And no one is to blame for that except Microsoft. They botched their early start in Japan by trying to market the console in a North American way with a lineup that had limited appeal to that market, and Japanese gamers didn't bite. I mean, there's only so many gamers who are willing to buy DoA4 to satiate their digital bewb fetish. Not sure what's going on in Europe, though.soundwave05 said:
Wii is doing what Nintendo set out to do with it... exploit the weaknesses of their competitors and putting their own weaknesses in places that the casual, lapsed and anti gaming consumer is mostly ambivalent towards.
Anyways, to the topic... Nintendo promised 4 million consoles shipped in 2006, with the largest majority going to North America... the only reason anyone should be surprised that Nintendo lived up to their end of the bargain is if they actually were foolish enough to listen to GAF... you know, that whole "easily obtainable at launch" and "no one will want one in North America, this is a console for Japan only", that sort of jazz. Nintendo is historically known for following up on or exceeding their posted sales estimates in every region, with GameCube being the only real exception to this rule. The only thing they have a history of not living up to is their release date estimates.
And I'm going on record to say that I expect at least 75 million Wii consoles sold worldwide by 2011. If I were to aim, though, we're looking at it busting 100 million, simply on the virtue that Wii has become one of the most well-recieved and fastest-selling console in Europe, a market that has traditionally suffered from a disinterest in video games despite a large and diverse population that went uncapitalized by the industry. If anything, opening the market up to lapsed and non-gamers will see the best and most amazing results on that continent, and with Nintendo being the only one capitalizing on that, the market is all theirs.
