Cumulative sales of Nintendo’s Wii have overtaken those of the Xbox 360, making it the world’s best-selling next-generation games console in spite of having been on the market a year less than Microsoft’s machine.
The move puts Nintendo, a quirky Kyoto-based company dwarfed in size by Microsoft, back squarely at the top of the console market, a position it last held 17 years ago with the Nintendo and Super Nintendo consoles.
After more than a decade of dominance by Sony’s PlayStation consoles, Nintendo has turned the tables on its rivals with the easy-to-use Wii, which has captured the hearts and wallets of many consumers who have never before bought a games console.
Analysts said the Wii was boosted by steady sales through the summer while sales of the Xbox and the PlayStation3 lagged behind due to a dearth of new software titles.
According to sales data from each console’s launch through to the end of July (or the end of August in Japan), consumers have bought 9m Wiis, 8.9m Xbox units and 3.7m PS3s.
The data is based on sales figures from Enterbrain in Japan, NPD Group of the US and GfK of Germany, which tracks European sales.
After failing miserably with its GameCube console, which was positioned directly against the PS2 and the Xbox, Nintendo shifted gears and aimed at casual gamers with the Wii.
Nintendo’s reclaimed supremacy was underlined in July when it leapfrogged consumer electronics giant Sony in market capitalisation for the first time. “The fact of the matter is that, despite the Xbox’s earlier launch in November 2005, it only sells in two markets – Europe and the US,” said one analyst in Tokyo. “Japan is home turf to Sony and Nintendo, so the Xbox is not a player at all. In contrast, Nintendo has been selling well in all three major markets.”
Another factor boosting sales of the Wii is its $249 price-tag compared with $300-$400 for the Xbox 360 and $599 for the PS3, though prices of all three consoles are expected to drop by the crucial holiday shopping season.
Separately, Sony on Wednesday said it would launch four new models of Blu-ray high-definition optical disc recorders in November in Japan as part of its quest to win the format wars with the competing HD-DVD technology.
