Due to lack of the Nintendo Wii in Japan, Nintendo revealed that they will be reducing production of the console.
In late October Nintendo reduced its profit forecast for the business year ending March 2010, noting that Wii sales during 2009 were approximately “half the size of last year”. The company also lowered its annual Wii sales forecast from 26 million units to 20 million.
Is there a reason for this? Well, the way I see it, it’s the audience. Japanese gamers have radically different tastes to their North American counterparts; Eastern gamers tend to prefer linear and Role Playing games, whilst Western gamers generally prefer open-ended games with a large game world. There are, of course, people from both nationalities who are more in line with the gamers on the other side of the world.
Whether or not this will slow Nintendo’s winning streak even more and propel Sony into victory in Japan, it is just a matter of playing the waiting game.
