At 5:30 in the morning, sophomore Stephen Dery is waiting in line at Target for his new Nintendo Wii. Dery stands 90th in line at a store only offering 81 units.

“That was a problem, so I went to Toys R Us and waited there for two hours,” Dery said.

After the wait, a single woman engulfed in bodyguards stepped outside of the store to hand out tickets. Once inside with his ticket, Dery faced no further hassle and presented the $250 that he had been working for since August in exchange for his Wii.

Two days earlier, the Playstation 3 (PS3) was released at twice the price of Nintendo’s Wii. The PS3 offers its advanced Blu-ray technology and cell broadband engine. Sony’s Blu-ray has unsurpassed storage energy for pictures, videos, music, and data. The cell broadband engine is described as “the digital soul behind the PS3 system,” that provides “limitless experiences in fidelity, believability, and hyper reality.” They promise that their new controller, SIXAXIS, will become a natural extension of the customer’s body. If all this rings true, then why has Sony cut its shipments, slashed its estimated annual income by 38%, and laid off 10,100 staffers? Sony recently had to recall 10 million of its laptop batteries, causing the entire company to suffer. Sony’s stock has dropped 2.75% solely concerning PS3 sales. The company knows this is going to be a challenging year for them to sell their new overly priced product, and Wii steps in here.

“The Wii totally beats the PS3 because it introduces a new way of gaming to all the players around the world while the PS3 is the same old stuff,” stated sophomore Colby Sutherland.

One of the Wii’s most innovative creations is its new controller. You simply aim it at the TV and your motions are picked up by a sensor bar and mimicked on screen.

“In the game Call of Duty 3, you aim it like a gun! I wouldn’t want to go back to a joystick,”said Dery.

On Wii’s official website, its creators posted their thoughts on various stages of development and creative design.

Kenichiro Ashida, the head of Integrated Research and Development Division said, “To develop a new Nintendo controller, I carve models out of styrofoam, mold them out of clay, and then I discuss each and every one with our team until the final version takes place.”

Many PS3 enthusiasts adamantly argue that the Wii controller is too hard to maneuver or just pointless.

“Who wants two separate controllers?”asked sophomore Adam Boisvert.

The President and CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata responds,”It’s not as though we were trying to pick a fight, but whenever you attempt something new, conservatism will always rear its head amongst those who have grown accustomed to the way things are now.”

Nintendo focused more on delivering to its customers an unparalled overall experience rather than focus primarily on the quality of graphics, which was the primary goal of the PS3.

The PS3 offers mindblowing graphics such as in NBA ‘07, where the gamer can see sweat dripping off of the players, or in Fight Night Round 3, where the boxer’s veins can be seen popping on his arms.

Wii, On the other hand, offers games such as Madden NFL 07 in which the player must move the two controllers to run, throw, and catch, then can dance on the end zone after a touchdown, or in Redsteel, where the controller is used as a sword to kill the mafia.

In the great technological duel, the Wii wins because of its cheap price and innovative design.

In the words of Akio Ikeda, “Nintendo is a company where you get praised for doing something different from everyone else. In this company, when an individual wants to do something different, everyone else lends their support to help them overcome any hurdles. I think this is how we made the challenge of Wii a possibility.”