The Nintendo Wii and the company’s ancient DS were supposed to be nearly dead, leaving the door ajar for huge market share gains by the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony (NYSE:SNE) PS3. It did not work out the way during December, the height of the holiday sales season.
According to NPD, the research group that tracks game sales, the Nintendo Wii set a record for console sales in any one month, selling 3.81 million units. The DS did nearly as well with sales of 3.31 million.
Xbox and PS3 sales were modest at 1.3 million units each despite the price cuts that Microsoft and Sony made on the machines last October. Nintendo may have bested them by such a large margin because three new games for the Wii console posted tremendous sales–“New Super Mario Brothers”, which sold by 2.82 million units, “Wii Fit Plus” with sales of 2.41 million, and “Wii Sports Resort” which sold 1.79 million.
The data proves that Nintendo’s gamble on a machine that is meant for casual gamers paid off in December. The Wii is targeted at people who have no interest playing complex video games on complex consoles. Wii sales also how that Nintendo has successfully “reinvented” the console’s purpose by turning it into an exercise accessory. Sales of the Wii Fit line reached impressive levels.
Nintendo, one foot in the grave, jumped back to life in a way that almost no expert on the industry forecast.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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