Nintendo: 150 Million New People will Commit to Gaming
Nintendo America still all about the fence-sitters.
Wii Fit Plus is likely to drive more sales over the holiday.
Nintendo of America's President and professional Name-Taker Reggie Fils-Aime has told the Financial Times that there are about 150 million new consumers waiting to come onboard the gaming train.
Says the FT, "Mr Fils-Aime was referring to marketing taking place in 70 US markets, getting 1m consumers to try out Nintendo products. He said Nintendo was after the 'fence sitters' - the 50m US consumers who said they were interested in video games but did not have a console. The figure was 150m in Nintendo’s markets globally, he added."
Reggie also commented that the recent US price cut (and UK price rebalancing) had resulted in a sales boost for the Wii. Although no figures were given, such evidence is expected to appear in an imminent NPD sales chart.
"There are literally millions of consumers out there who want a Wii and had been on the sidelines" he said, explaining that the price cut was put in place to spur sales throughout the Christmas period. The second and third parts to this holiday assault are Wii Fit Plus, landing in American stores on Sunday, and New Super Mario Bros Wii, launching on the 15th November.
"They’d been waiting for that little nudge to go out and pick it up - the price decline, the sampling [of a million people trying out Nintendo products], the launching of key software like Wii Fit Plus - we believe it’s what’s pushing them over the edge to get into the category", Fils-Aime concludes.
While the UK has not had so much of a price cut per se, Nintendo of Europe have provided a new bundle pack consisting of a Wii, Wii Remote, Wii Motion Plus, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort for the unchanged RRP of £179.99. Time will tell whether this rather different strategy will provide the same sales-boosting results.
Says the FT, "Mr Fils-Aime was referring to marketing taking place in 70 US markets, getting 1m consumers to try out Nintendo products. He said Nintendo was after the 'fence sitters' - the 50m US consumers who said they were interested in video games but did not have a console. The figure was 150m in Nintendo’s markets globally, he added."
Reggie also commented that the recent US price cut (and UK price rebalancing) had resulted in a sales boost for the Wii. Although no figures were given, such evidence is expected to appear in an imminent NPD sales chart.
"There are literally millions of consumers out there who want a Wii and had been on the sidelines" he said, explaining that the price cut was put in place to spur sales throughout the Christmas period. The second and third parts to this holiday assault are Wii Fit Plus, landing in American stores on Sunday, and New Super Mario Bros Wii, launching on the 15th November.
"They’d been waiting for that little nudge to go out and pick it up - the price decline, the sampling [of a million people trying out Nintendo products], the launching of key software like Wii Fit Plus - we believe it’s what’s pushing them over the edge to get into the category", Fils-Aime concludes.
While the UK has not had so much of a price cut per se, Nintendo of Europe have provided a new bundle pack consisting of a Wii, Wii Remote, Wii Motion Plus, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort for the unchanged RRP of £179.99. Time will tell whether this rather different strategy will provide the same sales-boosting results.
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