The Nintendo Wii.

Sales for the Nintendo Wii have been down in 2009 compared to the  previous record-breaking years. Furthermore, hardcore gamers aren’t exactly pleased with the system’s lineup due to the lack of hardcore titles.

Michael Pachter, Analyst for Wedbush Securities, says that the current problems of the Nintendo Wii were related to the early success of the system. Here is what he said during the latest Bonus Round episode:

Nintendo is a victim of its own success. I think had they have the opportunity to do things over again, and I know they all deny this, they would have priced the Wii a bit higher, they would have spaced out their hardcore games. Instead of selling 26 million Wiis worldwide, they would have sold 18 or 20 million and done it consistently. The hardcore games would come out every six months. Everybody’ll be happy.

And, you know, let’s not fault them for being less than perfect. They were more than perfect in the first year and a half of the Wii’s existence and they’ve been less than perfect since. Still the number one console and still doing fine.

I don’t fault them at all. I think that they were probably a bit insecure at launch. They weren’t really sure this thing’s going to sell they thought it was, which was 16 million units. So they really try to frontload the release schedule to guarantee success and it more than worked. And so now we’re faulting them for having been so phenomenally successful early on.

 

http://www.examiner.com/x-6894-Video-Game-News-Examiner~y2009m12d8-Pachter-Nintendo-is-a-victim-of-its-own-success

I saw that episode of the Bonus Round and to an extent, I have to agree with him.

Nothing else I can really add..

And if next year it's another 2008? Nintendo will be the winner thanks to their bad 2009? Yes they had a great 2008 and a poor 2009 (speaking of first party titles) but this year the only thing which prevented the Wii to reach the 50% marketshare was the PS3 price cut (probably Wii's price cut was inevitable, it was selling too poorly) and DS is doing crazy numbers. Even if profits are down this is a good year for Nintendo and saying that Nintendo is a victim says it all how great things everyone is expecting from this company.

Yes. Nintendo is very much a victim of it's own success.

The Wii reminds me of the early part of Mike Tyson's boxing career. He was knocking out everyone he faced in the first round. When someone finally went the distance with him, but got his butt kicked the entire fight, it was like, "What the hell's wrong with you Mike??? You bum!!!"

Nintendo are victims of their own success.

They're being smothered by their profits.

I completely agree with him about the game release schedule. Nintendo made some great releases during Wii's first year and a half and then almost nothing that was worth checking out.  Last year they had a horrible Wii Holiday lineup with Animal Crossing and Wii Music. The could and would have spaced their hardcore games if they had the chance to do so. But that's all in the past. I am looking forward to their great 1st party lineup for 2010. And there are some great 3rd party gems to look forward to too.

Damn, I actually agree with something Pachter has said.

First time for everything, I guess.

This is a very good analogy. I'll also have to agree that Pachter makes a good point this time around.

Yeah. I actually have to agree with Pachter this time. Nintendo definitely put out most of their good stuff at first because they didn't know for sure if the Wii was going to sell well after the Gamecube. The line up has been looking much stronger recently though.

It seems now, that 2010 could be another 2008 for Nintendo.

The games line-up for the Wii for 2010 is fantastic. A lot of Nintendo games (for example Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Other M, Endless Ocean 2, Monado ...) and big third party games (Red Steel 2, No More Heroes 2, Monster Hunter 3, Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Tales of Graces, Fragile Dreams, Epic Mickey, ...)

Because of this Line-Up I see many PS3/Xbox360-Only-Gamer buy a Wii.