i showed my Wii to my dad, and after he got back, he advertised the Wii to everybody. he alone has made ~30 people buy Wiis. Now, i'm gonna tell you, it's actually not a good deal for Nintendo.
ALL their softwares are pirated. let me tell you how a Wii is purchased in china.
you put in an order at a store. you go pick it up the next day. for 300 RNB (~$40) extra, you can install a modchip that plays ALL the pirated games on the market. which, of course, is an ESSENTIAL option. all in all, you can buy a modded Wii for about $2200 RNB (~$290).
the pirated games sell for 5-10RNB (about $1US). EACH and EVERY game is pirated, from the Japanese games to US games. it takes less than a week for a game showing up on the mass market before it gets pirated, and that's if you're lucky--often times you see pirated copies BEFORE the game is officially released. my relatives typically buy 20-50 games. that's... 500RNB (~$60) max?
Nintendo getting big profits in China? that's a dream. a dream that won't be fulfilled for at least another 10 years. let me give you a comparison.
I spent the first 13 years of my life in Macau (now the world's largest gambling center). i grew up playing pirated games. Macau now has a GDP per capita comparable to those of Western European nations (though to be fair, per capita income is nowhere close). and guess what, last time i went back, you can STILL buy pirated games.
Nintendo is fortunate that they actually make a profit on Wii hardware. 1 mln units in china is ~$50mln in profits for nintendo, but they'd much rather shift that mln units to Japan or USA or Europe, where these 1 mln owners would actually buy $50 games which is where they REALLY make profits.
As much as I'd like Nintendo to expand into China, it's just not going to be worth it. They _could_ expand their manufacturing base so much that they make profits only off hardware in China, but I'd rather them focus their energies elsewhere.
the Wii is an epidemic.
