Third-parties reluctant to support Wii, says Pachter
“Wii software sales were down 19% year-over-year and DS software sales were down 13%, while PS3 software sales were up 58% and Xbox 360 software sales were up 29%. We think this is remarkable, given growth in the Wii hardware installed base of 44% and growth in the DS installed base of 33% over the last 12 months. In contrast, the PS3 installed base is up 60% and the Xbox 360 installed base is up 32% over the same period. Software sales growth mirrored hardware unit growth for both the PS3 and Xbox 360, but sorely lagged hardware unit growth for the Wii and DS. In our view, this indicates that Nintendo’s customers either are not finding enough software to satisfy their needs, or need less software than the typical Sony or Microsoft customer…software attach rates for the Wii continue to decline, and publishers appear to be reluctant to support the console as broadly as the other two, notwithstanding its huge lead in installed base. We think that Nintendo will continue to dominate sales on its console, with its first-rate lineup of games, but fear that other publishers have prematurely abandoned the very large Wii audience, and see further year-over-year software sales declines for the Wii for the next several months. These declines will make year-over-year industry sales growth difficult to achieve.” – Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter
Right now, it’s tough being a third-party publisher that is looking to support the Wii. The fact of the matter is, a lot of titles just aren’t selling well. This year, for instance, only one third-party game – Just Dance – has made it into the top 10 in NPD sales.
