Wii will ship in the millions in December, reports analyst.
Wii will ship in the millions in December, reports analyst.
This Christmas is expected to be one of the best holidays for Nintendo, according to industry analyst Ovum.
Nintendo Wii consoles will ship in their millions in December, and the DS Lite and ageing GameBoy Advanced handheld gaming devices are still selling strongly.
Major games console vendors Nintendo and Microsoft have launched their next-generation machines and the race for consumer spend is on
Sony, however, will not release its new PS3 in Australia until after Christmas.
Ovum analyst Carl Gressum said that a year ago Nintendo was almost disregarded in the race by most people in the industry.
But the company has focused on making fun games with broad appeal at an affordable price, and the brave move seems to have paid off.
Consumer demand for the Wii has exceeded supply, and Nintendo sold 600,000 units in the Americas alone in the first eight days, and Australian retailers are currently out of stock of the Wii.
However, the analyst warned that if Nintendo and its third-party software developers fail to create a momentum that takes advantage of the controller, it could flop once it loses its novelty factor. But for the holidays, expect Nintendo to steal the show.
Microsoft, in bringing out the big guns, might be able to rival or even beat Nintendo in terms of Q4 shipments, but these numbers will include October and November sales, the analyst noted.
Microsoft has had a full year to fine tune its machinery and, with Sony's recent difficulties getting the PlayStation 3 to market, it has a golden opportunity to solidify its position.
The Christmas quarter should be the best Xbox 360 quarter ever, with shipments reaching or exceeding four million units worldwide, Ovum believes.
Initial shipment predictions from Sony for Q4, on the other hand, were four million units and another two million units by the end of Sony's fiscal year in March 2007.
But with the recent production hiccups at Sony, Ovum expects shipments for 2006 to be just under two million units, which is lower than the official Sony guidance of between two and 2.4 million units.
Expect lots of disappointed PlayStation fans this Christmas, Ovum said.