Nintendo Wii wins delivery stakes

Stan Beer
Sunday, 10 December 2006 08:18

Your IT - Home IT

With an estimated 1 million Wii consoles already sold in Japan and the US, 50,000 sold across Europe within hours and almost as many again sold in Australia, Nintendo has beaten Sony in the global delivery stakes for new generation consoles in 2006. However, the race has been determined as much by supply as demand.

In fact demand for both the Wii and the PlayStation 3 has been red hot ever since both consoles were previewed at the E3 games show in May this year. However, while Nintendo production of the less high-tech laden Wii has been roaring along at a great pace, the Sony production lines have been plagued with problems, mostly to do with the much vaunted and often maligned on-board Blu-ray player.

As a result, Nintendo looks like making good of delivering 4 million Wii units globally before the clock strikes midnight on December 31 2006. Not only has the Wii sold like hotcakes in the US and Japan, but last week's releases in Australia and Europe claimed similarly enthusiastic receptions. The Wii has now sold more than  1 million units globally and looks headed toward 2 million within a week or so.

The contrast with the debut of PS3 could not be more stark. Only Japan and US have seen PS3 on store shelves so far, and the supply has been so limited that gamers have a better chance of picking up a unit on eBay if they're prepared to pay the price. If current estimates are correct, PS3 has probably sold less than 400,000 units in the US and Japan because that's all the company has been able to deliver to date.

Sony's promises of delivering 2 million PS3 units to the US and Japan before the end of 2006 is beginning to look like a joke. Even the target of 6 million units by the end of March, when the units are supposed to be available in Europe and Australia seems out of reach.

However, in Sony's favour are the incredibly loyal fan base of the PS range of consoles, already demonstrated by red hot demand, and the sheer power of the technology contained in the PS3, which boasts the Cell processor and integrated Blu-ray player. Another factor that could work in Sony's favour is that by the time PS3 hits stores in reasonable quantities, the initial excitement over the release of Wii is likely to have worn off.

However, when Sony does get PS3 units to store shelves in enough quantity to satisfy demand, the Japanese company will find that it trails both Nintendo and Microsoft in the new generation consoles market by millions of units.