Wii Sales Take Serious Year-on-Year Fall

I hope Wii will be the first Nintendo home console that will reach 100 mln. It deserves it. This year will come out Mario Party 9, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Dragon Quest X (and maybe finally Rodea the Sky Soldier), so let's hope that this year Wii will sell at least in 6/7 milion units.

Well by now, I would think everyone who wants a Wii already has one.

The words 'hung out to dry' come to mind.

Not surprised really. I think everyone and their moms already bought one.

Can't say this wasn't expected. I mean what does the Wii really have to offer that's attractive to any core gamers or even casuals at this point in time.

You want casual wavy stuff, then go get an Xbox 360 with the much more gimmicky Kinect that let's you wave your hands and shout voice commands to control your movies, as well as play games.

You want a proper hardcore gaming console that isn't totally under-powered at this point in time, then get an Xbox 360 or PS3.

You want decent third party support and a system with a least a few good games still in development for it, then get and Xbox 360 or PS3.

You want a system that is a full entertainment hub with various movie and sports streaming services etc, then get an Xbox 360 or maybe a PS3.

It goes on like that...

Well, yeah. Nobody's gonna buy one now that they know the Wii U is coming out.

@6

lol consumers following gaming news. Showed some my friends the wii-U last month and they thought it was a Fisher price toy. these are mostly non tech people with the closest thing using certain programs for work and skimming over engadget in their google reader feed.

No shock, about 10 games came out for the system in 2011.

Anyone who doesnt already own one isnt really likely to buy one now anyway, unless they are replacing a broken one or something.

@Hyperstar96 Three games =/= big releases throughout the year

i think the releases dried up, although kirby, xenoblade and skyward sword were the big hitters.

i'm hoping that things will look up, but if nintendo are going to focus more on the wii U and 3DS- which is likely going to happen, then perhaps the wii survive up until say the end of this year.

@kirk good point. i think when people look back on the wii, many will say the lack of quality 3rd party support and games is what let the system down. hopefully, the wii U will rectify this issue.

The Wii was still fairly pricey most of the year for what you get and there was literally nothing worth a damn until Kirby and Zelda at the end of the year. This isn't surprising. What's suprising is took this long for lack of software to really effect them. After April, the rest of 2008 was a complete and total wasteland for the Wii, that year to me was still its worst ever, but Wii Fit, and MS and Sony not having the ability to drop prices on their consoles to mass market prices without taking huge losses, helped Nintendo stay way ahead. Now, it's somewhat understandable with a new console on the way that sales will drop significantly but you have to at least try to keep interest in your current machine and unfortunately Nintendo didn't try.

For all intents and purposes the console is pretty much finished. They have one last great game for it in Xenoblade and that'll be it. It's a shame the system isn't going out on high note like it deserves to. Sure it wasn't the greatest home console of all time but I do think it was Nintendo's best since SNES and its best years, 2007, 2009 and 2010 saw it get some of the best games of this generation. Unfortunately lack of third party support and, at least in North America, the total lack of wanting to take any risk, kept the system from being even better. Hopefully the Wii U can change the third party situation.

The wii is not dead yet. MP9 will hopefully have a big impact.

Kind of hard to keep a system relevant when you stop putting out games for it. I understand shifting focus to the 3DS, but having only two good games (in the US, three in the UK) over the entire year is unacceptable.

I know no one wants to say it, but Wii is dead, has been for over a year now, we got one core game last year, one this year...that's it!

I think that the main reason that I lacked big releases is because all of the big releases are going to be on the Wii U, at least I hope so.

This isn't surprising @ all. Nintendo isn't focusing on the Wii, even for only a few months longer. Nintendo has a nasty habit of almost completely, & immediately abandoning a console/handheld, when the newest money-maker comes out. I understand that's business, but Nintendo does this almost instantaneously.

Hardware has to be cheap to shift now.
As for software Nintendo needs to push games that will still look good on the wiiu, and make the point of seamless backwards compatability. An idea on price for the wiiu also, so people know where they stand on being able to afford the new system from the off. Those that choose to wait for a price drop could drift away if the wii isn't supported.
Wiiware sales could drop off a cliff if not transferable to the wiiu.

The Wii will make it to 100 million. How many people were saying that 5 years ago when it launched with that stupid name, SD graphics and waggle? And it will make it this year b/c most likely E3 will be preceded by a price drop to $99 at which time even the diehard Sony and Ms fanbois who haven't yet done so will pick one up. I know that's the price I picked up my Gamecube for back when I was a Sony fanboi myself.

There are billions of people in the world, and over 300 million in the US alone. Video game consoles have nowhere reached their peak sales.

people will cite other reasons as to why in spite of the millions of sales the wii has gained, the system hasn't gone beyond attracting the casual games buyers. another being the lack of power the wii has compared to the PS3, x-box 360, as well as developers and companies not embracing the wii and supporting it with high quality titles.

come the release of the wii U, i'm hoping major developers such as SEGA, EA, SNK, capcom etc had better give the wii U, its owners and nintendo the games it deserves. they cited they didn't put their games out for the wii because it was 'underpowered'. the wii U on the other hand, will be different this time this year when it is released.

from the time the wii U is out, there will be absolutely no excuses- should major 3rd party developers choose not to release and put out games for it.

Umm so what is anyone surprised really everyone and their mother already have a Wii.