The Wii dies in Japan

By Mike Bantick
Monday, 16 March 2009 09:50

Entertainment

On the back of Resident Evil 5 bundles, the top of the table name in Japanese console sales is PlayStation.  Meanwhile the Wii continues to dip in sales; even the Xbox 360 is poised to pass the Nintendo weekly shipments.

It is all PlayStation in Japan this week; thus nature balances itself. 

Despite rumours of a revamped Playstation Portable on its way, the PSP has hit the lead on Japanese sales charts, eclipsing the Nintendo DS (and DSi) with as 67 percent increase over the previous week.

The figures below come from Media Create and represent sales from March 2nd through 8th.

- PSP: 59,568    +23,980 (67.38%)
- PS3: 39,835  +3,322 (9.10%)
- DSi: 32,102   -3,725 (10.40%)
- Wii: 16,560  -1,316 (7.36%)
- Xbox 360: 14,994  +3,199 (27.12%)
- DS Lite: 11,240  -534 (4.54%)
- PS2: 4,954  -145 (2.84%)

Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 saw healthy gains, with much of this being attributable to the release of Resident Evil 5 and associated bundle packs.  The PS3 also garnering a boost from the top five software sales inclusion of adventure Ryu ga Gotoku 3 in a bundled pack.

Nintendo are slowly dropping off the Japanese radar, with weekly hardware sales for all Nintendo hardware trending down.

For 2009, the Wii sales in Japan have had it sitting a solid third behind the hand-held Nintendo DS and PSP, but in the last few weeks the Wii has slipped well behind both the Xbox 360 one week, and now struggling to get half of the sales of the PlayStation 3.

Wii Fit is still going strong, but the Wii needs a new killer app to boost its position on the sales chart.  That, or dare I say it?  A price cut.

Given that even the Xbox 360 (traditionally a poor performer in Japan) is snapping at the Nintendo flag ships heels, perhaps it is time for some retail price changing love from the big N.

It is, after all, a long time until the Christmas buying rush, and we are in a global financial crisis, the time is ripe to loosen the reigns just a little on official RRP.

Or, Nintendo can simply do what they have always done to date; release a must have title to keep the masses happy and the cash registers ticking over. 

Perhaps the MotionPlus peripheral and its bundled Wii Sports Resort will be the answer, but as the release date for this has just disappeared off the Nintendo radar, perhaps Wii owners will not be enjoying the enhanced motion definition provided by MotionPlus for some time to come.