Nintendo's famous non-Beatle, NOA marketing chief George Harrison, told Bloomberg yesterday that Nintendo Co., Ltd. expects to move 35 million Wiis by 2011 or 2012.
35 million units sold would put Wii's record just shy of Sony's record 38.2 million sales of PlayStation 2, Bloomberg notes. Harrison says Nintendo is increasing Wii production in Chinese factories in light of the intense demand for the little white box, having moved 2.5 million since its introduction in November. "Demand is much greater than we anticipated," Harrison said. "A year ago no one thought we would be in this position."
In the same period, Sony has sold 1.3 million of Wii's generational competitor, the PlayStation 3. Microsoft, with a year's head start on both consoles, has moved 5.4 million of their Xbox 360. In April, according to market researcher NPD, Wii was ahead of all competitors, selling 360,000 units vs. 194,000 PlayStation 2s, 174,000 Xbox 360s, and 82,000 PlayStation 3s.
With success like this, Harrison said Nintendo has no plans to cut the Wii's attractive $250 price tag any time soon. In addition, Nintendo will be looking at the market differently in the future, in light of their success over Sony's and Microsoft's offerings. "We're starting to see in the performance of the PS3 and Xbox 360 that that's not necessarily motivating the market the way it used to," he said. "So we're going to start work on future technology only when we believe it's necessary."
35 million units sold would put Wii's record just shy of Sony's record 38.2 million sales of PlayStation 2, Bloomberg notes. Harrison says Nintendo is increasing Wii production in Chinese factories in light of the intense demand for the little white box, having moved 2.5 million since its introduction in November. "Demand is much greater than we anticipated," Harrison said. "A year ago no one thought we would be in this position."
In the same period, Sony has sold 1.3 million of Wii's generational competitor, the PlayStation 3. Microsoft, with a year's head start on both consoles, has moved 5.4 million of their Xbox 360. In April, according to market researcher NPD, Wii was ahead of all competitors, selling 360,000 units vs. 194,000 PlayStation 2s, 174,000 Xbox 360s, and 82,000 PlayStation 3s.
With success like this, Harrison said Nintendo has no plans to cut the Wii's attractive $250 price tag any time soon. In addition, Nintendo will be looking at the market differently in the future, in light of their success over Sony's and Microsoft's offerings. "We're starting to see in the performance of the PS3 and Xbox 360 that that's not necessarily motivating the market the way it used to," he said. "So we're going to start work on future technology only when we believe it's necessary."