Last year saw the release of Microsoft's button-free Kinect, and many analysts predicted the sensor would bring an end to Wii's sales dominance in the West. That's not how Nintendo president Satoru Iwata feels however, as revealed at the recent goldmine of information that is the company's end of financial year results briefing.
When asked whether Kinect had had an impact on sales of the Wii across the world, Iwata responded:
Of course, many users in the U.S. have multiple consoles at their homes. Many Wii users also have Xbox 360 and vice versa, so I am not saying that there is completely no effect in terms of use rate. However, hit titles are not being released continually every month for Kinect software, so we don't believe Wii sales are being seriously affected.
Microsoft recently announced that Kinect has sold 10 million units worldwide since launch, whereas Nintendo sold 15 million Wii consoles over the entire past financial year, but with high profile titles like Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on the way this year those numbers will probably pick up just a little.
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 45
Hit titles are not being released continually for Wii either...
Well the people buying Kinect aren't the same people who'd buy a game like Skyward Sword, so they both might sell next year, but to different audiences. Apples and Oranges.
no the facts is that not all xboxes can run kinect right out of the box...
There's just something I like better about pushing buttons.
I will always prefer the hands on experience to anything else.
@SigourneyBeaver - So very true.
Lack of hit titles and 3rd part support are more of a threat to the Wii than Kinect and Move.
To state the opposite of Back to the Future 2: You don't use your hands? That's a baby's game.
The 3DS is the Wii's biggest threat since that is all Nintendo cares about now.
Iwata is saying what he has to say. Kinect clearly has had an impact as the xbox has been outselling the Wii (and PS3) for a while now. I have both consoles and play my xbox a lot more. Kinect certainly needs more games, but the tech is solid, it is different and in most ways better and mire exciting (technology wise) and my sister, who has pretty much never even played their Wii, recently bought Kinect for herself after playing ours.
I do know people who have sold their Wii to get Kinect. But Kinect's going to get the "casuals don't buy games" criticism Wii has gotten to the extreme. The only game people I know have bought for it is Dance Central. I think you'll see people who just used Wii as a party console (and who already also have an Xbox) selling their Wii, but they probably weren't buying lots of software anyways.
never had a 360 but ive heard they break down a lot only thing theyve got going for them is rareware
Kinect Sports is also excellent, but yes, the number of great titles for Kinect is limited right now. Only time will tell if it manages to provide reasons for people to buy more games. I'm guessing that one area where it will succeed in that regard is download titles. The Xbox is so superior to the Wii when it comes to the download service that it isn't even funny. I think that's one area where Kinect will flourish. There will be disc titles too, but the area most ripe for big Kinect-related games sales, IMHO, is in lower-priced download titles. I presume we'll start to see Indie titles that are really cheap (99 cents and such), but already there's a number of XBLA titles set to come out, even including Fruit Ninja, which I'm guessing will be an off the chart sales success.
Unless they're asked, I wish they would refrain from dissing their competition. It just makes them look arrogant. As for Kinect, I'm still not willing to shell-out over $100 for a peripheral you can only use while standing up.
It's harder to imagine someone looking any more ridiculous playing a video game than someone playing a racing game on Kinect. I really hope you're required to make car sounds in order to operate your imaginary vehicle. VROOOOM!
lol at 15
@SigourneyBeaver - Very true
Iwata needs to accept it ~ the Wii is dying off, it's starting to anyway. Not that it's a bad console, it's not. It's just Nintendo's time on the wave has come to an end of sorts.
10 million Kinect units? Serious? I knew there were not that many people as smart as me but this just again confirms it.
Why did so many people buy that trash?
@20 and 21 agreed
"@16 Seriously, are there any developers taking the Move seriously?"
I would say, are there any developers taking Wii seriously at all? For sure Kinect had an impact, while smart phones + Ipads had and will have even more impact and dont forget to add their own 3DS. Iwata already perceived the danger and Wii replacement might happen even this year.
Ha, what unsurprising comments. 99% of people who are bound to post a disparaging comment about the Move and Kinect have never actually played them, I'm sure. That won't stop them from pretending to know what they're talking about.
And people say the Wii is for casuals. Kinect, however, is a casual gamers delight.
I have tried out both the Move and Kinect at Best Buy. While it has potential, it needs games for either one to be taken seriously. As of now, neither one can say they are better than motion controls. And all the comments about developers not taking the Wii seriously, that ONLY applies to the developers and publishers who flood the Wii with shovelware because they are the main offenders (Destineer Inc., Zoo Games, DSI Games and Conspiracy are publishers that need to be put out of business.)
Kinetic and Move both have a lot of potential but no great games out right now. And this is coming from sum1 who has neither. The same goes for 3ds.. And this is why it's unfortunately failing so far... Here's to better games for all consoles
But you need a really BIG space if you want all four people to play Kinect,just saying...............
Precisely why I don't think I'll ever decide to buy kinect: to many family, party games! Or as iwata said " not enough hit games"
Skyward sword shouldn't help the Wii sales too much. Most of the people wanting it already have the console.
xbox and ps3 are on the rise. they got visuals, they got hardcore, and they appear to the family man of 35 years old who's a core gamer and has a family. wii didn't do that succesfully unfortunately. many core games remained unsold, or others like xenoblade waited for wii to be near death to move to the west. 3ds is not killing wii. however hit titles on DS are killing 3DS. Pokemon on similar time with 3ds launch? big mistake. New pokemon should be on 3DS. Their marketing stretegy is not right, it is confusing, people expect nintendo to pull forth, they play lovey dovey with 3rd parties giving them space to breathe, but 3rd parties don't care and let nintendo down on launch. If they do not wake up and realise that only they can move their systems.. we're in for a long dry spell.. coz 3rd parties don't give a about nintendo. expect a re-run of gamecube with 3DS.
you will always see the fanboys who come onto nintendo sites to rant about nintendo, here are some facts: 1. wii has more 1st party exclusives than any other ninty console. 2: wii has more exclusive 3rd party games than than ANY other current system (barre ds). Now.... how many of you have them all? How many of you have really completed all of the games you have? The real answer is NOBODY! unless you have a small few games, which in that case there are loads of titles for you. kinect is a fad, after 6 months how many titles have come out? 2 or 3, another kinectamals, a brain train rip, and ....oh wait....dancing! Yet wii is kiddy! PS Move, fail ...what has come of it ....shooters..lag, you can see this from Dead space 2 and Cod dropped move functions, little big planet dropped move functions, not good sony pr. yet all nintendo have done is support, they have continuously stated they are holding off on wii games (only in 2011) for a little while (until May) so they can let 3ds and pokemon "grow" they were wrong right, pokemon ONLY sold over 12 million, and 3ds ONLY WAS NINTENDOS BEST HANDHELD LAUNCH EVER! Yes fanboys, your right ......Begrudge!
I think you fail to see that 3DS has actually dropped a lot in sales, last week it dropped from #1 in the world to #4 under DS! This is why pokemon at the same time as 3DS launch is BAD. Even nintendo admitted that they failed to meet their goals. This is bad marketing too. It seems that they got the message with "Ocarina" and they are playing it right now. Already pre-orders are going nuts after announcements of shortages. Nobody says that 3DS launch was a failure, but it would be better for nintendo if there were shortages. It is also a fact that already games started feeling dry, and they will continue to do so even after ocarina. Thank god there are a couple of solid games out there. but there is nothing like Animal Crossing. Although a great device 3DS won't have a solid game base to actually lure mainstream buyers in at least until next year February-March. However as story proves even crawling zombies like ps3 and especially psp can live and be strong, even after many failed attempts to launch them. Last but not least unless you are a developer, don't talk about how successful move and kinect are, and how many games are in development for them. Microsoft has based a huge chunk of it's growth on a rejuvenated game market based on kinect. 360 for the first time in history is threatening PS2 records in US. Kinect is smart, easier for kids and fun. A little realism won't hurt but you can bang your tune as much as you like. It's a free world. Osama is dead.
I'm a huge Wii fan but I'm really starting to want a a PS3 or 360. The Wii isn't dead but it is on life support.
@Splat i went down that road and got the ps3 and believe me they aren't as great as they appear to be. i have both ps3 and wii and i've been playing a lot more wii titles recently then playing on the ps3. and that's a lot to say since pretty much all i play are firstperson shooters.
my favourite combo is DS3DS + PC. But now with all these pandora's, xenoblades and last stories i definitely feel like re-instating my wii
PS3 is all about uncharted, gears of war, little big planet and killzone. there are many more games but not ones you can't find anywhere else, and FPS imo is always better on PC with a huge difference.
@36 Gears of War is on xbox
On topic though, I saw a family buying a kinect the other week at the store I work at, I was going to tell them about the rumored wii price drop, I wish I would have just to see what they would have said.....
I have a PS3 and a Wii, and they never fight about who's better because I love them both.
I have played a Kinect at length — I have friends who are die-hard 360 users but who bought one to fill the party-game niche — and I was mostly struck by 2 things: (1) the lack of charm in the 1st party "Kinect X" games, and (2) some surprising weaknesses in detection, such as subtle arm rotation for table tennis (crucial, and fully implemented in WSR) and for bowling.
@ZachKaplan - They won't till you leave the house.
I wouldn't expect it to, honestly. I don't think the two are really competing.
yeah just wait until Child of Eden comes >_>
the really has no big titles coming as well to be honest :/
I played the kinect for a while and it did have some surprising gliches, but not any worse than the Wii. Overall it's not something I'd go and sell my Wii over. It seemed to have potential but the few microsoft games for it were cheesy and often buggy. The move looks silly to me; like the wii rmote, motion sensing is only for key moments and pointing on more 'hardcore games' so it's a little late to try to grab big Wii market. I only pine for a 360 because I'd love some HD graphics; sounds like I only need to wait til next year for that in my Nintendo!
I've played the Kinect at length as well and it seems far more of a throw-away style platform that many claim the wii is. I agree with what wariowoods said. Far more laggy than the wii's proper titles, there's the space issue (a prblm in British households, and the lack of incentive - (even for younger games - gets old, fast) I was also struck at the very poor percentage of quality titles on teh system. Microsoft are so far treating it disrespectfully, like a side-salad to its main child - the standard xbox. I know its early days yet, but c'mon.... I hope it does well for family, inclusive gaming sake however.
The Wii, for me is far more multi-purposeful than the kinect at the moment. Even though motion based, they're in different solar systems really.
@JY
The Wii has Kirby, Pikmin, Zelda, and a bunch of RPGs on the way. While I'll agree that big games aren't being release at the rate Miyamoto's talking about, saying no big titles are on the way is, well, wrong.
Buttons are way better than a human body, plus the Kinect sucks
Ok, people need to get thier facts straight! MS has not sold 10 million Kinects... They shipped 10 million Kinects to stores. Which means they've sold about 500,000.
@jerryo: Where do you get this idea that the 3DS will not have a solid library of "core" titles till feburary of next year? Most of the games anounced don't have a release date, especially the big Nintendo titles. Maybe wait till E3 is over to make those comments huh?
chill out, and people can comment if they want
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