When you work in a game store, i guess you begin to understand a bit more about the mentality of the consumer, and get to see the way the so-called "casual" works. Having worked at GAME for a week now, i've all too quickly come to realise what will win this console war.

Price.

Or, more specifically, value for money.

I mean, it must be pretty obvious right now why the wii has done as well as it has in its first year. With the exception of a few gems, the games have beenquite lackluster, thecontrols have a bit of alearning curve, and don't always work well, and its graphics are inadvertantly limited for the most part (although it can look quite impressive at times).but the thing is £179.99. I mean, thats nothing when you consider what you get with it. You get a great and innovative console, a controller, a nunchuck, a game, wireless and free internet access with multitudes of optional extras to put on there. The kids love it, the adults love it, and its a mediumthroughwhich familys can use to actually get together and have fun.

And right now, its like gold dust.We will probably get in 20 a week and they'll be gone instantly. 20 consoles will go out the day they come in, now thats phenomenal.Even the PS2 was not in that high a demand, but we'll come back to the PS2 later.

Now i know a lot of people will be cursing me having seen this, screaming how "It's games that sell consoles!!" Well, the sad fact about the games industry these days is that as much as we would like to believe otherwise, Games are not the top priority anymore.

The second big seller this week was a 60GB PS3. Not a 40Gb, a 60Gb. Why? Because for an extra £50, you get two games, an extra 20GB HDD, and backwards compatibility. Or for an extra £80, you can get 3 games, spiderman 3 on blu-ray, and all of the above. Why would you want a 40Gb when a 60Gb is better value for money? Granted, Sony will not beat nintendo even slightly here, but in the UKthey are waaay ahead of microsoft here. Live may bea better online service, but to play online wirelessly, its £100 (£60 for adapter and £40 for live p/a), and then another £40 each year. The second casual gamers andparents shopping for their children realise this, they go off the 360 completely. These people aren't stupid, they would rather pay a decent amount now and save in the long run.

"But wait!!" i hear you cry, "the PS2 sold loads because of its games!!" And my reply to that is, well it did and it didn't. It did have a big boost from its games, but at the same time, it was everything you needed at the time. it was a cheap DVD player, a great games machine, and required minimal addons to get the best experience (a memory card, and thats about it). It was exactly what the wii is this generation, great value for money.

I guess i'll keep updating this over christmas, since it sure is interesting seeing this all happening from the inside.