Hmm it would seem this golden goose talk is mostly brown bullshit.

The worst thing for Nintendo in all of this is how they are always seemingly placed between a rock and a hard place.

The rock being third party complaints about how Nintendo software sales are unfair and the hard place being the huge cock of the fans waiting to shaft them for not making a move.

Seems like victory this time around is bittersweet, whereas goose has a savoury taste.

So, um, according to IGN it doesn't really figure that Nintendo sold more Wiis in 12 months than Microsoft sold Xbox 360s in three years? And that they plan to do the same next year? And probably the year after that too.

Some quick thoughts.

The PS3 has had an ultra-strong lineup this year while the Wii has had the same lineup. And the PS3 only outsells the Wii marginally most weeks of this streak.

Nintendo most grievous error was having too long between major releases. Why it did this, I do not know, but there was a similar point in the life cycle of the DS which was by design to permit third party developers a time to shine. The difference was that the market was split roughly 50-50 rather than 67-33 (like the handheld market), so third-party support did not increase as much as some might have expected.

People point to last year's E3. But Nintendo played to the general press which viewed the presentation differently than the gaming press. It should be noted that the two first party games there are considered failures by some, even though both Animal Crossing (3.00M) and Wii Music (2.55M) have outsold all but eight PS3 titles and 13 Xbox 360 titles (including those bundled). These "failed" games from E3 have more sales than Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) or Little Big Planet (PS3)

So far, the game that has had the most trouble selling from E3 is GTA:CW for the DS (only 440k so far). Interestingly, it was the only M-rated game touted by Nintendo during the presentation, which makes you wonder if those "mature" offerings are always the best idea for Nintendo hardware. (Note that I put "mature" in quotes because M-rated to me does not automatically mean mature but rather it means graphic content which can be very immature).

As for the global recession, while the US is looking for (hoping for) a quick recovery, there are those here and most in Europe who are pointing to 2010 or 2011 before real improvement is seen. Unemployment in the US is over 8% and over 10% in EU.

Finally, remember that Nintendo makes profits while Sony and Microsoft have had their share of red ink. And Nintendo has many weeks outsold Sony and Microsoft combined. So if the industry leader that sells half the units and makes money is in trouble, what does it say about the other members of the industry.

Mike from Morgantown

EDITTED to point out that I was speaking of the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead.

Those games haven't outsold Left 4 Dead! Please, it's a Valve game FFS, and we have no PC sales data. Those titles have outsold the x360 version of left 4 dead, not left 4 dead altogether.

I think it is very clear that he is talking about X360 and PS3 sales, as PC was never mentioned.

he edited his post, so it's fine now. it was confusing before.

In spite of the economy being shot to hell, console and game sales are up by about 13% here in Norway for 2009 compared to 2008!
The same could be the case in other countries but as a whole the markets are slowing down quite a bit (as the figures show).

The article is flawed and the gaming media is all to eager to ring the death bells for Nintendo but it does have a point.

Nintendo allows games to be in development until they feel they have them just right but often times that leaves an uneven release schdule. If they want to continue to have that flexiblity they really need to invest some of those billions in buying up or creating studios so they have a continuous stream of content. These large periods without major software are deadly.
Just look at Japan.

It annoys me even more that NoA could have released FF4 and D:DoC to fill some of the gaps but didn't bother.

If Nintendo wants to keep the Wii selling to the masses it HAS to maintain it's mind share in the masses and Nintendo has not be doing anything to do that for far too long. E3 had better be huge in the mainstream press (the gaming press won't matter) or Wii will be forgotten about and sales will drop.

Terrible analysis and a lot misinformation all around in that article.


On point #1: The Wii has an installed base of 8 million units in Japan. The PS3 has an installed base of 3 million units. The miniscule victories the PS3 has had over the past nine weeks are not putting any kind of a dent in that 5 million unit lead. The PS3 has had a slew of system moving software while the Wii has had none.

On point #2: The Wii is up YTD in 2009 over 2008 and it continuously outsells both the PS3 and 360 COMBINED. The XBox360 is not gaining any ground whatsoever. The 360 was up YoY in March as it had shortages in March '08 where the Wii had the launch of a system selling game (SSBB). That was not so in 2009. And I don't understand the assumption that Nintendo just has to keep the $250 price point forever. As long as the Wii outsells the HD consoles combined, it is INCREASING it's market share.

On Point #3: Games being good or not are subjective. So no point debating this issue.

On Point #4: Yeah, yeah, the tired 3rd party games don't sell argument. I guess that's why EA decided to concentrate more of it's resources to Wii and Activision did it's biggest business on the Wii. The author's selective cherry-picking is ridiculous. Has Doug Creutz ever even developed a Wii game? Why does what he's saying suddenly matter as opposed to what the developers and publishers who've actually developed on Wii are saying? Also, attach rates don't under perform. The author should re-read the article with Peter Moore to get a clearer understanding. They're games sell really well, they just want to reach even more consumers.

On Point #5: The DSi a distraction? Really? Moving on...

On Point #6: This is just based on rumor and speculation. Why it's even on this list is beyond me.

Might want to update your stats.

for #2, as of this week the Wii is now down 50k YoY in 2009 compared to 2008 ( provided Japan is around 20k as MC says).