Presently we have the Wii on track to sell less than the PS2 (which hit 150m earlier in the year). Given the current trends and new markets Nintendo are opening up I would hardly say that's over optimistic.
When Wii hardware demand slows (and Japan asides, it shows very little sign of abating) Nintendo are easily placed to cut prices, introduce new colours, more functionality or whatever else they have in their bag of tricks. I expect the Wii to follow a similar pattern to the DS. You can bet your bottom dollar we will see a Wii with a better storage solution, maybe even this year. A true successor to the Wii before the other two? Not a chance. They are clearly moving to a more Apple-esque model with their products.
Consumers were not buying into HD gaming en masse before the recession started, that certainly won't be accelerating now. Blu-Ray remains a niche market and will continue to be so, subsidised by the movie studios or not. (There's no need for the 360 to go there for that matter either) I would venture HD is only a factor in console purchases for a limited segment of the market and has very little affect on Wii sales. Not competing in that regard is a cornerstone of their strategy and it's working out pretty well for them at the moment.
With regards to MS they'll be focused on cost reduction just like Sony. The latter will want to get to a PSThree style form factor as soon as possible as it's the only thing that's going to dramatically turn around their fortunes at this point. Quality software isn't doing it and there will always be a price differential.
As for the article, I rarely agree with Mr Reeves and I don't here. Sony will do something for the Killzone launch (or near launch if they want to pocket the bump in hardware sales). March will be they're new financial year kicks in. As much as the manufacturing cost / value of the yen is killing them right now, they're YoY sales will be abysmal if they don't do something.
They certainly can't afford to look like they're going backwards.
3
Can't say I agree I'm afraid.
Presently we have the Wii on track to sell less than the PS2 (which hit 150m earlier in the year). Given the current trends and new markets Nintendo are opening up I would hardly say that's over optimistic.
When Wii hardware demand slows (and Japan asides, it shows very little sign of abating) Nintendo are easily placed to cut prices, introduce new colours, more functionality or whatever else they have in their bag of tricks. I expect the Wii to follow a similar pattern to the DS. You can bet your bottom dollar we will see a Wii with a better storage solution, maybe even this year. A true successor to the Wii before the other two? Not a chance. They are clearly moving to a more Apple-esque model with their products.
Consumers were not buying into HD gaming en masse before the recession started, that certainly won't be accelerating now. Blu-Ray remains a niche market and will continue to be so, subsidised by the movie studios or not. (There's no need for the 360 to go there for that matter either) I would venture HD is only a factor in console purchases for a limited segment of the market and has very little affect on Wii sales. Not competing in that regard is a cornerstone of their strategy and it's working out pretty well for them at the moment.
With regards to MS they'll be focused on cost reduction just like Sony. The latter will want to get to a PSThree style form factor as soon as possible as it's the only thing that's going to dramatically turn around their fortunes at this point. Quality software isn't doing it and there will always be a price differential.
As for the article, I rarely agree with Mr Reeves and I don't here. Sony will do something for the Killzone launch (or near launch if they want to pocket the bump in hardware sales). March will be they're new financial year kicks in. As much as the manufacturing cost / value of the yen is killing them right now, they're YoY sales will be abysmal if they don't do something.
They certainly can't afford to look like they're going backwards.