Since the last reporting period, sentiment for the Wii has slightly cooled off and is receiving more competition from the Xbox 360. Discussion levels for the Wii are much higher giving it the edge over the Xbox 360 and the top spot this week. Availability has been an issue as consumers are finding it difficult to obtain a Wii. However, purchase intent is high which stems mostly from positive discussion about the Wii’s innovative controller.

This week, sentiment for the Wii and Xbox 360 are similar but the Xbox 360 still trails the competition in discussion share resulting in a second place ranking. So far, Microsoft has managed to keep sentiments positive despite the hype surrounded by the Wii and PS3 launches. Online features, graphics, and game lineup represent the Xbox 360’s most significant strengths. Microsoft may currently ba benefiting from low availability of the Wii and PS3 as purchase intent increased 0.6 points from last week.

The PS3 is struggling to reverse negative perceptions of the console. In nearly every aspect, the console scores below the segment average. Discussion of the Cell Processor and graphics may be the key to changing consumer perceptions in the future as it currently represents its strengths. However, the PS3 has yet to convince consumers that the graphics are superior as sentiment scores still trail the Xbox 360 by 0.4 points — no improvement from last week.

# The Wii continues to be in a strong position as discussion of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk controller have increased and remained positive. The revolutionary controller and low cost are what set the Wii apart from its competitors — this has been a popular starting point for positive discussion as the Wii’s purchase intent is generating similar amounts of discussion as the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined. However, while sentiment for purchase intent has increased, discussion share has decreased almost 10% since the previous reporting period. This may be due to low availability in retail stores and unimproved sentiments for graphics.

# The Xbox 360 has continued to withstand hype surrounding the recent launches of the PS3 and Wii. It is receiving above average sentiment scores for 7 of the top 10 attributes. It continues to lead in availability sentiment and makes up almost 45% of all online features-related discussion, with 73% of that being positive. Game lineup and graphics also represent the Xbox 360’s strengths as it currently holds distinct advantages over the PS3 and Wii.

# While the PS3’s graphics remain its highest-ranked attribute, it still falls behind the Xbox 360 which earned a 4.4 sentiment score compared to the PS3’s 4.0. The rest of the attributes continue to elicit negative discussion, though sentiment has seen a small increase across most of the top 10 attributes. Price/Value continues to be a major issue for the PS3 and it currently contributes to its overall low sentiment.

BrandIntel’s LinkMap tracked more than 655,000 raw search results on the Internet but refined those results through technological filters and human analysis to utilize only the highest quality data for this study – totaling more than 20,000 consumer mentions on next gen video gaming consoles.

Much like it is with game systems; competing formats for video are not about the best technology. They are about the most prevalent technology. It is expensive to publish movies and, at least for now, you can't put Blu-ray and HD DVD disks into the same box.

With the Xbox 360 moving so strongly into the market and the top accessory this year being the $200 HD-DVD drive the battle may be over by year end. There is every chance that there may be as many as ten times more HD DVD players than Blu-ray players in the market by the end of the year - even if you don't factor in that HP, the current leader in PC sales, started shipping desktop computers with a $100 HD DVD option. This, coupled with a much lower overall cost for the stand alone players as well as better support for legacy TVs and dual mode disks (that have both legacy DVD and HD-DVD content on a single disk), suggests that HD-DVD is now the format to beat.

HD-DVD wins because of the Xbox 360 - which is ironic, given Blu-ray should have won because of the Playstation 3. Instead, Blu-ray has delayed the Playstation 3 to a point where Sony may have to wait until the Playstation 4 to recover.

BetaMax, Mini-Disk, MemoryStick, and now Blu-ray. At least Sony is consistent. Also, if there is one company that is really looking forward to a better 2007 more than Sony I don't know of it. Boy, when you couple in root kits and battery/camera recalls, you are talking about a really nasty run of bad luck for Sony this year.