Most of Wii's lifespan so far has been a software dry spell. That never stopped it before.

Firstly, the Wii has an install base of 8m - versus 3m for the PS3. Almost 3:1 (and 5m ahead). Not insignificant at all.

Secondly, as we all know: the Wii is yet to get a price cut, new colours, any significant bundles or hardware iterations.

Finally, its been ages since Nintendo released anything *really* major. Animal Crossing did ok - but wasn't the hit they were hoping for (i.e. DS level). WiiMusic broke even, but failed to really ignite sales.

Its almost the end of the fiscal year, and Nintendo are predictable: they will go quiet, let the year die out (i.e. end of March) - then start the next year (April '09) with a bang.

The obvious candidates for sales on the Wii are: new Mario Party, WiiSports:Resort, Pokemon title/RPG, MH3, Dragon Quest X. Toss in a new Zelda, new Mario, Kid Icarus, FZero, WiiFit expansion... there are plenty of sales to come.

I'm hoping they start April with the WiiWare "solution", and launch some new WiiWare titles.

Perhaps a third party dry spell, not software in general. But even if you're right, does that mean we should it expect it not to be a problem forever? It's not like the Wii has an infinite market to grab (even if it seems that way in America).

the only console that needs price cut in Japan is PS3.the PS3 price is ridiculously high compared to the competition.

Wii will be fine.(it has others and NA to counter the lack in Japan)

Firstly, why can't people learn that listing the releasing games in the OP hardly proves anything?

But let's look at this a different way. Quarterly sales, and market share.

Q4 06 - 1.13M - 62% Market share

Q1 07: - 1.07M - 70%

Q2 07: 0.96M - 82%

Q3 07:  0.76M - 73%

Q4 07: 1.24M - 66%

Q1 08: 1.14M - 73%

Q2 08: 0.69M - 73%

Q3 08: 0.5M - 65%

Q4 08: 0.83M - 62%

So far into Q1 09: 0.34M - 49%

You're telling me that's not a huge drop marketshare wise? It's dropped from having 70-75% to being around 50%.

So far into Q1, Wii is at 48% in Others. Japan may very well end up being the Wii's weakest area (marketshare wise).

In the OP, you're talking Market Share, so that's what I did. Looking at market share, people aren't overreacting at all.

Interesting figures, and certainly worrying for Nintendo. Of course, it might be that the console market has shrunk in Japan and Wii is nearing saturation, but it doesn't make it any better for Nintendo.

OT: Advertising Travian should be a bannable offense, it's gotta be the worst, most addictive and time consuming game of all time ;)

@Oyvoyvoyv: Where did the OP mention market share? (perhaps in some later post I didn't read, I guess). The OP itself was about software releases, which seem to be the dominating factor in Japan's sales these days. Obviously the PS3 and 360 have had an advantage in software during this quarter.

Avinash_Tyagi said: Louie said: I don't think people are overreacting, I think you are misinterpreting the situation I can't speak for the other people here but for me what makes the situation bad is the fact that the Wii has seen decreasing sales each year so far. And currently it is on track to sell maybe 2.5 million units this year, while PS2, GBA, PSX, etc. sold 3.5-4 million units each year. This is not about a "war" between the Wii and the HD consoles It is just about the Wii's sales. There are two handhelds selling way better than the Wii and developers will rather go for the handhelds. I'll just say it that way: The sales have dropped dramatically compared to 2007. If you really think that's not enough reason for Nintendo to worry, well that's fine with me. But if I was the head of a company and my products sales decreased each year I'd be worried, yeah.    Japan's market is shrinking and world sales are growing, why should they worry?

Because I'm sure they don't want the japanese market to shrink, that's why

Again, I'm not arguing the fact that the Wii is going to outsell the PS3 and Xbox360 in Japan this year. But I'm sure Nintendo should be worried about those numbers as the Wii has the potential to sell much better.

You know, they are aiming for a broader audience. If your console is targeting a bigger audience than the leading console of the previous generation and still sells way less... well, then your plan apparently didn't work. And Nintendo always states they don't care about competition, their biggest competitor is the non-interest of the consumer. Well, the japanese consumer doesn't seem to care too much, really. And Nintendo has to change that. You can't claim you want to broaden the market and then say "well, 70% of what the Playstation 2 sold is enough for us."

This way of thinking is exactly why the japanese market has been shrinking during the Playstation 2 generation and Nintendo knows that. They even stated the DS and Wii will appeal to a broader audience to grow the market. That surely wasn't aimed at the western markets only.

Well truth is that Wii needs software in order to improve, PS3 got some big releases recently and started selling decent numbers, the question is can they sustain the momentum?Probably not because console still remains very expensive

Once Wii get few big titles they will still start outselling the HD twins in Japan, i mean Wii hasnt been number one what for 3 weeks now but had top spot for months, so its not a great tragedy. Wii still has great advantage in numbers over the competition (overall i mean) in Japan, and it will be the number one system.

Nintendo just needs to think about starting to maybe bundle their biggest games there, just like Sony and MS do. And release some big games.

people are mega over reacting! dont any of you remember the ps3 at times last year? it was around 5-10k and once even below 5k and now look at it! cant remember the last time it sold below 15k.