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Filed under: News

Analysts think that due to the continuing decline of the U.S. dollar and the 13-year high for the Japanese Yen, you won’t be seeing too many hot deals on Nintendo’s Wii this holiday season. With the Yen being so high, it drives up the cost of Japanese goods for U.S. retailers. And, seeing as how the U.S. economy has been in such bad shape all year, merchants have discounted their goods to offset that fall to a point where they can’t afford to lower prices to attract customers any more.

Wii Fit, one of the items analysts see as being a must-have this season, could be most affected. With the profit margin on it so small (same goes for the Wii console itself), retailers can’t afford to cut prices. One positive thing to come out of this, however, is that the Euro has been on a decline, as well. This means that Nintendo should be shipping more to the U.S., whereas in the past, Nintendo focused on Europe first.

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Filed under: News

The NPD numbers aren’t going to be available until later this week, but Michael Pachter is still doing his thing and tossing some predictions out there. With that Grand Theft Auto IV game releasing in April (and shattering records like crazy), many might think that Nintendo is going to have to relinquish its throne for a short while, like when that Halo 3 game released. Pachter doesn’t think so, however, and called for another victory for Nintendo.

600,000 units is the magic number, according to the analyst, as he says Wii will once again reign supreme when the April NPD numbers release. Considering a pretty big Wii title released during that month, we’re inclined to agree with the man.

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Filed under: News

Sales for the week of Thanksgiving were ridiculous for Nintendo, as the U.S. saw an incredible 350,000 Wii units hit retail shelves and get eagerly snatched up by consumers just as quickly. As if that wasn't impressive enough, word is that the Wii sold 300,000 units the week prior, meaning that in a two week span, the Wii sold a ridiculous 650,000 units.

If these sales hold up for the last week of November, the console could very well sell near a million in November alone. Ridiculous just doesn't begin to explain it!

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Filed under: News, Interviews

Having already suffered from lower-than-expected sales in Japan, we thought Super Mario Galaxy fared better in the U.S., where it shifted 500,000 copies in its first week. Indeed, Nintendo was happy to crow about the records the game set, pointing out that Galaxy was the best-selling Mario title ever in its first week, as well as the strongest one-week debut of any Wii game to date.

But look, here comes RealMoney.com columnist Michael Comeau to spoil the party. Despite describing the game as "the best $50 I've spent this year on a videogame," Comeau argues that more should have been expected from Galaxy in raw commercial terms, and then compares it (unwisely, in our humble opinion) to the opening week sales of Halo 3.

"Nintendo says [Galaxy] sold 500,000 copies in its first week, which makes for a great headline. But in my eyes, that's a huge, borderline failure," Comeau told TheStreet.com. "I think it's an incredible disappointment when you consider [...] that Halo 3, for example, sold 3 million copies."

We can't entirely disagree with Comeau's assertion that the plumber's game should have sold more copies stateside, but we do find the Halo 3 comparison slightly iffy, and for a few reasons.

Firstly, it should be noted that at the time each game was released, U.S. homes still contained fewer Wiis than Xbox 360s, while Bungie's game was also supported by the mother and father of all marketing campaigns. And let's not forget that shooters are probably more to the taste of U.S. audiences, or that Halo 3 launched a full month and a half before Galaxy, at a time when there was less competition, and when the usual avalanche of top-quality holiday titles had yet to be triggered.

Mind you, he gets brownie points for describing Galaxy as "at least six times better than Halo 3."

[Via NeoGAF]

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Filed under: News

Now, you might want to take a seat before reading this next sentence. The Wii is very popular. Can you believe that? We surely couldn't upon reading about it and hearing from others regarding its incredible appeal both in Japan and abroad. So, considering that demand for the console is highest in the U.S., it would make sense for Nintendo to think about focusing some of their development over here, right? Well, Nintendo doesn't have any such plans, apparently.

We can understand that first-party titles are most likely going to need to be directly overseen by Iwata or Miyamoto, but what about Metroid Prime 3? It was one of the Wii's biggest titles this year, why wouldn't Nintendo want to make more titles exclusively like it, geared toward the Western gamer? Well, Nintendo thinks that's what third-party developers are for.

George Harrison (is he even leaving anymore?) commented that "They're [third-party developers] doing a great job both on DS and on Wii. They tend to provide product in categories that we aren't particularly good at doing, like sports or other genres. And since they're Western publishers, they tend to be more in tune with Western tastes." So, for the time being, it looks like Nintendo's first-party development is going to stay confined to the Land of the Rising Fun.

[Via CVG]

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