Topic: What is Quarter 4?

[UncleBob]

Well, Nintendo said Quarter 4 for the release date for Wii, right?

But here's the issue... Of course, most normal people think of the fourth quarter as the last three months of the year - October, November and December.

But most retail stores consider Quarter Four to be November, December and Janurary - so some of those after-Christmas return numbers are offset by the great November/December sales.

Furthermore, Nintendo's year runs April-March.  Think back to the Zelda delay - they said we wouldn't get it until after the end of their fiscal year - after March.  Which means that Q4 for Nintendo would be Jan, Feb and March...

Which means to me we could get the Wii in Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb or March...

Maybe.

[Zach]

I seriously doubt the would release it after november.  The Wii needs to be on shelves for the christmas shopping season, otherwise it gives an advantage to the PS3 (despite the $600 pricepoint).  You can pretty safely assume that fourth quarter means October or November.

[jasonditz]

They meant calender year, I'm sure.

Nintendo's fiscal year ends in March, so their Q4 doesn't even start until after Xmas. Different retailers may have different FY's of their own, but I'm sure Nintendo didn't mean some arbitrary retailer's Fiscal Q4. And actually a lot of retailers, especially in the US, consider October the end of their fiscal year... which has some tax advantages when most of your sales are in November and December.

Still... Nintendo, I'm sure, wants to launch in October if at all possible to beat the PS3 to market. At the same time after the embarassment of the DS Lite shortages they're not going to launch without an ample supply.

That's the nice thing Sony's got going for it, the price is so high the early adopter market is pretty easy to predict.

[ProtoNY]

Nintendo most likely meant calendar year.  I highly doubt that they would use their own fiscal year as an indicator since it is not something that the average consumer would know (or care) about.

Expect to see them launch either on the same day as Sony or before.  That would be my best guess.

--Proto

[nitsu niflheim]

Calander Quarters and Fiscal Quarters can be different depending on when the Company decided when their Fiscal Year will end.

[Spak-Spang]

I am sure Nintendo meant calander quarter. Though I am not convinced that Nintendo won't release a little earlier than fourth quarter.

If it is released in November it will be released November 18th.  This is the magical date for Nintendo releases.  Just check how many games have been released on this date.

October isn't really known as a release date for Nintendo, so I doubt anything will happen.  I still kinda believe we may get a September date for Japan or America.  The simple fact is that the system only needs 3 First Party Launch games if it launches earlier in the year...with a few choice games being launched at Christmas as well.

Are you telling me that Nintendo couldn't have:

Wario Ware
Zelda
Wii Sports
Excite Truck

ready for at least Japan by September?  

[Artimus]

They've said before Christmas over and over again. That has always been the 'last possible' release period. Now they've narrowed it down to no earlier than October 1 and no later than December 24 (pre-holiday). I think pre-Thanksgiving is safe. It may depend on what 'item of the year' lists they can get it on.

Oh, and in the Perrin Kaplan video interview at IGN (a great watch, btw, it's awesome seeing Jedi tricks at work!) she says no one needs to worry about not having it by holiday time. I imagine the games are part of it (they'd have another 4-5 months) but don't forget hardware production either. They want a worldwide launch and they hope they sell like hotcakes. The 360 was hurt by its shortages quite a bit. They've got to make enough.

[IceCold]

Canadian Thanksgiving (October 9)

[TMW]

I thought I remember Iwata claiming it would be released before the US Thanksgiving...

Can anyone back me up on that?

[IceCold]

Yes he did..

[UncleBob]

TP was supposed to be out by Christmas 2005 too.

Oh, and where are my Game and Watch e-cards?

[Ceric]

...and my DigiAdapter?

[trip1eX]

It'll be out before this Xmas.  

[Dinzy]

The correct statement was that you would be playing Wii in quarter 4.  This means the system will launch before that 1/4 is over.  It may be possible that they are trying to get it out earlier.  I bet that is part of the reason they gave yet to finalize a date.  If the software is ready by September then I would expect a launch then, which is 3rd quarter.

I don't know about the NES, but both the SNES and N64 launched in late 3rd quarter in the US.  

[nitsu niflheim]

They could release in September.  The N64 was released in September.

[stevey]

Someone from nintendo said right before E3 that the wii will be in store by early fall (september~october).

[nitsu niflheim]

That would be early fall.  Fall starts late September.