Newsflash! PS3 is not PS2

[Warlock]

This is an alarming, but not necessarily representative statistic. I think it's obvious that the bulk of the people who bought a PS3 with no game either had intent to resell or were hired to pass it off to someone with intent to resell. The black-market buyers will likely buy a game or two, so I'd say this attach rate statistic does little but prove the extent of the console scalping problem at the moment.

Of course, if 2 weeks from now game sales don't push the games sold / systems sold ratio higher than 2 that is definitely an ill omen.

Well that is obvious. But the big issue is that this really hurts Sony. It's obvious one way or another, PS3 will sell out. There is just not enough stock there. But if the majority of sales are for resale, that's overall much fewer games purchased (remember, game purchases are assuming the bazillion "OMG PS3 $2000!!!!" auctions would all sell.. they won't). Besides which, what is even out? I think even among people who actually *want* the console, they'll probably purchase one game tops by the end of the year. That's not good news for Sony.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Yeah, I don't see why this is an issue so much. I honestly don't care much for backwards compatability, (in fact I wish the Wii would have done without it in favor of maybe a bit more horsepower), but I guess it's important for some people.

The backwards compatability is very important for the Wii, because it will help them succeed early on, much like the feature helped the PS2. Buying a new console is expensive, and so is buying brand new games. If people can buy a cheap system that already has an existing library of games, it will make the decision easier for people who are not as intellectually vested in the console war (i.e. parents, grandparents, etc.). A cheap sticker and a whole rack of compatible games will seal the deal anyday, as opposed to a $600 PS3 package and $70 games.

[Warlock]

The backwards compatability is very important for the Wii, because it will help them succeed early on, much like the feature helped the PS2. Buying a new console is expensive, and so is buying brand new games. If people can buy a cheap system that already has an existing library of games, it will make the decision easier for people who are not as intellectually vested in the console war (i.e. parents, grandparents, etc.). A cheap sticker and a whole rack of compatible games will seal the deal anyday, as opposed to a $600 PS3 package and $70 games.

Yeah, it's a great feature. And here's something you may not have considered too - there are a ton of people who didn't buy a GameCube. Maybe they bought a PS2 or Xbox instead (or both). Maybe GameCube only had a handful of games they wanted and the purchase didn't seem worth it. But now, people can potentially pick up any Cube games they were interested in this time around.

I was this way with the original PSX. I never bought one. But once I got a PS2, I was able to play a lot of the old PSX games I didn't have a chance to play before (specifically the Final Fantasy titles - I got FF9 for Christmas along w/ my PS2 )

[Thunderbird]

I'm in the boat of people who didn't buy a GameCube, but will be taking full advantage of the backwards compatibility of the Wii. I did the same when getting the PS2 (I wasn't into consoles during the PSX/N64 era). Heck, I'll probably stock up on GameCube stuff when I get around to picking up a Wii .