Nintendo Believe 2009 Software has Slowed Wii Sales
Nintendo are hardly doing badly when it comes to hardware sales in 2009. However, they have not recreated the success they had last year. Nintendo's Denise Kaigler admits that it has something to do with Nintendo's lackluster release calendar compared to the AAA titles released last year. Although, he does reassure us that the second half of 2009 is poised to be a lot better.
Speaking to Wired Kaigler replied to a question about the reasons for declining Wii sales. "What I can say is our launch calendar is very different from 2008 versus 2009, as you know. Last year we had three powerful titles, with Super Smash Bros. Brawl in March, Mario Kart in April and Wii Fit in May. I mean, those are blockbuster titles."
"So we had a strong title launch in the first half of 2008, and we have a strong title launch in the second half of 2009. Wii Sports Resort really kicks off the back half of our launch calendar. Like you saw at E3, we have New Super Mario Bros. Wii launching this year and we have Wii Fit Plus launching this year. So with Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus in the back half, that shows that we’ve just got a different launch of what we hope will be blockbuster titles."
Kaigler is also unsure why 'core' games don't sell as well as publishers would like on the Wii, considering there is an outcry for them. Most recently, The Conduit received decent review scores, but poor sales in its debut month by comparison. "You know, I don’t know," said Kaigler about the poor sales. "It’s hard to say. It could be titles have the same type of sales curve that a lot of Nintendo titles have. A lot of Nintendo titles don’t follow that traditional sales curve where they launch big and then that’s it. Our titles have a long tail. They build in popularity, and this could be the case with, as you mentioned, MadWorld and The Conduit."
