are we talking Japan here? Japan is dead. I predicted this before even in 2008 no one believes me but its too late. I think even Nintendo can do nothing in the situation sure theyre profiting from the pricecuts and the DS but the pricecut was temporary and would not help them longterm.

WSR and WF+ already done what it should done to stabilized the shrinking userbase of the Wii and the home consoles in japan in general.


If not for these two games and now NSMB Wii we all see in media create was PSP and DS in top 10.

If the DS2 comes out in Japan anytime soon and can do 3D at a considerably higher level than the current DS .... yeah consoles are dead in Japan, no matter what this little resurgence indicates.

I like how people give so much credit to the Wii as if it has nothing to do with it being significantly cheaper than the PS3. If the PS3 and Wii were the same price, I wouldn't have even bothered to get a Wii when they came out.

what did you expect the wii would sell after price drop? 500k? 600k? i mean come, i wasnt expecting it was gonna sell 500k .. its not like 3 years ago when it sold 600k every single week, that time is over and you will never get that kind of sales again.. it will probably stay around 250k - 300k and thats perfect after 3 years

PS3 doing way over expectations.
in japan still holding against the wii, being 100$ more expensive without a bundled game.

Yeah I think maybe people need to come to grips with the fact that what the Wii did last year was completely unprecedented for the game industry .... it has never happened before, and may quite honestly never happen again.

The Wii is selling at a more normalized clip this year, more along the lines of what the PS2 was doing at this point in its life span. With the exception of Japan, there the console industry as a whole has really cratered.

What did I expect?

1. Wii sales to be on PAR with or top its sales the previous year in the same week.....this hasn't happened.

2. Wii sales to show the pattern most home consoles show, & that is peaking in its 3rd year.

The DS peaked its 2nd year in Japan too I believe (it was doing like an insane 100k per week every week there), but it has been a steady seller ever since taking off like a rocket in 2005. Had a bit a rough patch last year but has bounced back strongly since the DSi and better software. 

Maybe these new kinds of consoles simply follow a different kind of pattern. They can get red hot and cool to just "boiling" hot lets say relatively quickly. 

Wii Sports isn't bundled there.

This argument is like 10 years old and I am kind of totally, exceedingly, completely, 100% shocked that someone can still be bringing it up.  if the PS3 was the same price as the Wii either 1. Sony would have gone out of business as it would have been making too much of a loss on each console or 2.  The PS3 would not have blu ray, super high end graphics, etc.  Either way it is a ridiculous point to bring up.  Nintendo decided on what console to release and how to price it.  Sony decided on what console to release and how to price it.  It is not for the public to turn around and say if this was this and that was that this would happen.  That is fantasy.  The reality is that Nintendo outsells the PS3 and makes a ton of profit.

A more sensible argument would be which console would sell more if they were sold at cost.  The Wii would be selling for less than it cost now and the PS3 would probably be selling at a slightly higher price.  The result?  An even bigger gap in sales.  but again it is a fantasy argument and we are better focusing on reality. 

Aside from the fact that it is a fantasy argument it is also the same argument people were making about the Wii and 360 but the Wii was still outselling the 360 when the arcade cost way less than a Wii and the pro model cost slightly less than Wii.

Yikes I seem to have gone off on quite a rant but I was totally shocked to be seeing this price argument towards the end of the year 2009.