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Wii sales take a 43% tumble ... why?

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According to Nintendo, global sales of the once popular Wii games console have slumped 43% during the first half of the fiscal year (H1 '10). Figures released by Nintendo show that in the six months to the end of September 5.7 million Wii consoles were sold, compared to 10.1 million a year ago (H1 '09). At the same time, global game sales have fallen by 6%. 76.2m Wii games were sold during H1 '10 compared to 81.4 million for H1 '09. Speaking to Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, Nintendo’s CEO, Satoru Iwata said that “Wii has stalled," and that "We were unable to continue to release strong software." Overall, this is pretty bad news for Nintendo which as seen a 52% drop in net profit during H1 '10, down to $721 million. The company has also cut net profit forecasts for the '10 fiscal year by 23%, down to $2.5 billion. So, what's wrong with the Wii? Saturation might have something to do with it, but I can't help but feel that the platform needs a hardware refresh. I like the Wii but often wonder how cool it would be if it had the graphics power of an Xbox 360 or PS3 ... along with those innovative Wii remotes, the combination would be a killer. As it stands right now, the platform seems dated.

posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
October 30, 2009 @ 5:33 am

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