At least he admitted it
Not like it matters, considering the enormous pile of cash the big N has reeled in since the launch of the Wii, but Iwata has stated that Wii software isn’t so hot these days, and sales are down. Refreshing honesty!
Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata has admitted that sales of the Wii console have stalled, in part due to a lack of must-have software.
The company released data yesterday that showed sales of the home console were down over 40 per cent in the six months to the end of September 2009, with 5.75 million Wii’s sold worldwide, compared to 10 million the previous year.
“Wii has stalled,” Iwata told a press conference, reports Andriasang. “We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool. We were unable to show a new game to become ‘the next thing.’ In the game market, once you‚Äôve lost the momentum, it takes time to recover,” he offered.
“With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time,” he said. “We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year.
However, Iwata was upbeat about forecasts for the full-year, with expectations the company can sell 20 million consoles by the end of March 2010.
“In order to reach it [the 20 million units target], we will have to move quite a large quantity, but it’s a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning.”
Preening for the press? They’ll be fine, but the Wii is reaching critical mass and should be on its way out, for sure. I’d be surprised if they reach that 20 mil mark. They already lowered it from 26 mil.
One unfortunate thing is the fact that it once again comes down to third party support. N64, GC was the same story – for the most part, the only people making money on Wii and DS is Nintendo. It’s a shame that cycle still hasn’t been broken, not even close.
This isn’t exactly a sad story per se – overall the Wii is obviously an ENORMOUS commercial success; Nintendo is still rolling in dough. However its still a story of unfulfilled potential for quality software and the user experience. Hopefully their next step will involve taking their pile of cash and cooking up something inspiring. I’d say this next round they won’t be taking any lead on input innovation… Microsoft seems to be in front there. The question is – where’s the innovation on output?
About Bryan
game designer, facial haired, racially ambiguous.
02 November 2009 by Bryan
Categories: commentary |
Tags: business, Iwata, Nintendo, sales, wii |
Leave a comment
At least he admitted it
Not like it matters, considering the enormous pile of cash the big N has reeled in since the launch of the Wii, but Iwata has stated that Wii software isn’t so hot these days, and sales are down. Refreshing honesty!
Preening for the press? They’ll be fine, but the Wii is reaching critical mass and should be on its way out, for sure. I’d be surprised if they reach that 20 mil mark. They already lowered it from 26 mil.
One unfortunate thing is the fact that it once again comes down to third party support. N64, GC was the same story – for the most part, the only people making money on Wii and DS is Nintendo. It’s a shame that cycle still hasn’t been broken, not even close.
This isn’t exactly a sad story per se – overall the Wii is obviously an ENORMOUS commercial success; Nintendo is still rolling in dough. However its still a story of unfulfilled potential for quality software and the user experience. Hopefully their next step will involve taking their pile of cash and cooking up something inspiring. I’d say this next round they won’t be taking any lead on input innovation… Microsoft seems to be in front there. The question is – where’s the innovation on output?
About Bryan
game designer, facial haired, racially ambiguous.
02 November 2009 by Bryan
Categories: commentary | Tags: business, Iwata, Nintendo, sales, wii | Leave a comment