Topic: December Spells Money for Nintendo

[Karl Castaneda #2]

If I had a nickel for every time Nintendo posted huge sales, I'd be almost as rich as they are.

NINTENDO RECORDS BEST HOLIDAY SELLING SEASON IN U.S. VIDEO GAME HISTORY    

Virtually Every New Wii and Nintendo DS System Sold Out Across America    

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 11, 2007 – There has never been anything like it.   Independent U.S. sales figures released by the NPD Group today confirmed   a red-hot launch for the new Wii™ system by Nintendo, and the crowning   of the portable Nintendo DS™ as the best-selling video game device of   any type for both the holidays and all of 2006.    

Along with stunning success for The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess   and historic sales of accessories, including more than 1.5 million extra   controllers for Wii alone, Nintendo recorded the most successful   across-the-board holiday performance in U.S. video game history.    

Among key results:    

       * Consumers purchased every Wii console available at retail—more   than a million in just the 44 days between U.S. launch and year end.      
  * With sales of another 1.6 million systems in December alone,   Nintendo DS achieved full year sell-through of 5.3 million.        
 * The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was purchased by an   extraordinary 86 percent of Wii buyers, or more than 900,000 games for   that system alone. Coupled with the companion version released in   December for Nintendo GameCube™, the two versions of the newest Zelda   title totaled approximately 1.5 million unit sales in less than seven   weeks, which would represent one of the five best-selling games for the   entire year.        
 * Wii owners also purchased an average of three additional games   from a wide library of choices, in addition to the Wii Sports title   packed in with every hardware system.        
 * Two Nintendo DS titles, New Super Mario Bros.® and Brain Age™:   Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, also were top-10 sellers for the year.      
 * Throughout the November/December holiday shopping period,   Nintendo accounted for more than half of all video game hardware systems   sold in America.  
 Earlier this week, Nintendo increased its projected worldwide financial   performance for the year ending on March 31 to be the best in company   history.    

  “Millions of players, both hard-core and brand-new, are already enjoying   the unique entertainment provided by Wii, but demand for the system   remains incredibly high," says Nintendo of America President Reggie   Fils-Aime. “So our work is just beginning. We're dedicating ourselves to   maximizing both manufacturing and distribution full bore throughout   2007, to make sure everyone who wants to experience the future of video   gaming can do so just as soon as possible."    

The momentum behind Wii will continue unabated through the early weeks   of 2007, with retail debuts of WarioWare™: Smooth Moves, Wii Play™ and   Mario Party® 8 from Nintendo; a host of third-party releases; and a   steady stream of classic games made available via download with the Wii   Shop Channel.

[Shecky]

So what are NPD's Numbers across the board?

[Smash_Brother]

They should spend that all money on MAKING MORE WIIS, GODDAMMIT!

[Pryopizm]

You should spend more time responding to our podcasts!

[bubicus]

That's 5.3 million sold in less than two months. Wow. Wow. That's 5x as many PS3s shipped. That's 6x the number of PS3s sold. That's more than half of the shipped Xbox 360s. That's around 15-20% of the total number of Xboxes sold worldwide since its launch. That's about 20-25% of the total number of Gamecubes sold since its launch. Wow.

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: Pryopizm
You should spend more time responding to our podcasts!

Sorry, I spend all my time calling stores to check for Wii shipments.

[Pryopizm]

Don't bother.  I went to one store and they had one last Wii available.  He said since they would get so few shipments (about three at a time) he would tell anyone who called to ask for availability that there were none and sell only to people who walked in.

[Maximilian]

HOT DAMN NINTENDO! The best holiday sales for video games EVAR?!?  Sweeeeet.

Honestly though, I'm not too surprised.  Ever since I've gotten my Wii at launch, I've converted a few of my friends who were unsure about the system or knew they wanted it eventually to go out and start hunting for it ASAP.  So far, none of them have been successful.  I also knew that DSLs were being snapped up the second they hit the shelves.  So no doubt that Nintendo is raking in the dough, even though they apparently didn't get as many systems out as they were planning to (at least from what we know so far...)

Quote
The momentum behind Wii will continue unabated through the early weeks of 2007, with retail debuts of WarioWare™: Smooth Moves, Wii Play™ and Mario Party® 8 from Nintendo; a host of third-party releases; and a steady stream of classic games made available via download with the Wii Shop Channel.

Sounds real good to me.  Was going to get Wario when it dropped next week, but since I've only scratched the surface on zelda and have DS games I got for Xmas I haven't even opened yet, I'll hold off.  I'm definitely getting Wii Play for the extra controller and new Duck Hunt, Mario Party 8 will certainly be great and I loves me some VC (honestly prolly played more old games than new--yeah, I know I'm crazy).   Between the new releases and upcoming VC stuff, I would think there's not going to be any "game drought" any time soon.  

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Don't bother. I went to one store and they had one last Wii available. He said since they would get so few shipments (about three at a time) he would tell anyone who called to ask for availability that there were none and sell only to people who walked in.

That's so weak.  Hopefully, things will definitely pick up on the production side of things and more people will be able to score a system.  They should open another production facility or something...    

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: Pryopizm
Don't bother.  I went to one store and they had one last Wii available.  He said since they would get so few shipments (about three at a time) he would tell anyone who called to ask for availability that there were none and sell only to people who walked in.

I got one from Wal-Mart after calling in and confirming that they had them so that's not entirely the case.

But I'm fully willing to believe that a lot of employees will do that.

[Louieturkey]

Quote
Originally posted by: bubicus
That's 5.3 million sold in less than two months. Wow. Wow. That's 5x as many PS3s shipped. That's 6x the number of PS3s sold. That's more than half of the shipped Xbox 360s. That's around 15-20% of the total number of Xboxes sold worldwide since its launch. That's about 20-25% of the total number of Gamecubes sold since its launch. Wow.

Umm... that's DS sales, not Wii sales.

[UncleBob]

I tell people we have them even when we don't.  Then, when they rush in, I tell them we just sold the last one.

[couchmonkey]

I require proof in the form of YouTube* videos.  My favourite part of the article is where Reggie promises that they're aiming to manufacture and ship Wiis as fast as possible this year...I don't know if I should believe it, but it's exactly what I wanted to hear.

*or your favourite alternative