According to Nintendo’s latest financials, the Wii console has topped 70 million units sold worldwide, seeing 20.53 million sales in the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2010.
The number, 70.93 million, is good for about 49 percent of the home console market, with rivals Xbox 360 and PS3 controlling 27 and 24 percent, respectively.
For the year, sales of the Wii hardware jumped in Japan to 2.38 million from 2.06 million, but sales in the Americas fell drastically from 12.93 million to 9.86 million. In the EU and other nations, sales fell from 10.96 million to 8.30 million.
Overall, software sales decreased, but “million-seller titles” jumped from 54 to 79.
Software sales fell from 204.58 million to 191.81 million, with sales only rising in Japan.
Result for: wii
According to GameStop, recent PS3 and Wii hardware shortages will continue for some time, both in store and online.
“I am not exactly sure that I have a total answer, obviously, it is a question that we ask the platform holders,” said the company during their recent earnings conference call. “Consequently, I can tell you that we do anticipate that we will be in that situation for the PS3 for another couple of months, unfortunately, because we could sell a lot more hardware than what we have on both that and the Wii platform.”
Fortunately for would-be Wii buyers, the retail store says it expects the Wii to be back in stock before the PS3.
As for why both consoles are in shortages? The “unprecedented demand” has left the companies “still scrambling to catch up from the December surge of hardware that occurred.” In December, the Wii set an all-time record for most consoles sold in a month in the U.S.
Result for: wii
Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO of Nintendo of America, has told Forbes that the company is not ready yet to begin work on a new home console to replace the Wii. “When the software developer comes forward with an idea that can’t be executed on the current platform, that’s when we start thinking seriously about the next system. We’re not there yet, from a Wii perspective,” he said.
Fils-Aime once against mirrored Nintendo’s general attitude toward including the latest technology in games consoles, saying that as an enabler, technology has to enable a new and unique experience for players. “So when people talk about high definition for the Wii console our feedback is that that by itself will not create a brand new experience,” he said.
“Therefore, we’re not interested. What we have to push for are groundbreaking new experiences. Technology has to enable it, not to be a means all by itself.” He said that Nintendo has no plans to sell virtual items like rivals, saying the company does not feel it is an idea that creates value for the consumer.
On the issue of the new motion controllers on the horizon for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3), Fils-Aime cautioned that the competition will face its own challenges in terms of the need to develop compelling software and to offer it as a competitive price.
“They will be separately challenged because the motion-enabled part of their business will only be a small part of their line. For us, it’s core to what we do,” he said.
