Nintendo Co.’s Wii has faltered in the first half due to lack of top game titles, however the company is likely to sustain the holiday battle better than rival Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 in game lineup and consumer appeal.

Nintendo began the holiday game wars with the release of Wii Sports Resort. The title, which introduced the Wii MotionPlus, has sold more than 1 million units in two months at U.S. retail and should hold steady with motion-based activities throughout the holiday sales season.

The company’s conservative holiday library may stifle creativity, but it also saves the company from a miscalculation like Wii Music.

Wii Fit Plus, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 will likely hold very strong and steady sales that not only cater to the Wii owner base, but continue to expand hardware sales due to easy accessibility and mass appeal of each game title.

In Sept. U.S. NPD Group figures, Wii sold 100,000 units more than the Xbox 360, despite the latter moving more than 1.5 million units of Halo 3: ODST, a strong indication that mass franchise software sales can’t grow the Xbox 360 install base any further.

While Halo 3: ODST took the No. 1 rank in Sept. game sales, its online appeal is waning. Upon debut, ODST ranked as the No. 4 Xbox Live title based on unique users. In the week ending Oct. 26, the title fell another position to No. 5.

Additionally, ODST is catered to the core buyer, an early adopter product that will like fade faster from game sales charts than any title Nintendo’s first-party holiday lineup.

Besides Halo 3: ODST, the only top first-party release by Microsoft during the holiday is Forza Motorsport 3, another core title that will not expand the hardware user base.

While the Xbox 360 may be stagnant this holiday season, it will have a chance to sustain hardware sales with the release of Project Natal and motion-based game titles.

However, until then Wii will runaway with a larger global install base of 53 million plus and counting, while the Xbox 360 stalls at 34 million plus, with little change of growth before Natal shakes the battlefield.

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