Wii-PS3 sales gap slimming in Japan
Wii sales in Japan have typically crushed PS3 numbers exponentially. In June of this year, Nintendo sold 6 times as many Wiis as Sony did PS3s. That’s dandy – part of the reason why Nintendo is now the #3 company in terms of market value in Japan.
But there’s a tectonic shift occurring under all this. Every month since June, the difference of units sold between the two machines has been dwindling, just like our blog hits the past two weeks. Either the PS3 price slashing and software hits have proliferated its sales or Wiis are reaching saturation levels over there (actually, it’s both), but that discrepancy has shrunken down to a 2-to-1 lead in Wii’s favor during October. That’s still a beating, but considering the price circumstances and the sales trends since June, things are undoubtedly starting to change. With the holidays coming up, this is the perfect time to watch the NPD numbers intently to see if Sony finally gains a foothold in North America-land and Nintendo stumbles.
With most of Sony’s big guns dropping this month, and Wii’s one big established November title being all alone, will Wii Fit in December be able to keep Nintendo at the top of the pops?
Now if you’ll excuse me, i’m gonna go slash Intendo’s prices and release a 40gb anti-fansite bundle to see if we get a good turnover on the comments.
Yeah, that would be bad news for Nintendo if they depended on Wii sales to make their profits!
However, it is the DS that really pushes profits for Nintendo, with Wii only backing it up…
Fuck profits, this is about the current leader being dethroned. It spells bad news for Nintendo overall if their home console loses its place. DS profits can soar and soar, but Nintendo needs Wii for them to stay relevant. Besides, although Wii sales are backup revenue right now, those are the dollars Nintendo values the most.
Then again, that might not be true at all. I don’t work for them anymore.
If the overall numbers of units sold were even within a football field of each other, I’d be concerned for the Wii. While it’s nice to see the playing field level, the Wii has an astronomical lead.
While true, devs and pubs don’t look at it that way. They don’t consider 1 Wii equal to 1 PS3 or 1 360. Cause even with that huge lead, the 3rd party software sells the worst on Nintendo’s platform. And Wii’s already been stigmatized as a not-serious system because of that, new-gen/next-gen comparisons, and other obvious things. As soon as any other system starts to make headway, it’s time to worry. Especially when it’s happening while Wii hardware sales are on the decline. And when it’s in Japan.
“the 3rd party software sells the worst on Nintendo’s platform”
Yeah, but that’s a self-fulfilled stigma! The reason 3rd party software is selling the worst on Wii is because 3rd parties have been making really bad and unfinished games on it, with few exceptions.
True, but it’s there regardless. Nintendo has the ability to help change it, and until they do, REAL 3rd party efforts like Knights of Ratatoskar and No More Heroes will have to consider PS2 ports to break even.
Will see how wii enters the market.