Nintendo shares fall after surprising drop in Wii demand
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 17th 2009 1:26PM
posted April 17th 2009 1:26PM
Nintendo may have been denying any rumors of a Wii price cut earlier this month, but it looks like it could possibly be reconsidering its options if this latest sales trend keeps up. Apparently, sales in the U.S. for the month of March clocked in at around 601,000 consoles, or about a 17% drop from a year earlier. During the same period, however, Xbox 360 sales were reportedly up a healthy 26%, while PlayStation 3 sales dipped 15% -- although, in sheer numbers, both were still well behind the Wii. That unsurprisingly didn't make investors too happy, with Nintendo shares falling 6.6% on the Osaka Securities Exchange after the news broke, which accounted for it's biggest drop in more than two months. Also contributing to the sell-off was a 19% drop in Nintendo DS sales compared to the previous year, although the company seems to be betting pretty heavily that the DSi will quickly turn those numbers around.
well it would help if they had any good games for it in the past 2 years
In a way, I am happy of this, as a Nintendo Wii user.
This might make Nintendo start pushing third party companies to produce more AAA games for the system, which desperately lack off. And have Nintendo change their advertisement to aim more at core gamers to gain XBox360/PS3 gamers. A good start in doing this, is present an exiting E3 event... and not... errrr the LAST E3...
yeah I can't remember the last game I played on it, Metroid maybe?
The price of used GameCubes and duct tape has become cheaper than the Wii, so people have just started building their own.
Hopefully they stay down for a little bit so Nintendo has to create a Wii HD with a decent processor in it. I love the handful of games I play on it, but the graphics are pretty shit.
So...outselling both your competitors *combined* is a sign of demand collapsing? Clearly Engadget's yet another "media" outlet looking for the ratings headline, LOL.
I wouldn't say surprising...even if you engineer a shortage for 2 years straight, people will still eventually realize a product's really not that good. I know quite a few people that own a Wii, and perhaps 1 or 2 that ever actually play it.
Come on enough with the everybody has one. I highly doubt they have sold nearly 100,000,000 (the US population is 306,000,000).
Uh, not everyone wants a video game console at all. How many people are left who don't have one who do want one? I think it's safe to presume that the numbers are smaller then they use to be. I'm not in the want-and-don't-have category any more, but that only changed this past xmas.
Yeah, you fail at facts & figures majortom. Not every person in America will want one, but at the rate they were selling it is reasonable to assume that nearly everyone that DID want one has it at this point.
Why you would equate that to 100 million people is beyond me.
Please help us stop the promotion of stupid people advertising irrellivant links!
It's called, say it with me Market Saturation
About time nintendo's wii and ds sales start falling. Other than the first party games, I hated almost all the 3rd party games created for wii/ds. Its like they were developed in a week. Come on guys, take the cue from Nintendo's mad game skills and make something worthwhile!
Unfortunately for NIntendo, and no matter how much they try to deny it, their competition for the DS/DSi is the iPod Touch and iPhone. The very casual market they succeeded with with the Wii, for portable gaming, has already moved on. The DSi store is a poor competitor to the iPod Touch/iPhone, mainly because of the backassward approach to a download store. Nintendo claims their approach makes for better, higher quality games, but there's absolutely no evidence of that in the DSiWare store, only the opposite. Nintendo seems to consider DSiWare to be a good place to sell demos of cartridge-based DS games and otherwise lame software. They need to be selling the DSi with the download store, and they seem to be stuck in their cartridge past.
Have you played GTA: Chinatown wars?
This game ALONE is worth buying a DS. And it wasn't made by Nintendo, neither was Big Bang Mini...
big bang mini destroyed my touchscreen :(
TareX u kno a DS costs fcn AU$300 are you telling me some 40mb 2d game is worth that??
Also (after a 5 min check), its something that i could easily download as a rom and run an emulator for and play on my comp within the next 10 mins. r u insane???
Wait, how good is it? LOL.
That picture could be used as a lol-cat type image, with the caption:
"Markit satcherashun... we haz it."
The DSi won't be turning any tables around. It's not a big enough upgrade from the original DS phat. They should have introduced a next-gen handheld for the same price instead of the DS lite + usless 2 cameras for $170.
All they need is a new color....How bout that Black Wii you taunted me with way back in the day huh nintendo?
All I hope is nintendo building up a common plaza where online users can just chat and maybe invite to games if both own the game cds. I mean come on, the Miis are a great idea, why not let them actually go out and allow people to CHAT!. I know the voice transmission in game with wii speak probably won't come because nintendo dudes are so protective of dumb people hearing bad words online.
This is what arrogance does to a company- they get big headed and then people realize that the wii is just a load of bull.. The PS3 is too damned expensive and that only leaves ONE clear choice- Xbox 360. Great games and great graphics... Enuff Said.
I am always perplexed by the comment that the Wii/DS doesn't have any good games. The only reason people believe that is because other people have said it, and so like lemmings, it is repeated ad nauseum.
As to comparisons between the iPhone and DSi, you do understand the fact that the DSi is a VIDEO GAME machine, it is not a media player, and not a phone. The DSi plays games, that is its main operation, anything else is extra. the iPhone/iPod is not a gaming machine, no matter what people are trying to assert. it is a Phone/Media Player, those are its main functions, gaming is an extra. Also to compare the "app" stores is also a bit premature, I am sure that given time the DSi will have its shovelware and useless add-ons with the occasional shining software, as the Apple iStore has.
I think I am just old fashioned. However, the only games I've enjoyed on the wii and ds are all made by nintendo. I tried many other games that had great reviews and made by 3rd parties. I don't like them. Not one bit. Maybe I have this nintendo complex I don't know, but hell I want some good games! (I didn't really like metroid prime, somewhat liked zelda, did not like mario tennis, baseball and soccer) so..
Maybe I just don't like video games in general! SOMEONE SAVE ME!
I think it's fair to say that Nintendo's third party games aren't that great. But that fact is balanced out by the sheer number of great exclusive series' Nintendo has. Playstation has lost a lot of its exclusives and Xbox just hasn't been around long enough. There's something impressive about a company that can continue to make really good games for series' as old as Zelda, Mario, or Metroid. Part of their quality is in nostaliga, and part is just the confidence that you know, if it's got those names on it, chances are it will be good. Have there been bad Mario or Zelda games? Sure, but the majority of them have either been groundbreaking or just flat good games.
A lot of people cite the Wii as a casual gaming system. I agree with this. But "casual" doesn't have to mean kids, moms, and nursing homes. I like the Wii--but not for Wii Sports, Wii Fit, or anything like that. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I am fairly familiar with gaming, but I still prefer Nintendo games for the most part. Sometimes I am willing to trade graphics or difficulty for a game that is just plain fun. Which should be what games are about anyway.
In the end, whichever console wins for me is the one that releases the next legitimate Suikoden game :)
I love Wii but sadly mines got stolen in the airport now i got to wait over a year to have the money to buy one. If anyone that is not using their Wii could please donate it to me i will take care of it and i will make a blog or a video about how great you are.
My mom is sad also she cant play her Wii sports and i cant play that punch out game or that new zelda coming soon.
maybe you should stop playing video games and do your school work
Why is that surprising?
Last year, Brawl released in March, sold tons of units, and moved consoles. This year, there was no such equivalent. Of course Wii sales dropped.
Things will be just fine in April. Investors are stupid.
It's the economy stupid!
as far as i know supersmash brothers launched that month last year...
Yeah, if they hadn't f'ed up Animal Crossing for Wii, I'd have one.
I decided to purchase an XBOX 360 recently just for the media center capabilities. I cut cable out of my bill and now have NETFLIX / HULU for about $20.00 a month total (plus internet costs)... not to mention being able to sling all the other content I have. This has saved me about $80.00 on my cable bill monthly ($60.00 net saving).
I'd say folks are spending the money on the device that offers the most in these financially disconcerting times...
I will see the people who say they have not touched their Wii in over a year, and raise them with I palmed mine off to a friend who after the first two weeks has left it eating dust
I really should get it back off him...
It's true! My local Costco had about 100 of them in stock and my local Wal-Mart has a WHOLE aisle of them!
Sadly, everyone has them.
I called it when it first cam out that its just a novelty item and it will not have a long shelf life like PS3 and 360
Yes it ONLY sold over 600 000 in 1 country in 1 month. OVER HALF A F@#$N' MILLION UNITS IN JUST 1 F@#$N' MONTH. Also, that month was in the usually slow selling springtime and during a recession. It's DOOMED I say, you hear me DOOMED!!!!!!
This was expected and predicted... That's why I got rid of mine two years ago. I'm waiting for a cheaper newer PS3. By then all of the amazing PS3 games from now will be $15 each.
Wow, premature analysis much? This is *one month* of sales figures, guys. And it's still higher than the numbers for every month in 2007, prior to the holiday season (November). It'd be a mid-ranking month for 2008.
What it means right now is 'not a whole stinking lot', really. I'm more worried about the Japanese numbers, which have been pretty much dropping from the start of the year (first week of Jan - 41,000; first week of Feb - 20,000; first week of March - 16,000; first week of April, 13,000). DS hasn't been doing stunningly either (81k, 62k, 43k, 47k). Still...can't really draw much of a conclusion about anything yet.
Still, there's a lot up Nintendo's sleeve - the new Wii Sports, for one. And Dragon Quest X down the road. And price cuts - they're just way ahead there. PS3 and Xbox have already had several rounds, Wii hasn't had a single one yet. When it happens doesn't matter - the point is, the longer they don't have to cut the price, the more money they rake in on ever-increasing margins, and no matter when they eventually have to cut the price, they're three or four price cut rounds ahead of MS and Sony - each cut will get sales bumps MS and Sony won't be in a position to match.
Not sure if Nintendo realizes but the drop in sales could possibly be caused by a lousy economy? Just throwing that out there. Also, the lack of 1080 or even 720p might finally be rearing its ugly head as people are switching TV's in preparation to digital TV and realizing how lousy the Wii looks. Another thing is that people want things that are unobtainable or hard to get. The Wii fit that profile perfectly. Now that you can find it in almost any Target or Walmart, who cares about it anymore? Finally, as others have said, market saturation.
Maybe its because everyone IN THE WORLD already has one....
ok not really but you understand what I'm saying, do you not?
have people realized that its a recased gamecube with new remotes?
Recession much?