As soon as November arrives, most gamers and consumers will shift their attention from the Wii to the Wii U. Nintendo, however, has no plans to abandon the old console anytime soon.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said that the company “will continue to be in the Wii business for quite some time.” He also feels that “there’s still opportunity for the Wii”.
“As we sit here today, in the US the Wii has sold about 40 million units. We believe that there continues to be an opportunity with Wii. Yes, these are late, late adopters. And yes, price points are important. But we do believe there’s still opportunity for the Wii, and we will continue to sell Wii side-by-side for some period of time. I’m responsible for Canada and Latin America as well. We think there’s opportunity in both of those markets, especially Latin America. You can reach price points, you can reach consumers that candidly we won’t be able to reach with the Wii U. That’s gonna continue to be an opportunity. Lastly, on the global base, certainly there are markets in Eastern Europe. There are a number of other markets where if Wii has an attractive price point, it’ll do well. So, we will continue to be in the Wii business for quite some time.”
The situation will probably end up like the DS/3DS. Although, while the DS has still been receiving quite a bit of support (like Pokemon Black/White 2), I can’t imagine Nintendo pumping out too many games for the Wii at this point.
