Why have the Wii hardware sales fallen so dramatically? The software sales of the Wii have fallen as well in line with the decline of the hardware sales. Loyal Nintendo fans make up the bulk of software purchases. Decline in casual gamers buying new Wii systems in 2010 has had an adverse impact on Nintendo sales.
Some reasons I believe are behind the Wii's hardware and software sales decline:
1. The competition has increased its momentum and made changes to be more competitive with the Wii. Prices of the PS3 and the 360 are closing in on the Wii's low price. Compatitive advantage has been neutralised.
2. The Wii has a lack of third party support. 360 and PS3 have strong third party developer support. There are limitations to the Wii hardware which limits the possibility of a 360 or PS3 game being directly ported to the Wii.
3. Both the 360 and PS3 have more longevity in regards to extending their life spans and have multi-purposes. 360 and PS3 have pushed into the casual gamer market.
4. Wii peaked in its second year and sales have tapered off as the competition has strengthened and the Wii loses its price advantage over both PS3 and 360. Wii is almost four years old and well its sales are tapering off. Wii is still ahead of 360 and PS3 individually in year to year sales. Wii's days of beating 360 and PS3 combined in yearly sales are finished. Wii has now fallen behind both PS3 and 360 in weekly sales. The Wii sales have peaked and sales are falling in all regions across the board.
5. A new Wii system with more powerful graphical and computer processing capabilities are needed. Nintendo needs to garner third party support to ensure its long term success.
Wii 2.0 with the processing and graphical power equivalent that of the 360 or PS3 would be ideal. New Nintendo system could garner third party support and get a head start over its competition.
The Wiis success has been the introduction of motion control that has captured the casual games market and appealed to disgruntled Nintendo fans who were disappointed with both the GameCube and Nintendo 64 of previous generations.
The Wii peaked with sales of 25 million in 2008 and 20 million in 2007 and 2009. Reaching 20 million sales again in a year for the Wii is out of reach. The new Wii should be the first next gen system if Nintendo wants to keep ahead of the competition.
Moderate weekly sales may be expected into 2011 and beyond unless there is another price cut. Price cut may be a temporary fix to slowing sales. Wii sales will peak at Xmas with a late rally in November and December but down on previous years sales.
