Wii Sports was big in Japan. Monster Hunter is arguably bigger. NSMB was downright huge. And new colors, like the black Wii and MH3 bundle, and the blue Wii remote with Wii Sports Resort bundle, are a cheap way to attract some attention.

Basically, this is an all-out assualt on the Japanese market in the second half of 2009. WSR and MH3 should both sell 1 million copies, and could both sell 2 million copies in Japan. NSMB Wii should sell 2 million, and could sell 3 or 4 million.

With the major hits lined up, what are Japanese Wii sales going to look like in the second half of 2009? Will each game just cause a temporary boost? Or will they build on each other and create a full Wii recovery? Or will they be the string of hits needed to push Wii to the levels seen in America in 2008 and leave the last year of Wii in Japan a distant memory?

I think the software they have coming out will prevent this from being any kind of temporary boost. A lot of hardware is gonna move based on these announcements.

It would be good to see the Japanese market reinvigorated. I think NSMB Wii, Sports Resort, MH3 plus the new colour and MH3 bundle are very good moves by Nintendo. Combined with Wii Fit Plus, the rest of 2009 in Japan should be pretty strong Wii-wise.

Hopefully that'll spill over to the rest of the Japanese market and improve the situation there.

They definitely have quite a strong lineup coming for Japan with the Wii. Had it already with just Wii Sports Resort and Monster Hunter 3 going to be huge anyways. But throw Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii on top of that and we are really amounting to some decent boosts. Not to mention the new color going to release.

I wonder if they'll have anything else releasing too as there still is that Japanese conference right. But yea should be a lot better than the earlier half no doubt.

Some smaller but still potential hits are also hitting Japan in the second half of 2009:

Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games (first one has sold almost 600k, Famitsu)
Samurai Warriors 3

and sometime this winter, possible at christmas:

Tales of Graces
Resident Evil: Darkside

Am I missing something? In any case, a HUGE lineup. Couldn´t be bigger if you ask me, the only thing that could top this is would be a full blown Pokemon rpg portable style but we all know Nintendo reservs them for portables.

You forgot Wii Fit Plus. I think Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers is coming out this winter too.

I'm convinced New Super Mario Bros. Wii was almost expressly greenlit to help the Wii in Japan. Not that it won't sell a ton in North America and Europe, but I think Nintendo realized they needed some insurance in Japan.

Well, the Wii was definitely missing 4 things to be once again the undisputed leader.

1) New Colors/Bundles. Check
2) More First Party titles. Check
3) Big Third party titles. Check
4) Constant flow of games. Still missing.


That's the main problem I think, there's actually many weeks ahead until the end of the year at which Wii won't be seeing a single release, and then there's others when there's only going to be a single release like a sport game or a party game.

Wii needs a constant flow of games, because temporary boosts can only last for a while, I think that the 360 has more games coming up and I'm not joking.

@ trestres
i knw what ur talkin abt, but still i think that if these games boost sales, then definately those 3rd party titles will start shifting(200k-300k sellers).

i think the wii is more like a PSP which needed MH to boost sales in japan, but the wii has a much much bigger 1st party support so we'll see. When handhelds reach saturation in japan, which they already are but still selling at incredible levels, then its time to shift to consoles, at least one console.

So you're ignoring all these good games coming out...

I'm skeptical at the Monster Hunter 3 and New Super Mario Bros Wii success. They're both hits on the handheld market, don't know how it is gonna behave in the living room consoles.

The big one will undoubtly be Wii Sports Resort.