Expect new Wii colors in Japan very soon
Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 12:18pm by Jack
By now you’ve probably heard the news. Thanks to some steep price cuts and a timely RPG release, the lowly Xbox 360 surpassed Wii weekly sales numbers in Japan. It’s by no means a doomsday scenario for Nintendo in the territory, given the fact that the Wii has sold 6.7 million to the Xbox’s count it on one hand 720,000, but it is noteworthy.
Now, don’t take that to mean we should expect new hardware or some crazy, dramatic reaction from the Kyoto HQ. This isn’t so much a victory for the Xbox (720k vs. 6.9 mil, remember) as it is a reminder to Nintendo that Japanese Wii sales have slipped in recent months, to the point where the whipping boy of Japanese gaming managed to eek out a weekly “win.”
I’m guessing this is why there’s an air of mystery surrounding the Nintendo Autumn press event. All we know so far is that “new products” will make an appearance, and guesses to that effect have ranged from Disaster: Day of Crisis to new first party IP featuring veteran Nintendo mascots.
Nintendo surely had an idea of what the numbers would be this week in Japan, as all three hardware companies do, and you can bet the confirmation yesterday had a hand in planning what’s coming in October. The announcement served to politically soften the blow of “losing” a week to Microsoft in Japan, and the autumn press event, pre-TGS (Nintendo is not attending), will serve as an attempt to reinvigorate the product line. Easiest way to do that? Stupid as it sounds, new colors–but no price cuts. And before you jump all over that as the dumbest idea ever, remember that a similar strategy has basically kept the software-free PSP alive and well in Japan for quite some time.
It will be that, or a hard drive*
* A hard drive reference is now required for all Wii predictions.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Well, It seems a little too late for new system colors in my opinion. When the Wii launched I was wanting to get the black one that was seen in so many pictures because it’s the most badass of the color set, but now that I have a wii I guess I would have to resort to getting it professionally painted, or buy another system (yeah, like that would ever happen with the damn shortages).
But hopefully nintendo will at least give us a release date for Disaster and Pikmin 3 while actually showing off Pikmin 3. Otherwise they need to show some Zelda, Mario and Kid Icarus love, maybe even some F-Zero love. That game would be the greatest on WFC.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
New colors would be great, but I fear they would do something stupid like leave the Wiimotes white. That would equal no sale for me.
Black or platinum are the only other colors worth having anyway.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Maybe go further:
A new Wii, with new colours, more internal storage, Motion+ built into the existing remote and, what the heck, WiiSpeak built into the sensor bar. Same price as existing Wii.
Sony and Microsoft release new configurations all the time, so why not Nintendo?
September 18th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
And about that “better than a hard drive” solution, would they dare make the USB ports on the Wii able to access any external hard drive that we already own?
September 18th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
“A new Wii, with new colours, more internal storage, Motion+ built into the existing remote and, what the heck, WiiSpeak built into the sensor bar. Same price as existing Wii.”
Nice dream, but it’s never going to happen.
“Sony and Microsoft release new configurations all the time, so why not Nintendo?”
Because Nintendo doesn’t need to. From a business standpoint, they don’t need to drop prices or revise hardware to spur sales. They are already making a profit off current systems (unlike Sony/MS) and demand for the Wii is still high despite the lack of changes or price cuts…
Although it would benefit us (the consumers), why fix what ain’t broke?
September 18th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
How would it benefit us?
It would scalp the 2 year base that’s been built up and the differences would be too large to justify in terms of base hardware changes. It would create way too much segmentation.
Colours, info on stuff we already know of, and maybe a storage solution.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Good point – it would benefit anyone who hasn’t already bought a Wii, which excludes me. It would actually be rather annoying to have to upgrade my existing setup.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Nintendo’s already made official statements how product redesigns (and colors to a lesser extent) are introduced when sales need to be reinvigorated. The Wii has stayed white this long because demand is so high that obviously people just want to HAVE it.
If the 360′s victory can outlive the 2 big RPG releases that helped it achieve this new height, then out can bet Nintendo will kick a redesign or try to add more value (Wii sports included in Japan perhaps?)
Colors would be nice but we’ll have to wait and see.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:08 am
*sigh* I’ll try to keep this rant short.
The reason the Xbox360 outsold the Wii last week is completely legit: it has a piece of software that gamers in that region actually want to play for a change. And it’s solid proof that software is what ultimately sells a system when even the Nintendo-fanatic Japan gives the green and white rival more attention for at least a week.
I know that new Wii colors would turn a few heads and that many people would appreciate it, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see that eventually (maybe even perhaps at this enigmatic event). But Nintendo needs to wow us by throwing a bone in the form of a great piece of software, because that’s what will have people clamoring back on their side. Period.