Nintendo Wii: Fastest Selling System Ever?!?!
You have to commend Nintendo and what they are achieving this generation with both the Wii and the DS. Here is a company that once dominated the market but spent much of the 90s and 2000s languishing in the shadows of their competitors, including Sony, Sega, and Microsoft. Most thought that Nintendo would fall the way Sega did and drop out of the hardware business after the GameCube. Instead, After over 10 years of playing 2nd and 3rd fiddle, Nintendo is once again dominating the market and the Wii has achieve unprecedented success. Not only is the Wii alone outselling the PS3 and 360 combined on a month-month basis in every major territory around the world, but their brilliant business strategy allows them to be the only hardware company to actually make a profit on every single Wii system sold (chalk it up to the relatively simple and old technology powering the machine). It is one of the greatest comeback stories ever! If there ever was a doubt, just take a look at the official hardware sales numbers from NPD for the month of March:
Hardware Mar-08
Wii 721,000
Nintendo DS 698,000
PlayStation Portable 297,000
Xbox 360 262K,000
PlayStation 3 257,000
PlayStation 2 216,000
Well, it's official! According to vgchartz.com, the Wii has become the fastest console ever in America to sell 10 million units. It achieved this in a mere 70 weeks! To put that in perspective, the current highest selling system of all time, the PS2, took 84 weeks. Note that these numbers are for consoles and do not include handhelds like the GameBoy or DS.
So, the Wii is a bona fide phenomenon. The interesting thing is that it is doing this without much marketing and with no huge games that appeal to the core Nintendo fan. In fact, it is no secret that the biggest complaint against Nintendo continues to be lackluster software. While the quantity of releases for the Wii has been high, only a fraction are deemed playable by most gamers. It is still true that most gamers who brought a Wii rarely play it outside of family or friend events. So who are the people that continue to wait outside for Toys R US and other stores to open every Sunday to buy the system well after a year from launch? And what are they buying it for? To play Wii Sports still? Can't be. I honestly still don't get it. Sure the price point is great and don't get me wrong I expect the Wii to be selling great, perhaps even outselling the PS3 and 360. But to achieve the numbers its achieving every single week since day 1 and not a single hint of slowing down? It is on pace to truly become the fastest and highest selling console of ALL TIME! Everyone in the industry has been saying since mid 07 that "the Wii is just a fad" but that statement is proving not to be true at all. How can this be? What do you guys think?
Hardware Mar-08
Wii 721,000
Nintendo DS 698,000
PlayStation Portable 297,000
Xbox 360 262K,000
PlayStation 3 257,000
PlayStation 2 216,000
Well, it's official! According to vgchartz.com, the Wii has become the fastest console ever in America to sell 10 million units. It achieved this in a mere 70 weeks! To put that in perspective, the current highest selling system of all time, the PS2, took 84 weeks. Note that these numbers are for consoles and do not include handhelds like the GameBoy or DS.
So, the Wii is a bona fide phenomenon. The interesting thing is that it is doing this without much marketing and with no huge games that appeal to the core Nintendo fan. In fact, it is no secret that the biggest complaint against Nintendo continues to be lackluster software. While the quantity of releases for the Wii has been high, only a fraction are deemed playable by most gamers. It is still true that most gamers who brought a Wii rarely play it outside of family or friend events. So who are the people that continue to wait outside for Toys R US and other stores to open every Sunday to buy the system well after a year from launch? And what are they buying it for? To play Wii Sports still? Can't be. I honestly still don't get it. Sure the price point is great and don't get me wrong I expect the Wii to be selling great, perhaps even outselling the PS3 and 360. But to achieve the numbers its achieving every single week since day 1 and not a single hint of slowing down? It is on pace to truly become the fastest and highest selling console of ALL TIME! Everyone in the industry has been saying since mid 07 that "the Wii is just a fad" but that statement is proving not to be true at all. How can this be? What do you guys think?
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