However, revolutions are never a smooth ride. Earlier this month, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata declared that despite leading the pack, his company's console was "in the most unhealthy condition since it hit the Japanese market" and that this was "not the position we wanted to be in more than two years after launch and after selling almost 8 million consoles."
Though the eight million unit sales mark is a significant achievement, Iwata must be watching the weekly sales figures of his console, which have been in the doldrums as of late. For the past several weeks, weekly Wii sales have hovered below the 20,000 unit mark. This is low enough to allow Sony's PlayStation 3 to lead the home console hardware charts in weekly sales, and even Microsoft's anemic Xbox 360 managed to outdo the Wii during one seven-day sales period.
However, Nintendo's sudden slowing could be indicative of shifting business conditions in the companys console market, which Iwata described as "not very strong right now overall." Rejecting the possibility of a price cut, Iwata claimed that it was key software titles that drove the Wii's growth, probably referring to the same games that Famitsu has recently revealed lead Wii lifetime-to-date unit sales in Japan:
Top Five Wii Games by LTD Sales in Japan
*Note: Wii Sports is not packaged with the Wii in Japan, and is sold separately.
With Wii Sports at the top of that list, could Iwata be hoping that titles like upcoming sequel Wii Sports Resort (which has been given a June launch date in Japan) could revitalize sales for the little-console-that-could? And where will Nintendo's major fall 2008 releases, Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk, measure up when their sales data is revealed in Nintendo's upcoming fiscal year report?
One thing's for sure, Nintendo's CEO is talking about the situation as if it's an immediate and pressing challenge. This could, however, be more a show of prudence than defeat. Despite Iwata's statements that suggest doom and gloom, Sony's second-place PlayStation 3 sits at only three million units sold in Japan, a full five million consoles behind Nintendo.
I'd say Nintendo is in a pretty good position right now, as they have quite a few options they can bust out to boost sales. If through some bizarre event the upcoming games like Wii Sports Resort and Monster Hunter don't produce satisfactory sales, they could introduce new colours for the Wii system and controllers. Failing that, they could also play the price cut card, and since they've gone this long without one, they'd still be making a profit on systems sales as well.
Once those features grow stale then Nintendo would probably come up with some other gimmick to sell Wii systems. More internal storage and HD are two things which they could do, although both are unlikely. There are probably other things they could do too that I haven't thought of.
Once those features grow stale then Nintendo would probably come up with some other gimmick to sell Wii systems. More internal storage and HD are two things which they could do, although both are unlikely. There are probably other things they could do too that I haven't thought of.
The hardware doesn't sell the system, it's just an enabler for the thing that does: The games. The hardware features don't grow stale, they merely get surpassed by the technological progress and if the current gen gets surpassed too much one of the companies in it will pull the trigger and go to the next gen. If that next gen is sufficiently better it'll cause a migration from the previous gen and obviously you don't want to sit there while somebody else siphons your customers away.
The hardware doesn't sell the system, it's just an enabler for the thing that does: The games.If that were true, not only would we not have seen all of the redesigned Game Boys and DS, but they wouldn't have boosted sales of the system. I don't believe the "it's a handheld" excuse either, as it is still the same as a console in that it's an enabler to play games.
The hardware doesn't sell the system, it's just an enabler for the thing that does: The games.If that were true, not only would we not have seen all of the redesigned Game Boys and DS, but they wouldn't have boosted sales of the system. I don't believe the "it's a handheld" excuse either, as it is still the same as a console in that it's an enabler to play games.
360 recently hit one million sold in Japan. lulz.
but the built in M+ wouldn't happen until M+ attachment sales have slowed down.
gotta maximize your potential profits.
Nintendo gets to sell a M+ for every controller present and past & future.
3rd parties get to release accessories with M+ attachment in mind
once that market is tapped, Nintendo releases the WiiMote+ (M+ built in) & now its half the size different between regular Wiimote & Wiimote w/ M+ attached. Now they get to sell a ton of Wiimote+ and 3rd parties get to do the accessory shuffle all over again.
