It's NPD week, and that can mean only one thing, folks: it's Pachter time. Everybody's favorite silver-haired analyst makes a habit of estimating console sales in the U.S. on a monthly basis -- it's his job or something -- and this month is no different. For July, Pachter is predicting a sell-through of 650,000 Wii consoles, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 coughing up dust on 275,000 and 250,000 respectively.So what's new, right? But wait, because it gets better: the Wedbush Morgan dreamboat also reckons that Wii sales could rise dramatically during the second half of 2008, to the point where the thing is selling a million a month -- and all thanks to a stronger U.S. dollar.
Whereas previously Nintendo would ship a "significant portion" of its Wii supply to Europe to take advantage of the stronger Euro (hence making sales more profitable), the dollar recently appreciated against the yen, meaning the company has a good reason to start shipping a greater number of Wiis to U.S stores. "...We expect monthly sell-through to increase by as many as 300,000 units per month, beginning in August," reckons Pachter.
If you can hear quaking, that'll be the competition.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-11-2008 @ 5:21PM
Nushio (NDF - Blue) said...
Strong dollar?
Then why is it about 9 pesos per dollar (instead of the usual 10 to 10.50?)
The dollar is weak. Same with Canadian dollars.
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8-13-2008 @ 1:29PM
Ghen said...
But Nintendo isn't based in Mexico. Probably because they'd get sand in the disc drives and instead of a hedgehog tearing up the track at the Olympic games it would be a mouse.
¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!
8-11-2008 @ 5:34PM
meist3r said...
Double thumbs up for the Flight of the Conchords reference. I can't even say anything about the article.
Reply
8-12-2008 @ 10:13AM
natureboy46 said...
My thoughts exactly.
8-11-2008 @ 8:10PM
chefgon_ign said...
I don't get how everybody thinks there's some big conspiracy about the weak dollar and the Wii being hard to find. It says right here, in black and white, in the same article, that the Wii sold 650 thousand units last month. SIX HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND UNITS! That's SIGNIFICANTLY more than both of its competitors combined.
If Nintendo isn't shipping any units to the US, then how did they magically sell a ridiculously large number of them there?
If there was enough demand for 650 thousand PS3s or Xbox 360s to sell in a single month, those consoles would be impossible to find too. Would that mean that Microsoft and Sony were withholding units because of the weak dollar? Of course not, it would just mean that 650 thousand is a HELL OF A LOT OF SYSTEMS.
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8-12-2008 @ 1:26PM
Jon L-S said...
Wow, Pachter is a flaming idiot.
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8-13-2008 @ 1:31PM
Ghen said...
Wow, you are completely uninformed.
8-18-2008 @ 1:26AM
purppleone said...
You know when I'm down to just my socks it's time for business that's why I call them business socks, ooo...
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