Q4 failure will spell trouble for Wii

In a frank statement to investors, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has admitted that Wii really has to perform in the marketplace this Christmas if the platform holder is to emerge in a viable position at the start of 2011.

In this critical sales season, if everything doesn’t go ahead just as we hope, and if we do not do anything about it, our platform business will be in trouble,” he stated, as reported by CVG.

We will need to prepare for such situations.”

However, Iwata remains confident that there’s a big enough market out there to guide Wii through what could possibly be a tricky period.

When we see the current situation, and when we analyze the mindsets of people who have not purchased Wii yet, our understanding is that the sales will be much more concentrated during the year-end sales season than before,” he added.

This is not an observation held by Nintendo alone. In fact, as we discuss with many retailers around the world as to what will become of this year-end sales season, most of them view the trend just as we do.

Accordingly, when our consumers are ready to select what they want to purchase for a Christmas gift, how we can encourage them to choose Wii, has now become important. In other words, we do not have the mindset that our home game console business will not see any further growth so therefore, we have to do something to sustain the sales.”