Nintendo’s executive shares his long-term goals for the Wii system.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata declared a bold claim during an interview with Reuters, stating that the Wii could pass the record-setting PS2 sales number of 100 million through the course of its lifetime.
“Sony’s PS2 sales of 100 million units is an extraordinary number that our home game console business has not achieved. But if we can make our bid to expand the gaming population a continued success, we could exceed that,” he told Reuters.
Iwata believes strongly in his claims because he feels that Nintendo is succeeding in attracting new players to the Wii console. Nintendo sold 5.8 million Wii units by March 2007, and expects to sell 14 million more during the current business year. Unlike its competitor, Nintendo’s hardware division has already reached profitability early in its life-cycle and has quickly reach affordable pricing levels for many consumers.
He continued, “I wouldn’t say there is no overlap between the group of customers Sony is targeting and the group of users that Nintendo is targeting. But that overlap is quite small.”
