The complaints we are hearing about Nintendo’s under supply and Sony’s oversupply (i.e., constrained supply in Sony-speak) cause me to wonder if maybe video game companies would be better to go back to the old staggered regional release dates. I know there are good reasons for a world launch, it’s the internet age, companies don’t want any consumers to feel left out, they don’t want poor sales in one region to adversely affect consumer interest in another region, they risk angering regional 3rd parties whose region is last, and so forth.
I’m beginning to think though that the benefits of launching in one region 4-6 months ahead of the second and then 2 or so months before the third would have outweighed the costs for all three companies. Here are my reasons:
Microsoft- Launching in America first would have given them an opportunity to fix their shoddy manufacturing before it caused issues in Japan and Europe. Japan just cares about quality and Europe is Sonyland, poor quality is all many Euros need to ignore the 360. Microsoft could have fully supplied demand in the US (as I recall it was sold out until Feb 06, I may be wrong), creating a boomlet that 3rd party companies could use to generate great first year sales. MS could use that to gain support from Japanese and Euro 3rd party devs. MS would have also had more time to get Japan/Europe specific games ready for launch instead of trying to get Japanese to pay $500 to play CoD2.
Sony- Launching in Japan only last November with the US in say September and Europe in November would have allowed Sony to fully satisfy initial demand instead of only tossing 80k units to the Japanese. Sony would also have learned from the sharp sales drop off that followed launch that the system was too expensive. A year would have given them time to get the price down to $450-500 by eliminating features and better design so they didn’t see the same effect in NA and EU. They would have also had more time to get more games than Resistance and Motorstorm out. The third party companies would likely be treading somewhat more gingerly towards the Wii at the moment since poor sales in the US would not have already happened. Sony could write off low sales in Japan as mistakes that are being corrected. They would have also discovered the 20GB model was a waste of money before it made around a million of them.
Nintendo- I don’t see any way they could have launched in the US this year since I don’t think they would have made their home market wait, especially not if the PS3 launched in Japan first. Had Nintendo done that Japan would easily have the 3-4 million Wiis they could demand by now. Nintendo would have realized that producing 1 million Wiis a month was not going to be sufficient for the world market. They would be increasing supply right now, just as they are, but it would be before the system launched in the US. I don’t think a June US launch would have been crazy, it would be just as summer begins and the Wii is cheap enough to be a non-Christmas purchase for many. Nintendo would have had Pokemon at launch, and the big guns would be ready for the Wii’s first holiday season. Then Nintendo could have supplied America’s initial 4-5 million demand and been stockpiling for a healthy September Europe launch and holiday sales. They would have learned early that they weren’t producing enough Wiimotes and Nunchuks nor producing them at the best ratio. Nintendo could have used the buzz and interest the Wii created in Japan along with its great sales there to lean on 3rd party devs to have good Wii games ready for its launch in NA/EU (I know that’s contrary to Sony using Japan sales to counter 3rd party drift to the Wii but I’m looking at it from each companies perspective, which are different).
Basically, each company would do as they did before, use their first region to test market their systems, find its flaws, get production going at a more accurate rate, get games ready, and then launch prepared in the next 2 markets. I know there are a lot of complaints about Nintendo not making enough systems but if I’m not mistaken they’ve sold more systems in the first 4 months globally than any other in history (I don’t mean JP first 4 months + NA first 4 months + EU first 4 months). I could be mistaken since the lack of US historical charts on VGChartz makes it difficult to say at the moment. On the other hand Sony wouldn’t have walked so blindly into the sales drop off like they did had they had more time to digest the lessons of Japan only. Granted this means we would still be waiting for the Wii and PS3 in the US and Europe.
Anyways, anything I may be missing, overstating, understating here?
