Given the incredible sales of the Wii you might be hard-pressed to find someone using the word “struggling” to define the console. However, that’s the picture painted by none other than Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who says the company’s console may be in trouble if it doesn’t see a big bump in Christmas sales.
“Accordingly, when our consumers are ready to select what they want to purchase for a Christmas gift, how we can encourage them to choose Wii, has now become important. In other words, we do not have the mindset that our home game console business will not see any further growth so therefore, we have to do something to sustain the sales,” said Iwata in a conference call.
“Having said that, however, in that critical sales season, if everything doesn’t go ahead just as we hope, and if we do not do anything about it, our platform business will be in trouble. We will need to prepare for such situations.”
Though the Wii burst out of the gate sales-wise, things have slowed recently as market saturation has begun to set in. While the Wii was a hot commodity its first couple years on the market, once supply caught up with demand and the allure of the console’s motion controls wore off things began taking a turn. Nintendo is now finding that the casual market they’ve worked so hard to court up to now can be a fickle group, and with hardcore gamers choosing the Xbox 360 or PS3 over the Wii Nintendo finds itself in a strangely vulnerable position.
Nintendo’s strategy seems to be to appeal to nostalgic gamers while trying one more trick to rope in the casual crowd. The company has already launched a new Metroid game this year with Other M debuting over the summer, not to mention Kirby’s Epic Yarn launching this month. The of course there’s also Zelda: Skyward Sword and a new Donkey Kong Country in the pipeline. All these games are attempts at recapturing the company’s core fanbase, and maybe energizing console sales for those who don’t yet own a Wii but have fond memories of their days with a Super Nintendo or N64.
Nintendo is also hoping that the new Wii Remote Plus will renew interest in the console, and that the promise of built-in MotionPlus will sway those who have stayed away for one reason or another until now. It’s a longshot, but it’s definitely better than sitting back and doing nothing.
So if the Wii doesn’t turn it around by Christmas is the once king of consoles now deposed? When we write the history of this console cycle will the Wii be a major success story or a flash in the pan that proves how dangerous it is to market your device at non-core gamers? What are your feelings on the device?
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