Nintendo: Wii bubble has not burst

Nintendo: Wii bubble has not burst
James Orry Updated on by

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Nintendo of Europe managing director Laurent Fischer has denied claims that the Wii bubble has burst, pointing to strong sales momentum and a large untapped audience.

Asked by MCV if the Wii bubble had popped, Fischer said: “I think you just need to look at the facts to see this is not true – we achieved global sales of 20 million units of Wii in the last financial year alone.

“Our aim has always been to expand the gaming population and with European sales of Wii now over 22 million we have taken some steps towards achieving this. However, there are still many more people out there who have not yet experienced the fun of video games and we hope to continue to provide compelling reasons for these people to consider buying a Wii.”

Fischer also shot down claims that the Wii is stuck in a downward trend.

“Wii regained its momentum in the second half of last year and the continued good sales of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and other major titles has kept this momentum going,” explains Fischer. “We believe the strong software line-up this year – with the imminent launch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and further strong titles such as Wii Party and Metroid: Other M in the pipeline – will help to maintain this momentum.”

Despite heavy rumours of a Wii HD – largely from analyst Michael Pachter – Nintendo has continually denied such claims and there’s no indication that such a hardware upgrade is imminent.