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Wii Sales Falling in Japan
Nintendo’s Wii was the only console to see full negative growth last week at the Japanese retailers.
Sales of the DSi, DS Lite, PSP, Xbox 360 and PS2 all saw gains of some kind, yet Nintendo’s home console watched its weekly turnover fall by another 3,000 units.
The Wii’s unit turnover had been falling throughout January, yet all its competitors had felt a similar loss. The system’s sales have plummeted by 96,000 units since the week ending Jan 4, and has shown the least buoyancy during the general hardware slump in Japan.
For the Week ending Feb 1, Wii sales fell to 23,278 units. DSi sales climbed some 4,000 units to reach 55,613, while the PSP’s gains were even higher; climbing around 6,000 units to reach weekly sales of 44,135.
The PS3 technically saw its sales fall – unit turnover was down by some 300 units – but the system continues to gain ground over the Wii. Two weeks ago the sales gap between the two systems was at 12,000 units, last week the gap was as wide as 9,000 units; today the distance is 6,000 units.
Full list for the week ending Feb 1 according to Media Create:
DSi. 55,613
PSP. 44,135
Wii. 23,278
PS3. 17,405
DS Lite. 15,147
Xbox 360. 8,107
PS2. 5,334
Last Week.
2009 Japanese sales history.
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The Wii needs some software. It's pretty much a given that the PS3 will outsell the Wii during some weeks (Yakuza 3, for one).
This statement is misleading though: "the PS3 continues to gain ground over the Wii." In order for the PS3 to "gain ground", it would have to actually OUTSELL the Wii. The Wii's LTD in Japan is close to 8 million. The PS3's intalled base is just under 3 million. If the Wii sells just 1,000 more units than the PS3 each week, how is the PS3's LTD "gaining ground" over the Wii's LTD? See how that doesn't make sense? As long as the Wii is outselling the PS3 each week, it is LOSING ground to the Wii.
Even if Ninty doesn't have any compelling software to drive units just yet, they have yet to:
- release different color Wiis
- bundle significant software
- drop the price
Sony has done all of those for the PS3 on several occasions.
All Nintendo need to do to turn that around is cut the price and release the Wii in some interesting new colours, same as they've done before with the DS, and the consumer storm will resume.
Upon release the Wii saw massive unit sales in Japan and until recently very little has changed. The concole could only go so far before it started to fall..just.
These sales figures are in no way long term indicators as to Nintendo's eastern precence. The company (or more specifically the Wii) is going through a rough patch at the moment but with some carefully timed releases, this trend is nothing that Nintendo can't bounce back from.
Having said that, the eastern market is probably the hardest to win over so this could take some time.That doesn't nessiccarily mean that they should abandon the eastern market and concentrate the majority of thier efforts on the western front. Nintendo are relativley safe over here.
If Sony did manage to close the gap in Japan, well then that would just be salt in the wound for Iwata wouldn't it? With Killzone 2 on the way, that prospect is starting to look more and more like a probability.
I don't think Killzone 2 will have much of an impact on Japanese PS3 sales since it is a Western-developed game and fps games are traditionally not very popular in Japan.
the PS3 will start closing the gap in Japan soon with its strong upcoming lineup of SF4, RE5 & Yakuza 3
I agree. I think the PS3 will outsell the Wii on the release of a couple of those games. It won't put even a tiny dent in the Wii's 5 million system LTD lead, but it'll certainly help the PS3 outsell the Wii for a few weeks.
GO PS2!
This is not at all surprising considering how quickly the console was selling in Japan. While the Wii is not doomed in the slightest in the Japanese market, it has reached a peak.
This peak is a combination of the Wii reaching the majority of people wanting to buy it at this price and with these games.
Monster Hunter 3 has yet to be released. When that is released, you will see a large influx of console sales. That is only one of several popular franchises in Japan
The Wii has yet to drop in price. When Nintendo drops the price, there will be a huge influx of console sales.
Nintendo still has plenty of tricks up their sleeve to keep the Wii afloat. So don't count them out.
Subtitle: Nintendo’s Wii was the only console to see full negative growth last week at the Japanese retailers.
1st sentence of 4th paragraph: The PS3 technically saw its sales fall – unit turnover was down by some 300 units
Then I guess the Wii wasn't the ONLY console to see negative growth then, wasn't it? Nice writing.
I appreciate your comment, Ozzman, but I beg to differ.
A fall of 305 units – coupled with the fact that such measurements cannot ever be absolutely accurate – should be considered a negligible loss, and not "full negative growth."
It is a loss, though small. Whatever you choose to call it, it is still a loss. It certainly doesn't make it positive growth. That leaves either no growth or negative growth. It went down a very small margain so obviously there was change, therefore no growth would be inaccurate. That leaves................?
Edit: Not trying to be a jerk or anything, though as I read it back, it might come off that way. I just don't think negative growth, no matter how small, can just be waved off because it is small. Though there may be a margin of error involved, margins of error can go both ways, which could mean it's bigger, not just smaller. Besides, if we start second guessing Media Creates' results as soon as the numbers get small, then we are second guessing the whole operation's ability to report accurately, which means any of their figures could be discarded.
Timely article. This just illustrates what Iwata said in the artice earlier this week about how irrelevant Japan has become to the global home console market. If this trend continues, Australia's going to surpass Japan in sales before long.
its only become irrelevant since the Wii took the market leader position, Japan's home console market was doing just fine when the PS1 & PS2 were the market leaders
Are you implying that the Wii is responsible for Japanese growing irrelevance in the console market? Because that wouldn't make much sense.
If you want to blame something, blame the DS and PSP.
I think he was, and it seems like the answer wouldn't be an obvious one. I think it's hard to say really. Maybe it's just the japanese taste is going away from consoles and more into the portable space as you mentioned. I don't know, but seeing the PSP and DS perform well it leads me to believe they just aren't into consoles as much. It's not like they don't have options?
Interesting point Shin.
Sony is safe. They are still outselling the 360 & they haven't used the price slash weapon. (LOL)
Nintendo is safe. They are still outselling the PS3 and they haven't used the price slash weapon.
It's no wonder Nintendo is talking about shifting its focus to the West. I don't think it's much more than a threat, though. Nintendo will dust off another series they have neglected and the globe will eat it up, Japan included.
What will it mean, though, if Sony manages to significantly narrow the gap in Japan? There is still a lot of time before that's an option though, I think.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Well, Japan is the smallest market and Sony outselling the Wii there won't mean much to worldwide numbers (where the Wii is killing both the 360 and PS3).