Posts Tagged ‘Wii’

The plot: A kind protagonist with a new idea for the world. A life of fame that reaches tens of millions and makes them smile. An illness as unexpected as fatal. A long and painful death. An unnoticed funeral for a forgotten hero.

Announcing a new product before it is actually available can be a great tool to build anticipation. Done in the wrong way, you may shoot yourself in the foot and kill your company. Luckily enough, Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U isn’t strong enough to have such an impact.

Nintendo’s annual earnings statement is nothing short of a disaster, but there is help in sight. The company will demonstrate the successor of the Wii in June at E3 and sell it in 2012.

Word on the street is that Nintendo is preparing to launch a new game console at E3 in June, which would be rather surprising, given the fact that the Wii isn’t even 5 years old and just three quarters through its anticipated lifecycle. Sales, however, have collapsed and Nintendo needs to support a game system that has changed the way we understand video games today.

It’s not much of a secret anymore that Nintendo has to do something about its Wii console and that it gets run over by Microsoft’s Xbox and possibly even Sony’s Playstation 3, at least in the U.S. A new generation of the Wii may arrive soon and integrate HD capability, EA said in an interview.

The Wii saw record sales in 2010, but 2010 was also the year of decline as shipments dropped sharply. 2011 may be even more difficult for Nintendo as the company is not planning any major additions to the Wii hardware. Nintendo has sold more than 2.3 million Wiis in December, but the console posted a 28% decline in U.S. shipments in 2010.

Power consumption may not be your first concern when you are playing video games, but when your kids are playing for hours every day and you occasionally hear the fan spinning up to cool the console down, you may wonder how much power these entertainment machines consume. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has the numbers.

Analysis – U.S. game console shipments saw a nice bounce-back, which were largely driven by new accessories such as the Kinect motion sensor as well as blockbuster game releases. Both the Xbox 360 and Wii were able to capitalize on the opportunity, while the PS3 saw a surprising year-over-year drop in unit shipments, according to NPD.

Analysis – Kinect is a brave move by Microsoft. If you were confused which console or controller you should buy this Christmas season, your decision may now be a lot easier than a year ago. Kinect effectively changes the direction of the Xbox 360, and turns into an entirely different proposition than the PS3 or the Wii. Buying the right console may never have been easier than today. Each console shoots for a slightly different market and the outcome of this battle is open.

The worst job right now? Marketing at Nintendo and pitching the benefits of the Wii. The company’s attempts to counter the upcoming launch of Microsoft Kinect could be considered a bit out of tune at best and desperate at worst. Why would you care how many Wii remotes have been sold in the U.S.?

Netflix subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can now stream content through their game consoles without a separate disc.

We have said before that Christmas 2010 does not look too promising for Nintendo as Wii sales are declining, but it appears that the company won’t be celebrating at all this year as it just announced that the highly anticipated 3DS will launch in February 2011 – in Japan.