An excellent article by Mark Wilson over at Kotaku. He's completely right and we're(gamers) not helping the situation at all. I've seen way too many times that people will write off any game that scores anything less than a nine from (insert reviewer/site here).

There are some of you out there who love the way writers and publishers handle video game reviews. This article is not for you. As far as the author and his sympathizers are concerned, you are the saps stuck as janitors cleaning dirty toilets in The Matrix, the suckers who sit around drinking Diet Coke convinced that it tastes like real Coke, the unfortunate few who were never able to see the rhinos and race cars in those Magic Eye images.

But after reading countless video game reviews over the years, and more recently editing Frankenreviews for both games and gadgets, it's become more and more obvious that the video game review system is dated, limiting and even, at times, unintentionally condescending.

But there's a ton of talent in the game review industry, really. So where are we going wrong?

Hardware to Software ratios

Xbox 360: hardware to software ratio: 6.59 (hardware total sold = 6.8 million; software total sold = 44.8 million)
PlayStation 3: hardware to software ratio: 3.58 (hardware total sold = 1.9 million; software total sold = 6.8 million)
Wii: hardware to software ratio: 3.44 (hardware total sold = 4.5 million; software total sold = 15.5 million)

Wii might be selling strong on both hardware and software fronts, but it could be doing better by focusing some of its marketing on actual gamers -- the ones who buy more games. It will be interesting to compare Wii's and PS3's data a year from now with the current data for Xbox 360. Microsoft's console has had an extra year under its belt to develop a strong software lineup, but with promising titles on the horizon for Nintendo and Sony (e.g., Mario, Smash Bros., MGS4, FFXIII, etc) the ratios may balance out in late '08. But for now, it's obvious why PS3 and Wii have such infamous reputations.

The Xbox 360's ratio isn't surprising with Peter Moore's best winter line up ever.

It seems like Wii Sports is really the system seller. Do the casuals that Nintendo is so desperately reaching out even care about a new Zelda, Mario or Metroid game that the more fluent gamer is clamoring for? It's important to know that they are not counting the VC sales, which could be a big market on the Wii. Another factor could be the advertising. I'm sure we're all familiar with their "Wii want to play" commercials that tend to focus on Wii Sports and the Mii's while leaving some games in the dust;I.E. Zack & Wiki.

The Playstation 3's ratio is a little surprising to me because I can't find too much to be interested in personally.