Nintendo’s sales mark represents the most game systems sold in any month since November 2002, when Sony sold 2.7 million PlayStation 2 systems (priced at $200), Frazier says. The PS2 has gone on to sell about 43.2 million in the U.S.

A quick jump over to VGChartz.com shows us that Wii has sold 18.28 million units in the United States, which is a little less than 4 million more than its nearest competitor, Microsoft’s XBox 360. This number is also about 12 million more than the PlayStation 3, which would have almost certainly been cut as a product if Sony lost the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war with Microsoft.

Anyway, the point here is that it is remarkable that the video game industry has only been marginally rocked by the market tumult. And it is even more impressive that Nintendo has managed to build a juggernaut system without the use of an internal hard drive or high definition graphics. Add in that the bulk of the games available for the Wii are family-friendly and generally leave the hardcore gamers out in the cold, and you have a real phenomenon in the video game industry.

As a guy who is financially invested in the successful outcome of at least one video game software company (which has not been mentioned in this post), I hope that the good news keeps coming in!

It turns out Sony has lost more money on the hardware side of the PS3 than it made from the stupidly successful Playstation 2.

Are you serious?! Everyone has a Playstation 2 and Sony managed to LOSE the money that it made on that system?!? If this information is accurate (and Lord knows how you would be able to verify it), then someone at Sony needs to be fired right now. The article goes on…

Microsoft reportedly lost $4 billion on the original Xbox and the Red Ring of Death cost $1 billion to put right on its own.

Gah!!! The original XBox may not have been as ubiquitous as the Playstation 2, but to lose that type of money and get back in the video gaming business in ludicrous. The same article notes how Nintendo is actually making money on each Wii sale because of the low cost to manufacture the hardware. Amazing.

In the video game wars it appears that success doesn’t come down to graphics or speed or any of the perks that come with the Sony and Microsoft systems. It appears that success is a function of fun and feasibility. And Nintendo has mastered that function.