During a financial briefing, Nintendo CEO and President Satoru Iwata has revealed to sales figures to investors that show that Wii and DS still performing admirably despite the company posting a six-month profit loss of $25 million.
“I hope each and all of these charts will convince you that Wii, as a machine set to welcome its fifth holiday sales season, can never be considered to have lost momentum,” Iwata opened, before explaining that there is a high yet unpredictable demand for the Wii console during the Christmas period.
Whilst acknowledging the company’s profit loss, Iwata placed such blame on having to “re-evaluate” assets into Japanese yen. “Many of you must have the impression that Nintendo’s business, which surged with the sales of Nintendo DS and Wii, has already peaked,” he stated, before continuing to discredit such statements within his presentation.
Iwata was also keen to discuss the DS, stating that Europe was “the market where illegal copies [of DS games] have spread most widely among all the advanced nations in the world,” although it was “too premature” to state outright that piracy is the “sole reason” for dwindling sales.
“We assume that several reasons are intertwined,” he began to discuss. “The days when any Nintendo DS software could sell are over, and consumers have become more selective. As a result, the gap in unit sales between hit titles and non-hit titles has expanded and, almost at the same time, illegal copies have spread across Europe. Also, after the Nintendogs and Brain Training software titles showed explosive sales there, we have been unable to offer another software title that European consumers really feel like purchasing.”
Iwata also acknowledged that the UK had the “smallest number” of Nintendo games within its chart, especially in regards to recent DS releases. “It looks like UK citizens are currently paying more attention to home consoles,” he observed. “What is unique about the UK is – similar to the US – Xbox 360 has a strong presence. Multi-platform titles are selling more on Xbox 360. This situation is very different from Germany, France and Spain.”
In conclusion, Iwata commented that the “situation surrounding us today does not allow us to be optimistic. Even when we may be able to anticipate the exciting year-end sales, some may still argue that the company does not have a software line-up which can be compared with the strong titles from last year’s holiday season.”
Iwata: The Wii “can never be considered to have lost momentum”
