Wedbush Morgan's gaming guru Michael Pachter sees big things for Nintendo's Wii Fit in North America, where the combination personal trainer and balance board are slated for a May 19th release. The analyst predicts the package could sell upwards of 4 million units if Nintendo does it up right.
"I really don't know what the spend will be, but it could be 10 - 12% of projected sales. If we assume a retail price of $100, that's $10 million in marketing for each 1 million units sold. If they go mainstream (have Oprah demo the device), I could see them selling 3 - 4 million, maybe more. That suggests the potential for $30 - 40 million in marketing.]
In fact, Pachter says that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime himself indicated that they plan to back the title with the biggest marketing campaign in the company's history. If I were to speculate I'd probably aim for a more conservative number, but then again my financial analysis experience is limited to predicting whether or not a charge for pizza will clear before my paycheck, and even then I am usually wrong. I wonder if Pachter does requests?
Update: Pachter informed us that the New York Post writer never spoke to him and misquoted the article's original Game Daily source. Updated text accordingly.