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Iwata: Japanese Wii Situation "Cannot Be Defined As Healthy"

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

November 3, 2009

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Satoru Iwata has admitted that Nintendo is facing a tough challenge to retain its market leading home console position in Japan this year due to increased competition from Sony’s PS3.

"As you probably know, the current situation of Wii cannot be defined as healthy," the Nintendo president said during a recent financial results briefing, adding that the console’s recent price cut “seems to have the least impact here than other parts of the world".

Having cited a lack of strong software when attempting to explain “stalled” Wii sales last week, Iwata labelled the company’s bid to recover Wii momentum Nintendo’s “urgent mission”, reports CVG.

While Nintendo’s console held a 60 per cent hardware market share through last year, the system is “neck and neck” with PS3 in Japan in 2009.

"A notable dip can be seen in sales of Wii this year, which is approximately half the size of last year," Iwata is reported to have said. "On the other hand, Sony's PlayStation 3 showed a good transition and they increased unit sales by around 50 per cent.

"The sheer contrast of the two platforms has often been reported lately. Although we held more than a 60 per cent hardware market share through last year, Wii has 42 per cent and PS3 40 per cent share thus far this year so both machines are neck and neck in Japan."

Last week Nintendo reduced its annual Wii sales forecast from 26 million units to 20 million for the business year ending in March 2010. It also lowered its profit forecast  from 300 billion yen to 230 billion yen ($2.54b/£1.54b).

Iwata’s full financial results briefing can be viewed here.

gojira's picture
On November 5th gojira said:

> Iwata’s full financial results briefing can be viewed here.

This slide mentions that on Nov 21 thay are offering a NDSi LL, which is a DSi but with a larger screen, the first portabke console for several players.

quietIdentity's picture
On November 3rd quietIdentity said:

If it's neck and neck with the PS3, which is selling well, I'd say that they're still healthy they're just not raking in the dough as they were last year. Seriously, the Wii is massively overpriced, I know overseas the Wii just had a price cut but it still sells at $500 here (with Wii sports and a remote) and the PS3 goes for between $550 and $600 and that's usually bundled with CoD4 or LBP by the retailer, and the 360 Elite is about the same and that usually bundles with Gears 2 or Halo Wars. I have nothing against the Wii, but I only want one for a couple of Sega games, Suda's No More Heroes, Metroid 3 and Super Mario Galaxy, there's also a handful of WiiWare games that look great, however at $500 for a console that doesn't even come with an entire controller it's kinda insulting, I think I'd be a little embarrassed walking into a store buying something that suckers people in with gimmicky software and piece of shit plastic peripherals.

It's good that Iwata is talking about this stuff though, Nintendos strategy has worked amazingly well, they judged the market well but now they need that good old cash cow... Gamers that actually buy games to keep sales rolling in. Or maybe they just need a few more variations on Wii Sports. Or maybe just a bigger price drop, it's $150 more than the 360 Arcade, enough said really.

rahvii's picture
On November 4th rahvii said:

Where is "here"? US?