Following yesterday's NPD results for May, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter noted how the Wii's software sales continue to decline, which he sees as a bad sign for the system and its publisher support.
"Wii software sales were down 19% year-over-year and DS software sales were down 13%, while PS3 software sales were up 58% and Xbox 360 software sales were up 29%. We think this is remarkable, given growth in the Wii hardware installed base of 44% and growth in the DS installed base of 33% over the last 12 months. In contrast, the PS3 installed base is up 60% and the Xbox 360 installed base is up 32% over the same period. Software sales growth mirrored hardware unit growth for both the PS3 and Xbox 360, but sorely lagged hardware unit growth for the Wii and DS. In our view, this indicates that Nintendo’s customers either are not finding enough software to satisfy their needs, or need less software than the typical Sony or Microsoft customer," Pachter asserted.
He continued, "...software attach rates for the Wii continue to decline, and publishers appear to be reluctant to support the console as broadly as the other two, notwithstanding its huge lead in installed base. We think that Nintendo will continue to dominate sales on its console, with its first-rate lineup of games, but fear that other publishers have prematurely abandoned the very large Wii audience, and see further year-over-year software sales declines for the Wii for the next several months. These declines will make year-over-year industry sales growth difficult to achieve."
4 Comments
2 months ago
In my opinion this is because Nintendo makes fantastic first party games but they only release a handful(if that) a year. Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft are getting quality releases(first and third party) nearly every month, both thru retail boxed copies and download only copies over PSN and Xbox Live.
The good news for Nintendo is that they are still outselling both the 360 and PS3 very consistently. The bad news for them is that the 360 and PS3(respectively) will continue to have a higher software attach rate than the Wii.
2 months ago
Release crap on the Wii--->Nothing sells--->complain that only Nintendo can sell software--->Give up the platform--->Software sales decline--->"We were right all along!"
2 months ago
I think there are particular needs for the Wii audience, and if third-party publishers don't meet that, they've gotten a bit burned.
2 months ago
I will agree with THE 1 2 P partially here and say that Nintendo does only release a few games a year, and that doesn't work well when their games are amazing and people constantly demand more. When that happens, people get tired of waiting and begin to wade off. I know that happend to me with Mario because I got tired of playing the same game. However, I speak to you all reading this right now - this article can't be legit. There, I said it; this is a total lie, particularly for DS. DS sales actually continue to RISE because of new titles with great software and design, and Wii the same, only not as much as DS. And imagine how much sales will continue to grow when the 3DS comes out. This article is a lie and should be deleated.
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