Nintendo Plans to Sell 35 Million Wii Consoles in US by 2012

May 23rd, 2007, 03:45 Posted By: JKKDARK

via Bloomberg.com

Nintendo Co. expects to sell as many as 35 million Wii video-game consoles in the U.S., close to the record 38.2 million PlayStation 2 players sold by Sony Corp.

The company will reach its goal by 2011 or 2012, George Harrison, marketing chief at Nintendo of America Inc., a unit of Kyoto-based Nintendo Co., said in an interview today.

Nintendo is increasing Wii production at factories in China to meet demand, Harrison said from Seattle. The company has sold 2.5 million Wii players in the U.S. since the console was introduced in November, making it the top-seller among the newest generation of machines.

``Demand is much greater than we anticipated,'' Harrison said. ``A year ago no one thought we would be in this position.''

U.S. consumers have purchased 1.3 million PlayStation 3s since it was introduced two days ahead of Wii. Microsoft Corp. has sold 5.4 million Xbox 360s, released in 2005, according to market researcher NPD Group Inc., based in Port Washington, New York.

The older PlayStation 2 remains popular, outselling both the PS3 and Xbox 360 in April. Consumers bought 194,000 PS2s during the month, according to NPD. That compares with 174,000 Xbox 360s and 82,000 PS3s. Wii was No. 1 at 360,000 units.

Demand for the PS2, introduced in 2000, has been bolstered by price cuts and the popularity of games such as Activision Inc.'s ``Guitar Hero.'' The console sells for $149.

Pricing also has helped sell the Wii. At $249, it costs less than half the price of a PlayStation 3 and is about $50 less than the cheapest Xbox 360. Nintendo has no plans to sell Wii for less, Harrison said.

New Games

Nintendo yesterday announced 14 new games for Wii, including the in-house title ``Mario Strikers Charged'' and ``Boogie,'' which allows players to sing and dance to music videos. The new games will be released in the third quarter.

Nintendo will continue to focus on titles that attract people who typically don't play video games. That means there's little reason for the company to upgrade the console with more powerful chips or better graphics, Harrison said.

``We're starting to see in the performance of the PS3 and Xbox 360 that that's not necessarily motivating the market the way it used to,'' he said. ``So we're going to start work on future technology only when we believe it's necessary.''

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