Iwata: "Wii has recovered from slowdown"

By Robert Purchese Published 6 January, 2010

3m consoles shifted in US during December.

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata believes Wii has shaken off a shaky year and repositioned itself firmly as generation leader.

He spoke as the company internally estimated over 3m Wii sales across North America for December alone. That's up from 2.15m sales from the same month in 2008.

And that's impressive, considering Nintendo's depleted but nonetheless impressive Thanksgiving effort.

Iwata attributed the strong Christmas sales to two things: a stronger software lineup and price cut. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, released November, has already sold 4m copies.

"I think it's now safe to say the Wii has recovered from slowdown," Iwata told Reuters.

"But I'm not sure if it's prudent to use words like revival and recovery lightly before making absolutely certain we can maintain this momentum. So, I steer clear of such words today."

Iwata didn't announce specific figures for DS but said the handheld had likely broken 10m sales for 2009 in North America - a record for videogame hardware.

The Nintendo boss also praised the DS (and new arrival DSi) for not peaking after three years on the market, as is tradition, but selling strongest in its fifth (launched 2004 in the US) year on the shelf.

Yesterday Nintendo announced that the DS had sold 40 million units across Europe, which makes it the best-selling console ever. In home-console stakes - as in the ones under the telly - the Wii wins the prize, with 20m units shifted.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Doctor_What #1 2 years ago

    "Wii has recovered"
    "Not prudent to use words like 'recovery'"

    Er...

  • MORZTAN #2 2 years ago

    Haha. Must be in the translation

  • Marshall2008 #3 2 years ago

    Everyone I know who bought a Wii for gaming used if for a few weeks but now they no longer use it. What do they play? either Xbox 360, PS3 or both. The Wii is this generations pong, everyone has one stashed under their TV or in a wardrobe somewhere.

  • chrisjm #4 2 years ago

    uplift in december, i wonder what caused that?
    could it be christmas? or the huge amount of quality nintendo games released?

  • TonyHarrison #5 2 years ago

    December 08... Wii Music and Animal Crossing were expected to maintain console sales for a while... they didn't... for obvious reasons...

    December 09... A price cut, and the launch of a game that sold 20million copies in it's DS iteration... sales go up.

    Such a surprise, huh...

  • Bazfrag #6 2 years ago

    Fad will end soon.....

    Wii may outsell both hd consoles combined.... again.

  • GamesConnoisseur #7 2 years ago

    Wii may outsells both HD consoles... but will it have the staying power of the gamers getting more and more games for Wii as per X360 or PS3? So called games attach rate are so much important for third parties publishers and which is why more and more publishers either only do shovelware OR ditch its like Capcom today.

    Seem Wii wont be able to have the same fanbase, and hey I m one who stuck with N64 and GC and purchased lots of games but hey even with the two previous 'failed' gen, I gotta a lot more love and enjoyment with classic games than I do with Wii now.

    Some great family oriented games but where is the SP games the like of Goldeneye or such?

  • homerbert #8 2 years ago

    I really wish the gaming world would make its peace with the Wii.The same arguments come over and over again (fad, toy, not hd, yada yada) The Wii does what it does well, it just might not be for you. Some "hard core gamers" also occasionally like simple games the same way film buffs can like Paul Thomas Anderson movies and still enjoy Spider-man.

    Why is it so important to "hardcore gamers" that everyone like the exact same sort of games that they like?

  • robson_wii #9 2 years ago

    Not at all surprised. Family fun over X-mas...wii, sports resort and extra motion sensor plus bundled and console now in cool black (even though the black wii mote with rubber sheath and motion sensor plus looks a bit dodgy!!).

    I used my wii loads over X-mas / New Year playing these good / great games: Dead Space Extraction, HotD Overkill, RE: Darkside Chronicles, Wii Sports Resort, Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros.

  • HuggyAtHome #10 2 years ago

    Would be good to get some quality titles for it now please - I still play with the Wii, but only with family since I finished Okami, there's nothing on the horizon that excites as a single player experience. Thank god for the PS3/Xbox.

  • cyber_nicco #11 2 years ago

    No, there is a reason we (gamers) don't like the Wii. Let me explain it here...

    When a low-powered, wand wiggling, piece of crap sells 800 trillion units, there is a strong incentive for other console manufactures to follow suit. If the Wii wins, then crap prevails. How this can somehow be spun as anything but a tragedy is beyond imagination.

    Fuck "casual gamers". We don't like you. Go get in your Camrys and Prius', flip the radio on to some Brittney, drive yourself to the next Hollywood blockbuster, and feel all smug and superior for being a part of the faceless majority. Some day history will spit on your graves.

    p.s. The above was said with lots of love.
    Edited by 1 at 06/01/10 @ 15:38

  • cyber_nicco #12 2 years ago

    Shouldn't you be balancing on your Wii Fit board or something?

    :p

  • hilts #13 2 years ago

    Tit!

  • electrolite #14 2 years ago

    @cyber_nicco.

    "there is a reason we (gamers) don't like the Wii"

    You don't speak for me and I've been gaming 20 years. You may speak for a couple of your spoddy mates who think gaming begins and ends with the FPS, but that's it. You are of course entitled to your own opinion, but setting yourself up as some self-appointed spokesman for 'gamers' just makes you look a bit of a twát.

    You'll thank me for this one day.

  • smelly #15 2 years ago

    @Marshall2008 : I've not played my 360 since october, i've only been playing the wii.

    id suggest your "friends" (which probably actually means "people you talk to on message boards on the internet, as you dont have any real life friends";) have bad choice in games.

  • smelly #16 2 years ago

    "Why is it so important to "hardcore gamers" that everyone like the exact same sort of games that they like? "


    Because the only games they want to see being released are fps games and 3rd person shooters.. yawn

  • secombe #17 2 years ago

    I lost my Wii to the missus, Just Dance has taken over her life. I wouldn't mind, but I got NSMB Wii for Christmas and love it to death - so would actually like to play it.

    People moan about the attach rate, but it must be creeping up steadily (and considering the volume of sales, you rarely see the 'key' games second-hand) just a shame someone other than Nintendo can't break into the market properly.

  • cyber_nicco #18 2 years ago

    Easy now everyone, I thought it would inject some levity into the discussion if I was purposefully "over the top". I don't feel that strongly about it.

    I said "gamers" because I thought there was an earlier post that questioned why "gamers" didn't like the Wii. Now I see I should have said "hardcore gamers", as I was addressing that post specifically.

    However, I do think that must be the general sentiment of people that aren't fond of the Wii - that its success will somehow spoil the next generation of consoles from Sony and MS.

  • canIdoyabombsforya #19 2 years ago

    "Why is it so important to "hardcore gamers" that everyone like the exact same sort of games that they like? "

    Simple, they don't want to admit that gaming is for people who don't want to grow up.
    Their parents are doing their washing, cooking their meals, paying the bills. While Hardcore Johnny is online telling people the Wii is for kids, then goes back to playing grown up games with swords controlled by the 'X' button.

  • cyber_nicco #20 2 years ago

    @electrolite

    "You'll thank me for this one day."

    I'd thank you for it right now if I recognized what you've done for me. Also, I started playing computer games in 1975 - I played on teletype time shares at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. Also played Space Wars on a Digital minicomputer that same year (I think). That was a true video game. I received my first console - an Atari 2600 (though it wasn't called the 2600 then, as far as I remember) - on October 18th, 1977. That same year, I believe, my father bought an Apple ][+, on which I played many games. Let's see, by twenty years ago, I had played games on all these and PC's, Mac's, additional Atari's, and on many, many Amigas.

    Please don't come in here and throw your gaming experience around, as you'll end up looking like a bit of a twat.

    /fued over
    /cyber_nicco wins
    Edited by 1 at 06/01/10 @ 22:38

  • electrolite #21 2 years ago

    @cyber_nicco

    I was merely pointing out how long I've been playing for games and that you don't speak for me. It doesn't relate to how long you've been playing, I'm not doing a comparison, just pointing that out. It isn't difficult to understand. I couldn't care less that you consider it a victory that you were playing games before I was born, I was merely pointing out that you're making a bell out of yourself. As you seem determined to continue doing.

    Along which lines, how do you define "hardcore gamers"?