Update: As of 11/28/06, the BBC reports that Wii has sold more than 600,000 units in the US and Canada, compared to 400,000 for PS3. Nintendo plans to ship a total of 4 million units to North America by the end of the year, while Sony has set a target of 1 million PS3s.

Even though I am a far cry from a video game expert (or even an avid video game player), I’ve been noticing a lot of articles lately about the upcoming release of Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3. Expected to come out this fall, both systems are receiving a lot of hype, but couldn’t be more different. Playstation 3 is designed to be a more typical “next generation console”, complete with better graphics, blue tooth controllers, cd/dvd player, and, as shown on the chart on the right, a whole slew of other options. All of these extras don’t come without a price, though. According to CNN, Playstation will sell 2 versions of this new console for $499 and $599. In contrast, Nintendo’s Wii will sell for half that, in the $199-$249 range. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata is determined to keep the prices of the console and its new games lower than competitors. This, and the remote-control style controller serve as the Wii’s two major selling points. The controller is pretty revolutionary, and seems like it will be great for playing sports-based video games.

Nintendo Wii will bring back some old-school favorites, like Zelda and Mario Brothers, while Playstation 3 promises backward compatibility. Now, I will admit, I have not actually bought a video game console since Super Nintendo came out about 100 years ago. So I’m a bit old-fashioned when it comes to this stuff. But, I will say this. I can beat just about anybody in a MarkioKart racing match (Super Nintendo OR Game Cube, thank you). When my old game broke, I went on EBay immediately and bought another one. And I have been known to hit a few holes-in-one on Tiger Woods Golf. If only Nintendo Wii would bring back MarioKart (aka the best video game ever), I would definitely buy it. That remote controller looks cool.