NINTENDO: ‘Wii slump’ claims are false

Think the Wii market is ‘starting to wane’? Then you’re just plain wrong, says Nintendo.

At its E3 briefing today, the firm’s North America boss Reggie Fils-Aime passionately defended the platform and rubbished suggestions the platform’s momentum was slowing, saying ‘false assumptions’ were being made about the market.

Fils-Aime was incredulous to suggestions that the market is over-saturated and that Wii owners don’t play or buy many games.

He said: "Last December in America we set the all time record sales for any video game system of any kind in a single month.

"Others claim that all those causal Wii owners don’t buy games. But somehow more games have sold for Wii in the 43 months since launch than any other platform ever over the same period.

"Then there’s a recent NPS study showing Wii owners actually play their systems more often than other owners. And at the same time according to IPSO as many people intend to buy a Wii in the next six months as the other two formats combined."

Fils-Aime added that these ‘false assumptions’ lead to the "Mistaken belief that Wii owners just play Wii Sports and Wii Fit for a while and then lose interest.

"That simply isn’t the case," he remarked.

He concluded by saying that instead, Nintendo’s casual Wii audience likes ‘bridging games’ that introduce them to well known mechanics.

He added: "The reason is the popularity of intermediate or ridge games that user layers toward gaming."

Key titles for this are Mario Kart Wii (which has sold 22m worldwide) and New Super Mario Bros Wii (14m worldwide so far) – Reggie said new games like Wii Party and Just Dance 2 were continuing the trend, too.