LTD Software Shipments for Nintendo Platforms

[Joelcool7]

TheSource said:

I was doing some research...and I noticed that according to http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/historical_data/index.html (under consolidated sales transition by year) that lifetime software shipments are available by platform.

 

Here are lifetime totals for software shipped through Dec 31 2007.

 

NES software shipments ~500 million (61.91 million NESs shipped in total)

SNES software shipments ~379 million (49.1 million SNESs shipped in total)

N64 software shipments ~225 million (32.93 million N64s shipped in total)

GC software shipments ~208 million (21.72 million GCs shipped by this point)

Wii software shipments ~113 million (20.13 million Wiis shipped by this point)

 

Lifetime attach rates by shipments:

NES - 8.1 games/console

SNES - 7.7 games/console

N64 - 6.8 games/console

GC - 9.6 games/console (to date)

Wii - 5.6 games/console (to date)

 

Can't really see Nintendo shipping under 60 million Wiis lifetime in any circumstance, and I don't see attach rates dropping...people buy more games with time. So I think we can say 335 million units of software is the lowest amount of software that Wii will sell realistically.

Imagine if the console hit PS2 numbers (125 million) with an attach rate like the NES (8 games). That would be 1 billion games sold. Most at $50/pop, along w/ profitable hardware....could $100 billion in revenue from Wii alone (games, consoles, liscencing, accessories) be possible over its lifetime??

Some of this stuff is mind boggling.

Edit:

Here are the shipped software numbers through 3/31/08, the above data is through 12/31/07

Wii ~ 148.4 million/24.45 million Wiis

GC ~ 208.4 million/21.74 million GCs

DS ~ 369.6 million/70.6 million DSs

GBA ~ 376.6 million/81.06 million

Wii Software: Wii Hardware = 6.07:1 (10% increase)

GC Software: GC Hardware = 9.59:1 (unchanged)

DS Software: DS Hardware = 5.24:1 (2% increase)

GBA Software: GBA Hardware = 4.65:1 (unchanged)

 

 

jheco05 said:
Impressive Gamecube attach rate. That console has a solid fan hardcore Nintendo gamers base while Wii has a mixed casual, hardcore and Nintendo fans. I hope Wii reaches NES milestone in software sales.

 

Yes the GameCube was very profitable for Nintendo. Nintendo's first party software was the main software purchased by hardcore gamers. I remember hearing in 2006 as Nintendo announced Wii that Nintendo was still the most profitable of the three console manufacturers making more on software sales then any of the other competitors. Making up for the lack of GameCube hardware sales.

The Wii doesn't appear to have that strong dedicated user base that the GameCube had. Sure their are hardcore gamers who own Wii's but a massive number of Wii's are owned by casual gamers who don't go out and buy as much software. That being said Nintendo's software is still dominant on the Wii and its highly lucrative.

Theirs no doubt that production values have gone down on the Wii compared to GCN. A big budget GCN game cost about 4 mill to make. While I'm pretty sure titles like Wiiplay,WiiSportsResort, WiiFit, WiiMusic and WiiFitPlus only cost a couple hundred thousand to develope. With such high sales and such low production values Nintendo is turning a massive profit on cheaply developed software.

With such good sales for such cheap software, its a miracle Nintendo is giving us hardcore anything at all. They don't really have to they make enough with just the casual audience. Luckily Nintendo isn't a jerk and continues to produce while in fewer numbers then in the past, solid first party experiances!

Here's hoping Nintendo doesn't ditch us hardcore any time soon!