Nintendo Could Take 50% of Hardware Market

According to VP of Marketing, George Harrison

Posted by Staff
Nintendo's George Harrison
Nintendo's George Harrison
Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, George Harrison has claimed in a recent interview that he expects the Wii to take a whopping 40-50% market share this generation.

Harrison somewhat boldly claims that, "We also have a belief that we can be, of this lifecycle, 40-45% of the hardware that's being sold. And that would be a phenomenal increase for us over the GameCube era. But on the other hand, we could get over 50%."

In Harrison’s opinion it all depends on the competition, “If they [Sony and Microsoft] only focus on the Grand Theft Autos and the Halos and things of that nature, they're focusing on a very tiny part of the market. The overall market is growing so dramatically that they're going to miss out on the opportunities that we're seeing in the expanded audience."

"We can already see some of the things they've tried. For last year's E3, at the last minute, Sony rushed out their Sixaxis controller as an effort to respond to the Wii remote. We saw Microsoft roll out Viva Piñata as their killer app for the Pokemon set. And neither of those worked really well.

"Part of this is, I think it's not in their DNA. They're really good at reaching a certain customer, and have a real difficulty understanding how we succeed with the customers that we have," said Harrison

Harrison also claims that the new generation could well last longer than the ‘traditional’ five to six year console life-span,”which were sort of forced by someone jumping ahead and using a new piece of technology. And we're finding out now that the appeal of faster processors and better graphics is really sort of reaching a diminishing point… There's a price point and there's the quality that's holding the PlayStation 3 back. They're selling so many PlayStation 2s because people are saying, "You know what? The graphics are pretty good, the price is good, and the library is good." So we have a great expectation that this lifecycle's actually going to last more than five years."

Finally, Harrison could not confirm whether or not ramped-up production would ensure Wii’s would be in plentiful supply come Christmas 2008 stating, “even if we're back in stock in August/September, it doesn't mean there won't be shortages for the holidays…It's a good situation to be in, although we don't want to discourage consumers too much."

Although, of course, he would say that wouldn't he?

source: Wired.com
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Comments

alexh2o 29 May 2007 14:33
1/8
Im sorry but if he wants the Wii to last longer than 5 years, they really should have given it better graphics! Right now, Im happy playing on my Wii, its wicked. The graphics upset me a bit but Im cool with it. In 5 years though when 2160p OLED HD displays are common, HD broadcast are being sent over Freeview and on demand HD content will stream off the net in minutes. Not to mention the PS3s graphics maturing to a stunning level and gaming PCs displaying unthinkably good graphics. The Wii just wont cut it, simple as that. Graphics DO matter.
DoctorDee 29 May 2007 16:56
2/8
alexhooren wrote:
Graphics DO matter.

And yet, I'd still rather play Llamatron than 97.89% of PS3/360 games.

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jordanlund 29 May 2007 17:34
3/8
Now if Nintendo would only come out with games worth playing. It seems that the non-gamer set is perfectly happy with Wii Sports and that's a good thing, but they aren't going out and buying NEW games. Which seems to be OK since Nintendo hasn't really had any new Wii games to speak of in the last 6 or 7 months.

In the end, they can move as much hardware as they want, but unless there is software to use on the snappy hardware... well... Nintendo is going to find their new platform is unsustainable.
ozfunghi 29 May 2007 18:06
4/8
Well, 40% isn't that unthinkable at all really. Look at how DS is whooping PSP's ass. Look at how PS2 got over 60% market share.

That means the shares could be 40-30-30. Is it that unthinkable? Especially looking at those Wii's flying off the shelves. The cheaper system, that has you playing with the entire family. A no-brainer.

As for the graphics. I do believe most Wii graphics suck. They even suck harder than GCN graphics, which means there's something wrong and it's not the fault of the hardware. Look at screens for Smash Bros Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy... personally, i'd be fine with graphics like that. Just like i'm fine with DS graphics like Nintendogs or Final Fantasy III or better yet, Crystal Chronicles. Look at God of War for PS2. And seriously, do games like Meteos NEED better graphics, nope. Neither does Wii Sports. But when CoD3 looks like an early PS2 game, we know who's to blame.

But yeah, i'm still waiting for the Wii equivalent of Meteos, Kirby Canvas Curse, Brain Training, Nintendogs etc... And i'm talking about new franchises, not DS franchises put on the Wii. Wii software is in need of some great software, and if Nintendo or the 3rd partied get this software out there, those 40% are very likely. If they wait too long, they might just end up with 20% or less.
James 29 May 2007 20:52
5/8
jordanlund wrote:
Now if Nintendo would only come out with games worth playing. It seems that the non-gamer set is perfectly happy with Wii Sports and that's a good thing, but they aren't going out and buying NEW games. Which seems to be OK since Nintendo hasn't really had any new Wii games to speak of in the last 6 or 7 months.

In the end, they can move as much hardware as they want, but unless there is software to use on the snappy hardware... well... Nintendo is going to find their new platform is unsustainable.


Nintendo have plenty of titles in the works, metroid, mario and the usual franchises, its 3rd party developers who are to blame for the lack of quality titles, there are only 2 games worth buying for the Wii in my opinion and both are nintendo games, the remaining 100 or so other games are drivel and these are by third party publishers after a quick buck.
Earnest C 29 May 2007 22:08
6/8
I remember the day of playing the SNES for over 7 years, maybe we can play Wii longer than that. :)
Smelly 29 May 2007 23:02
7/8
>simple as that. Graphics DO matter.

To YOU maybe, but you're just one of us nerds who goes on gaming forums to comment.

Did the majority care that the ps2 had crappier graphics to the xbox and cube? No.

The mainstream dont give a damn as long as games are fun - hell most of them cant even tell the difference between a good looking game an a great looking one.

Remember the sinclair spectrum, and how it totally outsold the superior amiga/atari st?
Smelly 29 May 2007 23:09
8/8
jordanlund wrote:
Now if Nintendo would only come out with games worth playing. It


Funny that, nintendo have released 3 great games in the last couple of months: paper mario, mario strikers, and mercury.

How many 8/10 rated games have the other 2 had in the last 2 or 3 months?


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