Kinect is sucessful. What should Nintendo do?

[Joelcool7]

Honestly Kinect is selling way better then I expected. 8-million in two months is amazing however I notice that 360 hardware sales have not gotten as big of a boost as I would have expected. The people buying Kinect are 360 owners and not so much the general public.

I didn't see 360 gaining a million more in hardware sales then Nintendo's Wii, Sure 360 outsold Wii this holiday season to my knowledge but the Kinect did not drive sales to extremely high levels. In stores I see stacks of Kinect bundles still unsold however the device itself is far less common.

Another factor I have noticed is stock, at least in British Columbia Canada their are Kinects in almost every store. Their is no drastic shortage. I have heard in several states Kinects are also common sight on store shelves. If they go out of stock the stock is replenished in days. This is a big different then typical hardware releases, Nintendo and Sony can never actually keep up with demand and thus lead to smaller numbers near the beginning. Where as Microsoft is churning these things out as fast as possible and thus leading to much more units coming way faster and thus selling way faster.

What should Nintendo do? Absolutely nothing, the Wii is still selling stronger then the PS2 did at this point in its life. The Wii is also still selling competitively with 360 and is not being blown out of the water. Seeing as most of the Kinect sales are to existing 360 owners and hardware isn't seeing a huge drastic boost I don't see it being maintained. In a few months the Kinect will reach market saturation all the 360 owners who want it will have it and their won't be a drastic number of new consumers to kill off the Wii.

Keep the balance board in mind it shipped over 22-million units not including the ones shipped later with WiiFitPlus. Nobody was screaming "What is Microsoft going to do" the only difference is Nintendo didn't support the balance board with much software where as Microsoft will.

I see Kinect shipping about 20-million units life time sales this gen. The device will be incorporated into the NexBox and become standard to the X-Box line. But I don't see it obliterating Nintendo's lead in the market, it may boost hardware sales by about 5-mill lifetime but I don't think it will boost enough to cause Nintendo much to worry about.

In the end Nintendo can launch with a clean slate next gen and no I don't think they will have to react to Kinect because by the time next Gen rolls around 2012/13 the novelty will have worn off and Nintendo's innovation will still sell. So Nintendo will just need to wait it out and wait for its eventual decline.