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Nintendo miss memo about the credit crunch

08/12/2008

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It
must’ve done, because it’s actually selling more
Wii than last year.

It’s
a heck of a birthday present for the Wii (2 today!) – despite
the fact that we’re all desperately poor and scrabbling in the
dirt for pennies, both of Nintendo’s consoles are showing
year-on-year increases in the U.S.

During the
Thanksgiving weekend, 800,000 Wiis were shifted – 350,000 more
than last year. The DS also shot up 20 per cent compared to 2007’s
figures, despite the fact that everybody in the world owns at least
two.

Nintendo
president Satoru Iwata provided words about how this can be:

"When
the economy is strong, people tend to buy three things from the top
of their wish list. But when things are bad, people often buy only
the first thing on their list. Fortunately for us a lot of shoppers
put our products at the top of their list."

Although
when you consider that 2008 was the year of Wii Fit, and Mario
Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are drawing punters
in like moths to cheery-Italian-plumber flames, it’s perhaps
not surprising that people are buying into the Nintendo way of things
to fend off recession gloom. Also, when we all run out of food, Wii
Fit will provide a handy chart as to which member of the family
will offer most meat per square inch.