Nintendo's honeymoon with the Wii is well and truly over with the company announcing this week that sales of the console are down 21 per cent year on year.
This is not to say that the Wii isn't selling – Nintendo sold 25.95 million Wiis between April 2008 to March 2009 – it's just not the runaway success it once was for the company.
Software slump
Nintendo's overall profits took a bit of a hit as well, with full-year figures showing that they are down 18 per cent year on year.
This is echoed on the software side, with Wii game sales down 6 per cent and DS game sales down 23 per cent.
The software slump is being blamed for the lack of strong titles in the second half of the year.
If 2010's efforts are anything to go by, however, software sales could well increase, given that Edge magazine gave Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is out on the Wii 11 June, a whopping 10 out of 10.
Surprisingly sales of Nintendo's handheld, the DS, were only down 12 per cent. This is pretty impressive considering it has been around for over five years now.
While most companies would be panicking at the sudden drop in income, Nintendo is still staying upbeat, noting that these results are the company's third best ever.
Via Kotaku
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
hiawa23
May 6th 2010
4. I wouldn't say the Wii gimmick has worn off as I bought one for my daughter, but there is always a saturation point & with the prices coming down on the PS3 & 360 which I love, well, you had to know the wii's numbers would slow. Heck you can get a 360 for what a Wii costs, add another $100 & you can a PS3.
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uncleook
May 6th 2010
3. This is good news as it will force Nintendo to release the next Wii iteration.
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lewchenko
May 6th 2010
2. All nintendo H/W and software seems over priced to be honest. (ancient H/W sold for premium prices!) Am glad the honeymoon is over though.. forces them to start innovating again.
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cheysuli
May 6th 2010
1. The WII gimmick has worn off. Look; this is my surprised face! whoo!
The DS is overpriced and the games expensive. Look at the iPod touch - the same price or cheaper, a better screen and many more A+ titles for £0.59 instead of £25-35.
The Nintendo 3DS however, looks interesting because it is genuinely different. It doesn't employ expensive screen & horrible glasses, but re-draws the game from a new perspective as you move the console.
This was first seen in a Japan-only DSi game - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWYgM1RGixM
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