Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Analysts think that due to the continuing decline of the U.S. dollar and the 13-year high for the Japanese Yen, you won't be seeing too many hot deals on Nintendo's Wii this holiday season. With the Yen being so high, it drives up the cost of Japanese goods for U.S. retailers. And, seeing as how the U.S. economy has been in such bad shape all year, merchants have discounted their goods to offset that fall to a point where they can't afford to lower prices to attract customers any more.

Wii Fit, one of the items analysts see as being a must-have this season, could be most affected. With the profit margin on it so small (same goes for the Wii console itself), retailers can't afford to cut prices. One positive thing to come out of this, however, is that the Euro has been on a decline, as well. This means that Nintendo should be shipping more to the U.S., whereas in the past, Nintendo focused on Europe first.

Nintendo's stock has been going up like ... like, um ... like Apple's stock! But not even the bookies could predict such a dominating performance (sorry, I just couldn't resist that link ... go Gators!), and as such, Nintendo has had to once again raises its profits forecast thanks to extremely strong game sales for both the Nintendo DS and the Wii. How much, you ask? One billion dollars. That's USD, folks.

We also have a gem of a quote from one Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo: "Nintendo is going like gangbusters, and the Wii consoles are selling like hotcakes." Gangbusters, huh? According to UrbanDictionary.com, a gangbuster is: "a sexual advance made by someone in an attempt to turn on another person." Hot, Edwin. Very hot.

Like Roman conquerors of old who have returned to the city after taking a foreign territory and assimilating them into the empire, we blow our trumpets to herald this most excellent of occasions. We're happy to report, by way of Famitsu, that the Nintendo Wii has sold an excellent one million consoles in Japan. Since launching on December 2nd in Japan, the console has sold exactly 1,135,671 units.

Now that is damn impressive for just over a month of being on the market!

Nintendo has this nasty tendency to make money with their consoles, despite often being seen as the "loser" in the reputed console wars. Their stock holders are generally quite happy, especially in recent times, and believe it or not, Nintendo has a war chest of something like ten bazillion yen. Certainly a large R&D budget went into developing Wii technology, but everyone knows that the system is essentially a calculated risk. Nintendo needs to push its new brainchild, and it needs to push it hard; thus the chest springs open yet again.

A recent Bloomberg article states that Nintendo will launch a year-long, $200 million ad campaign for the Wii. Further, 80% of that money will be solely devoted to marketing toward non-gamers, attempting to expand their market into the coveted (and excuse the generalization) "old people and women" demographic. That's a whole heck of a lot of money to get the word out ... be sure to do your part and invite your baby boomer neighbors for a quick session of Wii Sports.

[via Joystiq]