guess ps3 peaked on the launch day then right? it still sell a little less than ps360 combined it's hard to call it a peaked sales if wii is still doing it without pricecut, big titles or anything.

The thing is that nintendo is not going for market share, their main goal is not to surpass ps2, their real goal is to maximize profit.

They have made much more money than sony did during the ps2 gen, so i dont think they care if they are not selling like the past year, every unit sold gives them money, really if nintendo cared so much for market share they would have made a price cut since sales started to dip in japan, so i think they will try to maintain wii levels with software only.

There's a simple reason: No freaking price cut in nearly 3 years. When Nintendo cuts price you'll see sales become very healthy.

I cannot say about the hardware sales specifically for MH3, I was never any good at determining the sales for a specific week im sorry. Im more interested in overall trends and im much better with those than determining sales one week or another.

Yes I grant that Halo 3 < Wii Fit. Wii Fit is a sensation on its own. Are you talking the hardware alone or hardware + software numbers? In anycase if it does outsell Halo it won't be because of the + attached to the title. Wii Fit sales seem synchronous with Wii sales, though now I think about it, with so many copies of Wii Fit selling with Wiis (likely) then an improvement in Wii Fit sales would proportionally increase Wii sales. Thats an interesting causation I hadn't thought of. I will have to ponder that one.

So you think that as Mario Kart winds down in effectiveness NSMB Wii will take its place? Comparatively how do you feel they will perform relative to each other? Whilst im not entirely convinced that NSMB Wii will be another Mario Kart for the Wii, I cannot say that it won't be either.

Regarding the Wii price, what im saying is that effectively a game title which if Japan is anything to go by would have been bought by 50% of Wii owners with the console, considering how well it does in Japan where theres quite a strong used market for games from what I hear is quite significant. The value of the game is not the sticker price, its the massive value people place in the game. A lot of people buy the Wii in whole or part because of Wii Sports. Because the title is so compelling, it does make the Wii effectively cheaper because people can and probably do leave the store with just a Wii without any games. Those Arcade games sucked, Wii Sports does not.

- sales are still VERY good despite average/low support

- no pricecut yet despite the Xbox360arcade at 199$

- well that is all.

Wii still > all

Fair enough

Agreed, Wii Fit plus may renew interest in the Wii from teh casuals, especially if Nintendo brings in a new advertising campaign for it. Or it may not, we shall see.

I wouldn't so much say that NSMB will take the place of Mario Kart, I doubt it'll sell as much by the end of the generation, to be honest, But it will be another Wii game that has high sales for at least 2 years, in the vein of Mario Kart or Wii Fit.

Oh, sorry I mistook your meaning there a little bit. Yes, I suppose one could almost consider the Wii to be at mass market price already due to Wii Sports, but Nintendo still have a lot of room for price cutting. It was estimated that Ninty made $49 profit on day 1. They could certainly afford a $50 price cut today and still be making profit, if they had a $100 price cut they may still break even, or close too. Compare that to Sony who is still selling the PS3 at a loss, and MS who are (as far as I know) approximately breaking even. I know that anecdotal evidence is crap and everything, but my parents are waiting for a price cut to buy a Wii

Squlliam. Don't forget that the 360's sales this time last year were... underwhelming, compared to the competition. It was regularly losing to the PS3. That all changed with the pricecut, which made sales practically skyrocket last autumn.

Wow, talk about cherry picking when you bring up the UK, Squilliam. Wii salews are tapering off compared to 360 there because it's pretty much the cheapest place in the world to pick up a 360 and the Wii had a price INCREASE. Also, you're completely off base when you talk about "casuals" buying the Wii. Reports have already shown that the vast majority of Wii owners are not first time console buyers. Gamers are still picking the Wii up, and high profile games are going to keep drawing more of them to the Wii. This could be the Wii's peak year, sure, but with hardly any releases in the first half to generate high sales who can tell. This year is much more back-loaded for Nintendo than the last, and until we start seeing more of the announced major titles hit shelves there's just no foundation for your speculation.

I don't get how a console that is selling nearly double what it's two competitors combined are selling is "doomed". The ecomomy is hitting a lot of people hard, and $250.00 doesn't come so easy right now.

I think the Wi had had some great success and some failure.

If you look at the current Wii owners I would speculate they can mostly be divided in two categories :

- Nintendo fans ( including GC owners)
- Newcomers to gaming.

Nintendo was very successful in bringing newcomers to gaming but I feel they have actually not been that successful in getting PS2 owners to upgrade to the Wii.
The reason I say this is that Wii owners purchasing patterns mostly do not match those of the PS2 audience so both audience can't be overlaping that much...
I would actually think that the Xbox360 has been more successful in stealing the PS2 audience..

The issue Nintendo is having right now is interest for the Wii has started to diminish among the new gamers category and that is what is affecting the recent hardware slump...

The others reason is probably that the DS success is stealing some of the Wii customers.
For quite a few casual gamers, DS provides enough entertainment and seeing how most of the big Wii title get a DS port these days you can actually stick with just a portable and be fine...