Run for the hills, it’s all coming to an end! Wii sales have dropped! PS3 sales are up! The world is spinning out of control, people. In a recent talk with IndustryGamer, analyst Michael Pachter has said just as much, revealing that the Wii’s sales are down 50 percent year-to-year over the last five months and he expects them to continue dropping if Nintendo doesn’t start selling a new bundle or cutting the price of their system as its two competitors have done.
“Until the late August PS3 price cut, the Xbox 360 appealed to consumers, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition (the Xbox 360 ‘core’ model was priced $100 lower than the PS3). With the core PS3 and Xbox 360 models priced only $50 higher than the Wii, we expect year-over-year sales of Wii hardware to continue their annual declines until the company either changes its bundle or lowers price. Wii unit sales are 50% below last year’s level over the last five months, and we think that September sales will repeat the pattern,” Pachter said.
What should be noted is that “below last year’s level” for the month of August is still 277,000 units sold in the US alone (more than the 360 or the PS3). That’s not bad at all. In fact, it’s good. See, half of a bajillion kazillion is still a bajillion, and when Nintendo turns a profit on every system it sells I just don’t see them desperately clawing for extra market space just because their competitors are seeing an increase in sales. While a Wii price drop is sure to be coming at some point in the future I don’t think it will be because Nintendo came in first place yet again.
