In the recently video-game hardware wars, Nintendo’s Wii may be in the lead. Nevertheless, Sony is looking to reach the 150 million sales mark for its PlayStation 3 video-game console within the next few years.

According to Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony’s PS3 game-console division, the sales of the original PlayStation reached 102 million units since 1994. The popular PlayStation 2, now in its ninth year on the market, has sold 140 million units. Moreover, Hirai hopes the PS3 will outpace its predecessor in a similar period.

Undoubtedly, Sony did not have the Wii to contend with in the past. The game-console crown was Sony has to lose in the latest round of video-game hardware wars. According to Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch, Sony held the title for the past two consecutive generations, an impressive feat in the industry.

According to Gartenberg, late in the console cycle, Sony is making some moves to try to reestablish its position; it is not likely now that Sony will dominate the market as it did in past generations. At this point, is a question of can Sony at least move into the market leader position? Certainly, the last company Sony was expecting to deal with in that role was Nintendo.

Sony’s admitted problem is that it made a heavy bet early on that Blu-ray drives would drive adoption of the PS3, and it did not. Rather, the Blu-ray issue caused manufacturing delays and drove up the cost of the console out of the gate. What’s more, Sony did not have a great game title at launch. Now Sony has Metal Gear Solid 4, which is the type of title, that Sony need to drive sales and drive down price points. What it really will come down to be holiday 2008, it is going to be a very critical point in this console cycle in determining who takes the lead.

Recently, Nintendo is clearly winning this round of the video-game console battles. The Wii is expected to win 50 percent or more of the installed base while Sony and Microsoft battle over what has left. Perhaps, Sony price cut could give it the edge, but Nintendo has taken its crown. The video-game console market has expanded. Nintendo has done an excellent job of going beyond the traditional video-game audience, extending gaming to other members of the family, focusing on gaming on media, content and other applications and services.

What it is going to look like is who has the game lineup in the fall, how those games ultimately shake out in the marketplace, and what the price points are. Even as games represent a good value to consumers in a down economic situation, people will still be looking at the core value proposition very carefully to see who gives them the best entertainment value for their dollar.

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