It occurs to me that we won’t see much if any jump in Wii sales this month due to Wii Fit. The usual expectation that consumers will buy a console when a blockbuster game/non game is released would only apply if they had a reasonable expectation of being able to find a console. The unavailability of the Wii has been going on long enough and well publicized so that it is unlikely anyone would not know. Who would buy an $89 game/non game without having something to play it on?
All available pre-orders sold out, almost certainly to people that already had or recently purchased a Wii. People that weren’t able to get a pre-order won’t necessarily buy one until the Wii Fit supply is ample.
The Wii had stellar sales in March and April, higher than was anticipated. The reason for the extra sales was most likely the Wii Fit peak which occurred in advance of the release.
Using last month as an example; the PS3 and the Xbox sold about 200,000 each. Recent history has had the Wii selling somewhere around the sum of the two. That trend would have indicated expected sales of around 400,000. Instead sales were almost twice that at close to 800,000. My guess is the extra 400,000 sales were the Wii Fit surge.
Any Game You Enjoy is a Good Game
