Nintendo sent out a very glowing press release a little while ago. The Wii has overtaken the Xbox 360 with the most console sales in the US. Damn!
In the 20 months it’s been on the market, the Wii has sold roughly 10.9 million units, with 660k last month. And for the record, the DS was the top seller in June with 783k units sold.
Whether you like it or not, the Wii is a deadly force to be reckoned with. The casual gamer loves the Wii and Nintendo has brought gaming to the masses. Kudos!
Here’s the full press release:
After 20 Months, NPD Data Shows Wii Emerges as the No. 1 U.S. Home Console
Equaling its status on a worldwide basis, Wii™ has become the best-selling video game console in the United States. According to independent sales tracking information from the NPD Group, more than 666,000 Wii consoles sold for the month of June, and nearly 10.9 million Wii consoles have been sold in the United States in the 20 months following its November 2006 launch. The system is credited with breaking down the psychological barriers between gamers and non-gamers.
“Wii was created with the goal of expanding the gaming universe through its intuitive motion-sensing controller,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “As we have demonstrated this week during the E3 Media & Business Summit, Wii continues to pioneer new ways for people to interact with their video games and with one another.”
The portable Nintendo DS™ finished as the top-selling U.S. video game system in June, with more than 783,000 units sold. To date, more than 20.8 million Nintendo DS units have been sold in the United States.
The report also shows that six out of the top 10 best-selling games for June are made for Nintendo systems, including Guitar Hero® On Tour (No. 2), Wii Fit™ (No. 4), Wii Play™ (No. 5), Mario Kart® Wii (No. 6), LEGO® Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures for Wii (No. 7) and LEGO® Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures for Nintendo DS (No. 9).
I know I have one, so it makes it difficult for me to bash it. I wanted to love the Wii, but quite honestly it has been little more than a gimmick. Sure, they released a handful of good games (Mario, SSBB, Trauma Center, DBZ to name a few) but nothing really noteworthy. This console has nothing that makes me head home to play it. Bowling is awesome (and gets most of my Wii playtime), but only when friends are over.
Gratz to Nintendo their Wii is printing money! My Wii only get play time when my friends are over for a GG of Brawl. Has anyone laughed at Reggie lately? When he was asked are the games for core gamers (after their conferance) he said “C’mon what more can you want, you got Animal Crossing Wii & GTA:CW. We heard the internet and now were giving you what you want.” Ok. this is not exactly what hesaid but it was along these lines.
Reggie basically said, whatever we publish, core gamers will buy. And if you don’t buy it, you’re not core.
The Wii prints $$$ right now. It is hard ot understand why it ocntinues to do so well. I can understand people like myself that rushed ot get one thinking of the great potential it had but now that people continue ot hear of the lack of games it sitll sells well intot he casual market. All of the games are geared to children and casual gamers, guess the casual gamer has deep pockets.
the wii does so well because it hits two markets that sony and microsoft have not catered to like the wii has. kids and party play. everyone that has a wii says they mainly only use it as a group console with friends at home. this is a huge market. these are the people who are buying singstar and rockband and soon to be microsofts lips. And while a lot of kids do own ps3 or xbox 360s, they are very “adult” consoles in price, function, and content. The wii wins because it is family, friendly, and affordable. If you are a parent with a kid nagging about gaming, you are gonna roll out and get the safest, cheapest thing you can… enter the wii.
I think the reason that the Wii is doing so well is that it has the appeal, but doesn’t deliver after that. I know that my friend has not really touched his wii (haha…) in forever and it is just collecting dust. Basically it is the cool thing to have, but you really don’t use it that much.