Nintendo President and CEO, Satoru Iwata, has said there is plenty of potential for further DS growth despite claims that the market is saturated from critics. Iwata compares the sales made in Japan, relative to its population and compares to Europe and developing markets. “Some say the market for the DS is saturated, but I disagree,” said Iwata, speaking to the Daily Yomiuri.
“In Japan, a country with a population of 127 million, we’ve sold 23 million DS units. The United States is inhabited by over 300 million people, and there are more than 490 million people in the European Union. Sales of the product could grow further in foreign countries considering their populations.”
Outside of Europe, Iwata is also watching emerging markets in Russia and India, but said Nintendo is monitoring the global economic downturn closely after having a very successful year in 2008. “I think the game industry will keep doing well in 2009. However, the current economic recession is something that happens only once in 50 or 100 years. We have to monitor the market very carefully,” he said.
Result for: economic downturn
Disney has announced that they have dropped the third Chronicles of Narnia film after deciding that co-producing and distributing the film, entitled “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” would prove too costly given the economic downturn.
The decision will leave the production company Walden Media on its own looking for a new partner to release the third film.
The new movie would have had a budget of over $200 million USD but its box office return was uncertain given the current climate and the diminished returns of the second movie in the franchise. The first film, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” grossed $745 million USD worldwide but its sequel, “Prince Caspian” only made $418 million worldwide.
For the time being, it is being reported that 20th Century Fox is a possibility to back the new movie, however they will require a tighter budget.
For a good opinion piece on why Disney is making a terrible mistake, read here: A ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ voyage Disney should take
Result for: economic downturn
The combination of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, Sirius-XM, will begin merging channels next week. The new company has 19 million paying subscribers currently, and despite an economic downturn, it is expecting growth. A drop off in car sales is somewhat threatening to its future business prospects however. While the company is being quiet about the exact details of programming change, many stations from the previous companies are expected to be merged if they provide similar content.
There will also be new subscription offerings for each system, with XM subscribers getting Sirius content like Howard Stern and the NFL for an extra $4 per month. All existing XM radios will get the Best of Sirius package, whereas only the recently-released Sirius Starmate 5 will be able to get the Best of XM package.
The Starmate 5 will get a la carte options as well, with users able to pick their 50 - 100 favorite stations for a lower monthly fee.
