personally. The system that ends up with the most users generally wins the most attention and support from game makers, while the others get stuck with half-assed ports and throw-away games. Or, to tow the psychobabble party line, everyone feels good picking a winner, and owning the best-selling system can be comforting to uncertain consumers.

Now, a year after the battle started, which contender will come out on top?

Nintendo Wii: Kicking butt, taking names.

Sales numbers say the Wii is kicking butt. Except for a few blips (Halo 3, the late European launch of the PS3), the Wii consistently outsells its competitors. In North America, the system's still nearly impossible to find, unless you happen to walk into a store in the half-hour between when the shipment arrives and when it invariably sells out again. In Japan, the system is the hottest thing since, well, Nintendo's handheld system, the DS. Both Nintendo systems routinely outsell the competition by a 2-to-1 margin week to week in the country.

Strong sales don't exactly translate into total Nintendo dominance. For starters, the gaming industry didn't expect the Wii to such a huge seller. With few exceptions, such as Ubisoft (and its Wii-only Red Steel game), publishers didn't devote sufficient resources to developing for the Wii's unique, motion-controlled system. For that reason, many of the third-party games for the system were warmed-over ports or simplistic party games. A slow trickle of quality Nintendo-made software, including the recently released Super Mario Galaxy, is slowly filling in the void, but one company can't carry a system on its own (as we learned with the Gamecube and Nintendo 64).

Industry watchers say the Wii's strong sales can't last; that the public's infatuation with motion-based gaming will be nothing more than a fad. Nintendo's marketing focus on attracting non-gamers into the fold has been insanely successful, but it could backfire on them if these newcomers don't get past the "Gee whiz, that's swell" phase. Some data suggests this is happening. While hardware sales for the Wii have been stratospheric, software sales haven't kept pace -- Wii owners buy slightly more than three games per console, on average. This suggests that many buyers purchase the Wii on impulse then let it collect dust in between the occasional Wii Sports party.

... so it's been a great year for Wii -- what about Xbox 360?