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Forums - Sales Discussion - Why the Wii Won't sell 80m+

Erik Aston said:
Sony as a $60 billion company will have lower profit last year, and probably next, than the $6-8 billion Nintendo.
Is this in reference to their annual revenue?

Yeah I meant revenue (which is actually $68 billion according to Yahoo finance), given the previous debate I should have known to specify that.



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reverie said:
@albionus That was some nice piece. I found your idea that the decline of the housing market might slow down HD penetration in the US insightful. HD TV cost ungodly amounts of money, and if consumers have to start spending their own money instead of the bank's money, they might actually become stingy. Nevertheless, current projections call for the US majority to be on HD in 2009 (with 30% already on HD right now), so we're certainly not talkign about a "vast" minority as you suggested, at least in the US. You also said that the average consumer does not notice technically advanced graphics, however I do think that they can notice seriously sub-par graphics (and then, separately, have to decide if it's still worth it). Some Wii games that were released in 2006 would not be acceptable in 2009. Luckily, the Wii engine still has a lot of untapped power in it, as already evidenced by Super Mario Galaxy trailers and others (and it can do 16:9 480p, which Wii detractors like to look past). On Nintendo making a splash in emerging markets: I'm not so sure if they really have a leg up there. Nintendo have always been notoriously weak in Europe (altough I do think that they have one of the best localisation teams in the industry, I just adore their German translations), so they might have the same problem adapting to other markets. I wouldn't be surprised if the PS2 will have another 3+ successful years in emerging markets.

On vast majority I mean the numbers playing video games over the next 5 years, in the US its around 25-30 %, according to Sony its 15% in UK and I would assume lower in the rest of Europe.  I'm sort of having trouble explaining exactly what I mean but I'll try, If they both increase by 5 percentage points a year over the next 5 years then the total number of decisions for what TV's the systems will be played on will be dominated by SD (80%, 75%, 70%, 65%. 60% averages to 70% or a large majority though maybe not vast).  The emrging markets issue is questionable, and highly conjectural as I noted.  Nintendo has historically had trouble outside of Japan and NA but they seem to be doing an ok job in Korea, China, and Europe now so perhaps they are improving.  I wouldn't be surprised if the PS2 outdoes all over the next 5 years in the emerging markets though I think if any next gen system can take hold it will be the Wii (again if only because of price).  It's an interesting debate though.



What I don't understand is how supposedly North America suddenly jumped so much, the last poll I saw of either November or December last year showed HD penetration in NA at about 18%.



Nobody is crazy enough to accuse me of being sane.

vanguardian1 said:
What I don't understand is how supposedly North America suddenly jumped so much, the last poll I saw of either November or December last year showed HD penetration in NA at about 18%.

I imagine different estimates are arrived at via different methods.  It would seem reasonable that if the share is around 25% today that it may have been around 20% in November.  5% of households getting an HDTV in Nov/Dec doesn't seem unrealistic to me.  Whatever the real number it's still fairly low and only rising to maybe slight minority/bare majority over the next 5 years is all I think can be said about it.



vanguardian1 said:
What I don't understand is how supposedly North America suddenly jumped so much, the last poll I saw of either November or December last year showed HD penetration in NA at about 18%.

A good portion of TV sales happen in January just before the Super Bowl. That's when you find the best deals, even better than Christmas sales.

Regardless, HD TVs are no longer expensive. I spent 500 bucks on a 36" Tube in 2002/2003. I could get a 27" HD TV for that now.

 



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Stromprophet said:
vanguardian1 said:
What I don't understand is how supposedly North America suddenly jumped so much, the last poll I saw of either November or December last year showed HD penetration in NA at about 18%.

A good portion of TV sales happen in January just before the Super Bowl. That's when you find the best deals, even better than Christmas sales.

Regardless, HD TVs are no longer expensive. I spent 500 bucks on a 36" Tube in 2002/2003. I could get a 27" HD TV for that now.

 


I actually went loking for an article I read earlier this year which said that SDTVs still outsold HDTVs in the lead-up to the superbowl ...



Nintendo need to issue a stock split. Most "mum/dad" investors can't afford to purchase any stock - as the shares are too high. I'd love to get some stock in Ninty (really wanted to about 6-8 years ago) :P I think if they issued a stock split, the (effective) share value would skyrocket.



Gesta Non Verba

Nocturnal is helping companies get cheaper game ratings in Australia:

Game Assessment website

Wii code: 2263 4706 2910 1099

And I can get a great 32" SDTV for $250, so what's your point, Stromprophet?



Nobody is crazy enough to accuse me of being sane.

Too many posts to read during office hours (what.a.slacker) but I guess from the last page the thread has been discussing about how HDTV will make the Wii look lousy compared to HD consoles. That's the gist, innit?

Well, I think that this really is a non-issue. The Wii uses some sort of ATI graphics chipset, and we have all seen with computers how resolution, bit depth and special features (such as antialiasing) can be turned on or off with the drivers you download.

The Wii is meant to be online, and this entire SD vs HD may be a moot point if Nintendo decides to release/unlock the HD update. It may even clandestinely support HD already, but Nintendo isn't telling anyone yet because they don't feel the need to (it's not like the lack of HD on the Wii is hurting sales). They may be keeping HD as a trump card very very close to heart.

The N64 even supported 320x240 - 640x480. The PS2 was even able to muster 1080i for GT4, and there are at least two dozen games for the Xbox that supports 720p and/or 1080i, so I don't see why the Wii, which is purportedly twice as powerful as the GCN (and should easily keep up with both Xbox and PS2) will not be able to do the same. It's just a matter of time before developers find ways to optimize code, develop hacks and discover every trick in the Wii book to crank out those HD graphics with little to no impact to the console's performance.

Think what Wii developers will be capable of cranking out with their third to fifth generation of games. I think even the most die-hard Nintendo hater will be surprised at the outcome. 



shams said:
Nintendo need to issue a stock split. Most "mum/dad" investors can't afford to purchase any stock - as the shares are too high. I'd love to get some stock in Ninty (really wanted to about 6-8 years ago) :P I think if they issued a stock split, the (effective) share value would skyrocket.

 For the USA or for Japan? NTDOY is only $36 on pinksheets. And the stock has done well over 100% for the year. Even the full share is only like $290. I could really care less about the price, it's how much it earns that counts. And I've earned enough off Nintendo enough to buy a small car already.