Wii still powering ahead

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 07:59

Opinion and Analysis

So it is the end of month one 2007, and Nintendo is still forging a fiery path of sales success.

With sales of the Wii nearing 4.5 Million and the handheld DS also remaining at the top of the charts, selling 19 million units between April and December last year, Nintendo is riding high on a financial wave.

Being cheaper hardware to produce compared to the rivals from Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo is also raking in a greater profit on each of these sales.  The April to December period saw sales up by 73% for the same period on the previous year to A$5.9 billion.  Operating profit increased more than two fold to A$1.4 billion.

At the moment Nintendo is providing a steady stream of content, especially for the Wii,  in the form of new channels (Opera browser, Forecast weather and News channel ) as well as VC (Virtual Console) items such as Mario Kart 64 recently.

New content is a slight problem, with some developers a little slow to take up the challenges offered by the systems unique control system.  Still the hype is high for Nintendo and they seem to be harvesting the hay whist the sun shines.

Current sales in the next- gen game are; Microsoft Xbox 360 (with a year head start) at  10.4 million.  Trouble in Sony paradise with delivery issues and perceived consumer doubt, at 1.2 million and the Nintendo Wii storming the field at 4.4 million units sold.