Okay, so less than two weeks ago, I penned a piece about the video-game wars. Sony (NYSE: SNE), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) are battling it out in the marketplace with their respective consoles. I proffered that perhaps Nintendo might be making too many Wii systems because, at the time of the piece, I noticed that, in my area, stores had plenty of Wii's (and plenty of Wii Fit units, too). If you wanted a Nintendo system, you got it. Well, let me give you an update on how the Wii's are faring where I am, as well as some sales data from November.
I have to say, I turned out to be wrong. And I have to say that those who left comments on my Wii article turned out to be correct. They took me to task for suggesting that the Wii needed to be limited. Indeed, another check of the Wii supply showed that all the stores around me sold out of their inventories. And now, I've been hearing that everyone is desperate yet again to score the console! In fact, here's an interesting thing not about the Wii, but about the Wii Fit. There was one store that had a huge number of them, boxes piled high. They were gone in something like a few days flat, quite unexpectedly. Now, as I cautioned in my previous piece, please don't take this one account as any sort of scientific conclusion about Nintendo's prospects. Nevertheless, I'm amazed at how fast things have changed in such a short period of time.
And now, let's look at some sales figures for the month of November. Once again, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 couldn't come close to the Wii. The Xbox 360 moved more than 830,00 units, while the PlayStation 3 sold over 370,000 systems. Nintendo's sales? Try more than 2 million. Casual gaming truly is king. I don't think there's any doubt that the Wii will dominate in December. And in terms of Sony and Microsoft, I think the latter will wind up in second place. These are predictions that are pretty obvious. No need to go out on any limb.
At least Microsoft could claim the top-selling game in November. The company's Gears of War 2 title sold more than1.5 million copies. But in my mind, the big story is how Nintendo continues to define the current video-game cycle. The decision by Nintendo to focus on increasing shipments of its popular gaming hardware was the right one. Now all it has to do is make sure that consumers attach as many games as possible to every Wii. Nintendo doesn't want its installed user base to stop at Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit. There are a ton of games out there from all the major publishers (and the minor ones, too). Buying a Wii is hopefully only the first step in Nintendo's relationship with a new owner.
Looks like Mario is going to have one heck of a holiday season.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.










