Sound the alarms and throw "Chariots of Fire" on the jukebox--the PS3 has officially outsold the Wii for the month of November in Japan.

According to Reuters, Sony's system sold a whopping 183,217 units versus the Wii's 159,193, marking the first time since both systems have been on shelves that Nintendo's console didn't take home the prize. Industry experts are skeptical however that Sony's luck will continue to move in such a positive trend, citing that although the company took this round, Nintendo still has much of the interest piked from casual gamers who, since the release of Nintendo's Wii, have helped to push the industry into new mainstream territory.

In terms of this new audience of gamers, the PS3 still has a lot of ground to gain if it wants to take some of the interest away from the Wii community. This is mostly due to the fact that, although it's two hundred bucks cheaper than when it first debuted, Sony's system is still too expensive and has too few titles to warrant true dominance in the casual-gamer battlefield. Not to mention in the online one as well--some key titles are necessary to bolster a more dedicated community than Microsoft's Xbox LIVE.

KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide said, "It's nice to see the system selling much better than six months ago. But is it a sustainable trend? Is it going to really escalate from here? I'm not so sure." Skeptical indeed, Mr. Kamide. Skeptical indeed.

The coming months are going to be critical for both companies, with landmark exclusive titles already on the shelves or launching soon, such as Nintendo's Mario Galaxy and the highly-stylized actioner, No More Heroes while Sony's PS3 has already fired off the solid adventure title, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for the holidays and has Killzone 2 locked and loaded for early next year. Looking at the software on both sides, both companies are coming out with guns a' blazing, although with the games industry becoming more mainstream, Sony will have to work harder to match the overall gamer accessibility once again and retain the crown it held for nearly a decade. Long gone are the days when every dorm room or apartment had a PSOne (sans the slick redesign), a multi-tap and copies of Madden, Fifa and Gran Turismo scattered about – we're in online country now, buddy.

With Xbox LIVE presenting an unmatched online console experience and Nintendo's Wii offering the chance for kids and their grandparents to play tennis and bowl together (let's be honest, that is a huge step for the gaming industry), Microsoft and Nintendo have already mastered marketing and consumer strategies with their next-gen consoles, yet Sony still has yet to step up and do more than offer gamers and non-gamers alike a lower price, a 40-gig hard drive and a few flashy commercials to regain true dominance with the casual crowd. And now, with the advent of Nintendo's new Fit device – not to mention the insane amount of mainstream hype it's receiving – this week in Japan, the Wii will be armed to the teeth for 2008 in what will be a true test of all three consoles' consumer-pulling strengths.

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