It's approaching the season of giving but, for the most part, that giving requires some buying at some point and the President at Nintendo of America is confident that consumers will be buying a lot of Nintendo hardware this Christmas as the Holiday season is more important to the company than its rivals. Apparently.
Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Annual Digital Entertainment Conference on Thursday, Reggie Fils-Aime expects a strong November and December sales performance as the familiarity and recognition of Nintendo's brand and key franchises gives the company an edge over its rivals when it comes to gift-giving. In 2009, nearly half of hardware sales were made in those two months so it's clear Nintendo is hoping history repeats itself. In terms of games:
The disparity on the software side is even greater... For Nintendo platforms, 44 percent of all game sales came during November and December. For the rest of the industry, that number was only 33 percent.
Holiday releases like Donkey Kong Country Returns, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, and Disney Epic Mickey will hopefully fulfil expectations, as with the various colours of limited edition bundles.
Fils-Aime also quoted sales figures from NPD, stating that Nintendo has currently sold 43.1 million DS units and 30.4 million Wii consoles in the U.S. market alone. Microsoft has shifted 21.9 million Xbox 360s, whereas Sony has moved sold 17.7 million and 13.5 million units of the PSP and Playstation 3 respectively. The PS3 has only sold a relative handful more than the Wii Balance Board which itself has shifted 12 million units.
With the upcoming launch of the 3DS, gamers wishing to see a Wii successor might be silenced for a while, but a new Nintendo home console can't be too far off. Can it? Speaking to Kotaku, Fils-Aime offers the following as a rough plan:
As we sit here today we're saying the Wii has many, many more units to sell... After we've reached an installed base of 45 million here in the U.S., we can have a conversation about the next generation.
You heard the man. Get spending.
[source gamasutra.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 38
Hopefully it'll be yet another strong holiday for Nintendo...
I see why the Wii has sold the most. It's the most family friendly and the cheapest on the market. People don't want to spend 599 US$ (lol, btw) on a system.
I don't want a good holiday for Nintendo, that'll just give them the excuse to delay their new console even more!
Same here Hardy! @Yoshi: What system are you talking about that is currently 600 dollars?
I agree with Hardy. Bring on the Super Wii!
super wii 64 now your playing with power
jaw-dropping power
@y2josh Oh come on, you know the meme. Stand up and scream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOHqG1nc_tw&feature=related
And with the release of the 3DS....
But that's next year.
@Jumbif: That took my breath away. Awesome song.
@#3 yeah thats a good point i really want a new console by nintendo
@jumbif
Greatest. Song. On the Internet.
But unfortunately now the Xbox is as low as $200...
If Reggie wants more hardware sales before a new console, then everybody here, go buy a second Wii.
why do we need a new wii? just stop making wii's and make more awesome games for it. you'll still have good sales. I mean I don't care if we get a new wii, as long as you can still play GCN and Wii games on it via backwards compatible. also add DreamCast and Saturn games on the wii2, just make it a few years from now, have some time to play the games.
I'm not sure how long Nintendo can keep bringing out new Wii colours, they should have a strong Christmas. They have two big games that are coming out and they could help sell more Wii's, as for DS it has an excellent libray of games out but I can't see any big title games coming for it this side of Christmas. Whatever Nintendo do for the next console I can't see it happening yet for another year or two, Nintendo know that they have to deliver a console that is just as successful as the exsiting Wii and one slip up could hamper their future. I can't see that happening Nintendo are massive and they will pull all their resources together in a bid to keep one foot ahead of the opposition. Wii-2 or whatever it will be called will be amazing but I'm not sure if the 3D root is the best wat forward yet. 3D televisions are too expensive at the moment and I think Nintendo deep down know this...
@ReddLionz: The $200 dollar 360 is also pretty useless though, with only 4GB of flash memory.
I think it well be the best year every for the wii...so far maybe even better.
@hylianhalcyon
Yeah, pretty much.
Although I don't think the Wii is going to do as good this year, because Kinect and Move are putting up a decent fight.
At the same time though, I think this is the last holiday season the three are going to see really strong hardware sales. Microsoft and Sony might even see a hit in expectations for either their console or their add-ons (Move and Kinect) since consumers might be intimidated from buying both in a similar time frame. I myself already have all the systems and I have a feeling that most gamers by now have most if not all the systems they plan on getting for this console generation. Time will tell, of course.
Good sales or bad sales the new hardware will come anyway. Nintendo's not going to pull a Microsoft and rush their new system in
Pfft, rush the new system? It's probably already done and they're just fiddling around and building a first party launch line up.
I wouldn't be surprised if the 3DS was finished over a year ago, including exterior design.
Honestly I don't care when the the Wii 2 is release, we have the 3DS coming in a few months.
lol bad Santa pic ftw...
RIP John Ritter.
Yes, let's celebrate the birth of Jesus by spending lots of money.
@Hardy: Whether or not the system itself is done does not determine the release date alone. There needs to be a solid line-up of games in order to have a successful launch. Nintendo is also wanting to release it after a major announcement such as E3 and to prevent competition with the 3DS.
I belive that Nintendo will do awesome cause they been out longer the Kinect and the PSMove. And the DSlite, the DSi and the DSIXL are the greatest handheld systems on the market. also the games that are out for the Wii like Call Of Duty Black Ops and Donkey Kong Country Returns and many more are amazing. Black Ops is 10 bucks cheaper then the 360 and PS3 versions and it has almost all the fetures the other versions have (it just dosn't have split screen muti-player) but that's it so Nintendo GIVE THEM HELL
@Machu Spend it on meeee
Reggie's such a moron. It's not like it's up to him to decide when new hardware is released, and it DEFINITELY won't be decided based on AMERICAN hardware sales either way. If any one country's sales are going to solely cause a new console launch, it'll be Japan. Duh.
And of course, given sales to date and the decrease in same in America, it would take an absurd amount of time to push out another 15 million systems before launching new hardware. It's just an all-around moronic thing to say. Considering the source, this is far from surprising.
ಠ_ಠ
@Stuff: I dunno about 15 million but people said last year they wouldn't sell many Wiis during the holiday...and they did
I think that was in comparison to the previous year. Which it didn't, but it was still a large number, just no where near as good as the year before. The same will most likely be said about this year. Still good numbers, but still a decline.
And I also don't really listen to Reggie anymore. I don't consider him a buddy because he says he's a "gamer", I don't believe a word he says because A, he has no say when it comes to stuff being done in Nintendo of Japan, and B, He's a marketer first and foremost so half the stuff he says is BS just to sound awesome (This is coming from a marketing grad).
I have doubts the Wii will sell 15 million more units, unless they are going to drop the price to like 129 or something.
Wanna know why people buy junk games? Because you put your seal on those crappy Ubisoft pet simulators, Nintendo!
I doubt that has anything to do with it Dragoon
The Wii does everything Nintendo needs it to do.
They're bringing out all their best stuff to a larger audience than ever before.
Allowing transfer of content to another system would better convince me to buy a Wii, rather than just pay, & have it repaired, which is cheaper.
My thoughts on the 3DS is, if it had an XL version of it, I would buy it. I, myself, have a Nintendo DSi XL. I now am hooked on the bigger platforms for handheld gaming.
I'm-a getting a Red Wii (maybe)!
How did I miss this?
Anyway, I'm glad that I won't get up in the morning thinking "maybe we will have info on the next Nintendo console today!" then be gravely disappointed when I check my computer.
Actually pretty glad that Nintendo is refraining from releasing their new console.
This is promised to be a longer generation then others with a revolutionary console (Nintendo Wii) and two giants (PS3 and X360) competing with each other. Given that many people are not in good economic shapes, it's a good idea to refrain from that. Yes they're releasing the Nintendo 3DS a few months from now, but good handhelds can sell well at anytime as long as you play the right cards. With consoles, they need to be a lot more precise with releasing it and release it at the right time. See the third handheld generation, it lasted six and a half years. I think the Wii will last at least eight years.
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