Wii FAILED in sales during Thanksgiving weekend

[binary solo]

Avinash_Tyagi said:

binary solo said:

And don't be so quick to say that Wii is still outselling PS2. Do you know what PS2 achieved in the Americas on it's 3rd BF week? 643K. And world wide on that BF week? 1.2 million. And do you know how many million selling weeks PS2 had in it's 3rd holiday sales season? 5. With the peak sales week achieving 1.79 million. That looks a heck of a lot like Wii's 2008 (2nd) holiday season, in fact the similarities are uncanny. Wii has such a huge lead over PS2 that lifetime sales aren't under threat, but it will be interesting to see if, after going through the first 2 and a bit years ahead on an average weekly basis Wii starts the next couple of years behind PS2 on an average weekly basis.

From a business perspective it's not champagne time. From a gamer's perspective it is still fun time.

This is Wii's 4th black friday, not third, it was released in 2006 prior to black friday, in 2003, PS2 sold only 19 million, Wii is on its way past that, its already past 15 million after last week

 

Nintendo is right to be concerned at how this holiday season has started. They are entering the second half of the game with a performance that is giving both MS and PS3 a bit of a sniff of catching up (though no chance of over-taking) if they storm into 2010. Right now Sony will be thinking that they might have a chance of PS3 winning the biggest sales week of the year. If PS3 does win in FFXIII week it will be a massive confidence boost for Sony. "Sony's PS3 has the biggest sales week out of all console manufacturers for the whole of 2009", "Sony's winning strategy with PS3" Fortune Magazine cover: "How Sony fought back after being down for the count". Nintendo really don't want that to happen. Winning the last weekend before Christmas is PR gold for a company trying to win back support for its brand. It means the kind of feel good free advertising that competitors really don't want to see. Personally, I think Sony needed a big game release worldwide in FFXIII week for it to have a chance of beating Wii that week, FFXIII in Japan only isn't going to be enough. But the week is going to be a lot closer than Nintendo is going to be comfortable with.

 

No, PS3's sales last week were boosted by very aggressive bundling, and Wii still beat it handily, PS3 doesn't have the same effect going forward

Oh, interesting, I stand corrected. So Wii's 3rd holiday season was actually slightly lower than PS2's 3rd holiday season. It will be fascinating to see if Wii's 4th holiday season can be better than PS2's 4th. PS2 managed 5 weeks over 1 million in it's 4th holiday season as well as its 3rd. It did it on much lower Americas sales than Wii is likely to achieve for comparable weeks, so on the US BF numbers Wii is looking better. All that remains is to see if Others and Japan can do the business for Wii. Interesting times for numbers junkies.

I detest the phrase "going forward", it's one of the most over-used bits of unnecessary business speak going at the moment but I won't hold it against you.

I guess we'll see whether "bundles" like the Bravia + PS3 + a game and Blu-ray movie with "up to $1100 off" aren't aggressive enough. We don't know Sony's marketing strategy for the remaining weeks of the year, but if they bring a different bundle or 2 each week then I suspect PS3 has plenty of candy in the jar to attract the punters. Perhaps next there will be a SonyEricsson mobile phone + PS3 +... deal. I'm not saying these bundles will be effective, I'm just saying Sony has marketing options that perhaps you haven't considered.