Although the title of this article makes me feel bad for myself, it seems to be true in Canada when it comes to Nintendo. As announced today by The Associated Press (via CTV), the Wii console has sold over a million units in the country, making it the first of the current generation consoles to do so. This is according to numbers from the NPD group, who have expanded the scope of their normal monthly announcements with more international sales, as demonstrated by the global report released this month, as well. It has almost doubled the sales of the PS3 in the same amount of time, and outsold the Xbox 360, which had a year head start on sales.

2008′s trends look very positive for the company overall, with the Wii selling 376,000 units within the first seven months of the year. Comparatively, Microsoft has sold 154,000 360s and Sony has sold 200,000 PS3s. Nintendo also gathered eight of the top ten software sales in July, with Mario Kart Wii at the top spot. This means that Nintendo has almost doubled up against both its major competitors, and continues to be the leader in software sales across the board. The industry itself has shown a 54% growth in the country from last year, demonstrating a gaming boom that reaches far beyond the biggest markets in Europe, Japan and the US.

Canada is truly growing as a video game market in the world. While normally lumped in with the US as a part the whole of North America, the actual statistics on what Canadians are buying is very interesting. Obviously, with a smaller economy, it’s interesting to see that even though the Wii has sold 376,000 units in the country this year, that’s about 34% less than the Wii has sold in the US in July alone. However, with the US hardware market showing a 17% percent growth, we can see that as much as the American market is growing, the Canadian market is growing even faster. In fact, the ratio of Canadians purchasing the Nintendo console is now inching ever closer the US, with 1:32 (roughly) Canadians purchasing a system, and 1:27 (roughly) Americans purchasing one.

There are a lot of numbers being thrown around at this point, but we can generally recognize the trends that seem to be consistent throughout the industry. The Wii can not keep on store shelves, the 360 is seeing a significant drop-off from their dominance early in 2008 over the PS3. At this point, there is still a lot of conjecture as to which company is failing, but it is clear that Nintendo has made their mark on this generation and changed the way the industry is approaching gamers with their products and how they are identifying and targeting their audience.

Nearing the two year mark for the release of the last current generation systems, it’s interesting to see that how the trends are forming. While Microsoft is continuing to push with sales in Japan, and the rumours of price cuts always remaining in the ether, it will be a very telling holiday season for the 360 which will likely give us a better idea of just where it will ultimately fall when the dust settles, and it is merely a shadow of its next gen successor. The PS3 seems to be gaining steam as time goes on, with a start that humbled Mighty Sony, and a success that they attribute to a loyal fanbase understanding the value in their new machine. With the push to remove backwards compatibility from the console, it seems they are beginning to reach a point where they are creating value for their new product, instead of hinging on a continuation of their old. Sony seems poised to continue their success, but whether or not their 10 year plan can emulate the success of its predecessors is yet to be seen.