Wii: how Nintendo got its groove back
By John Pospisil
Nintendo once ruled the console world. Its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems (SNES) helped revitalize the games industry after the big console crash of 1983. But for the past few years Nintendo has been in the games console wilderness.
Wii helping Nintendo get its groove back
Nintendo lost its way with the Nintendo 64 and GameCube, letting newer entrants like Sony and Microsoft to muscle in on its traditional market.
Sure, the GameCube had a following, but it was more of a cult following, and it was seen by many as a console for kids.
The sales numbers tell the story:
Nintendo sold just 21 million Game Cubes, compared to 33 million Nintendo 64s, compared to almost 50 million Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems (SNES).
You can see that ever since SNES, Nintendo has been in a steady decline.
But with a clever product, good pricing, and a little bit of luck, Nintendo has quickly turned its fortunes around with the Wii.
Nintendo has sold more than 1.1 million Wiis in the US market since its launch in November.
This compares to around 680,000 Sony PlayStation 3s during the same period. The Playstation 3 was also launched late last year, but Sony has had logistics and production problems, and has not been able to produce as many units as it had initially expected (this is why Nintendo has been “lucky”).
While the Wii has still got a long way to go to catch up with Microsoft’s XBox 360 (which has sold more than 7 million units worldwide), if you compare XBox 360 sales of 600,000 units in the US during its launch period (late 2005), you can see that by comparison, the Wii is doing very well indeed.
Just a few months ago most commentators would have said that this round of the console wars was going to be between Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.
However, now it’s very clear that it will be a fight between the Xbox 360 and the Wii, with Playstation 3 in third place. It looks like this time Sony will be the niche player.
Finally Nintendo has a shot at reclaiming some of its former glory.
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Read more entries by John Pospisil.
Stumble It!
January 31st, 2007
It wasn’t a matter of luck in regards to how many Wiis were sold.
For example you can walk into any game store or big box store and pick up a ps3, but you still can’t pick up a wii.
I think that Sony, not been able to produce as many units at launch as expected, was their lucky break. Imagine if they had enough at launch, say 2.5 million, and before the end of the holidays there were still PS3s lined up on the shelves with no buyers, kinda like it is now.
Otherwise, good article.
January 31st, 2007
How Nintendo got its groove back
Tech.Blorge.com’s John Pospisil has written an article on how Nintendo seems to have rebounded from its decline ever since their NES heyday times. Excerpt and link below:
Nintendo sold just 21 million Game Cubes, compared to 33 million Nintendo …
February 1st, 2007
They weren’t “lucky”. They worked hard. Wii is an extremely clever and well designed product.
It looks like you think that the Wii success is due to the sony shipment problems. Shipment is one thing and selling is something else. Simply visit any store and you will notice that there are shortages of Wii not of PS3.
Sony has a huge problem with their price. It is simply too expensive.
Nobody clearly understands the gain you may expect from it. They claim that PS3 will become the media center. So what? I can have a DVD player and a gaming console for half of their price. Blue-Ray? I will consider this technology once it will become mainstream.