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Nintendo will launch its Wii MotionPlus accessory on June 12, with a strong line-up of games designed to utilise the device scheduled to launch then and in the months that follow.
With the current popularity of Wii, you’d be a fool to bet against Wii MotionPlus being a success, but just how successful will it be? Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter anticipates sales to reach 10 million this year in the US and Europe alone – thanks largely to attractive game bundles from EA and Nintendo.
“I think around 20 percent of Wii owners in the US and Europe will have bought Wii Sports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 or EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis,” Pachter told Edge. “So that’s around eight million.”
“I think another two million will buy MotionPlus with new consoles.”
Ultimately, Pachter believes Wii MotionPlus will sell to “at least one third” of the Wii’s installed base.
Not everyone is convinced Wii MotionPlus will be such a sales juggernaut; EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich agrees with the accessory’s long-term success, but has more cautious short-term estimates.
“At this time, we do know that pre-orders are relatively strong, compared to other Wii products,” Divnich told Edge. “By the end of the holidays, the Wii MotionPlus install base in North America and Europe should be well over three million. Of course, our forecast could be conservative… Yearly sales could balloon much higher.
“For the Wii MotionPlus, we currently expect the install base to reach over 11 million units by the end of Nintendo’s next fiscal year in March 2011, a 15 percent penetration.”
Via Edge
