Why the Nintendo Wii is Declining in Hardware Sales

Launching in late 2006, the Nintendo Wii is the fastest-selling video game system ever. The success came as a big surprise to many as they weren't expecting Nintendo to rise from the ashes of their previous under-performing video game systems (Nintendo 64 and Gamecube). Despite being called a temporary fad, the Nintendo Wii just kept on selling and selling throughout the years. Recently, however, the popular system has hit a snag on the road as hardware sales has slowed significantly. While the Nintendo Wii remains on a record-setting pace, Nintendo is still concern with the latest trend. So why has Nintendo Wii sales slowed? Let's take a low at several contributing factors.

Lack of Quality Software
For about a span of one and a half year, the Nintendo Wii had an incredible lineup that included The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Those popular titles helped sell Nintendo Wii systems to hardcore gamers. Meanwhile Wii Sports and Wii Fit pushed hardware for the casual market.

As it turns out, however, Nintendo may have blown their load a little too early. Therefore, the lineup for the Nintendo Wii after the release of Wii Fit in the summer of 2008 became barren. The development teams at Nintendo are small and they usually take their time crafting the latest games. So with all their best game coming out so close to each other, a huge void of new and exciting release was created.

To make matters worse, many third-party companies chose to develop for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 instead of the Nintendo Wii despite the fact that the latter is the most popular system currently. With no new and exciting software, interest on buying the hardware began to wane.

No Price Cut
Another big reason for the decline of Nintendo Wii hardware sales is the price tag. More than two and a half years since launch, the Nintendo Wii is still at the same $249.99 price point. The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have received several price drops during the same time frame. The cheap price was one of the main components for the success of the Nintendo Wii. During these tough economic times, however, the Nintendo Wii may be too expensive for some.

Market Saturation
Finally, the Nintendo Wii may be simply running out of prospective buyers. The popular system has already sold more than 50 million units worldwide. At some point, it was bound to come back down to earth. Even with the lowered numbers, however, the Nintendo Wii is constantly outselling the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 combined. So while Nintendo may have some problems, they are still sitting pretty when compared to their competitors.