November 20, 2006
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Following the North American launch of the Wii console on Sunday in North America, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime stated that he expects the company will have sold 1 million units in the Americas by early December and 2 million by the second week in January. Fils-Aime also told Reuters that a projected Wii lifespan of 4-6 was “just about right.” While confirming that the console would be profitable from launch, Fils-Aime also stated, “Our focus truly is on growing the industry - getting more women to play, getting older consumers to play. To do that we needed to have the remote be easy, and second, we needed to have the games.”
According to one gaming website, which may or may not be accurate, Wii (as of last night) has sold an impressive 607,004 consoles; PS3 has sold 255,172 units. Despite these sell-out starts, the PS3 and Wii have a long way to go if they want to catch up with Xbox 360, which has sold over 7 million units to date. Speaking of kick-ass next-gen video game consoles…
Video game analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets has said that despite a sold out weekend for both Sony and Nintendo, the real next-gen battle won’t begin until 2007. Nearly all retailers nationwide have pretty much sold out of both Sony’s PS 3 and Nintendo’s Wii, though some retailers have said they expect Wii replenishment as early as later this week. Sebastian has also found that Resistance: Fall of Man and The Legend of Zelda (pictured) have been the two top-seller titles for each respective system.
“We believe sales at video game retailers have improved in early November over October,” said Sebastian, “however, the biggest holiday sales weekends are still ahead. We continue to anticipate that both the PS3 and Wii will sell out at retail through the holiday period, and that the real battle for next-generation leadership will be fought in 2007.” Sebastian also expects that Xbox 360 will get see a bump this holiday season from shortages of the PS3, with retailers “likely to encourage consumers unable to find PS3 or Wii consoles to consider purchasing an Xbox 360,” as well as Epic/Microsoft’s recent blockbuster Gears of War, which he notes has seen strong sell-through according to his retailer checks.
