*shrugs*

Well, that's what happens when a bad economy hits and Nintendo meanwhile fails to consistently ensure new quality Wii software that people want to buy since Mario Kart Wii released last year, leaving the console to the random whims of 3rd parties.  Nintendo stops bringing "the awesome" and people stop bringing the yen/dollars.  Still, I expect that Wii Sports Resort and NSMB: Wii will help turn this around a quarter or two later, so it's nothing to get altogether concerned about.  I just hope Nintendo's learned that they have to keep the hits coming or the sales will stagnate.

As an FYI, brood, all consoles saw sales decline. Last year alongside Mario kart Wii GTA IV was released for the 360 and PS3 and sales went up significantly. Not to mention that MGS 4 was released as well during the summer. In comparison to this year the HD consoles didn't see a big release of the same caliber as GTA. And even some of the bigger titles underperformed.

So long story short, all consoles have suffered greatly this year due to a lack of hype worthy titles. This isn't exclusive to Nintendo.

Financial Report comparisons

I know that.  Like most news stories, it's been posted and discussed elsewhere at length before people could (understandably, mind you) find the time to post an official news story here.  But we're concerned about Nintendo profits here, and not at all difficult to see where Nintendo (who has the software priced at the advantageous level for this type of economy) faltered here.  Like I said, I expect them to rebound once their next batch of big titles start arriving next year, but they can't just keep releasing these titles in waves with large gaps between them or people get bored and start concentrating on saving their money.

And yes, Sony and Microsoft are in real bad shape right now given that unlike Nintendo they are actually reporting net losses rather than just a decline in profits.  I think their problems have more to do with the price of their games than a lack of games, since the 3rd parties have been pretty kind to them the last couple years.

If you take all of Sony's "earnings" from the last 10 years 99 -09 and then include Q1 of 2010, Sony has barely broken even over the last decade.

For Nintendo, between Hardware & Software they are averaging a decline of 41% and still make over $400million in Profit. Poor Poor Nintendo.

If this is a trend and it causes Nintendo to shift direction, we probably won't see it for a year or two.

This is probably what the rest of the year will look like.  Got to respect Nintendo for remaining so profitable despite no new compelling software.  On the upside, next year is already set up for a rebound.

Nintendo are Apple 2.0: They can sell nothing new at all, yet still make hundreds of millions of profit. Apple actually has to revise the iPod or PC/Laptop lines once or twice over to keep going.

Nintendo can sell equipment that's not been touched hardware-wise in 3 years and still sell 2 million in 3 months.

July 26, 2009:  no new compelling software.

ahahahahaahhaahahahahhahahaahahahah

People seem to forget that most people already have a Wii and DS of some model or another - why would they buy a second? A decline in sales is kind of inevitable.

It's not like Wii sales are bad now, even now the Wii is about where the 360 has been in it's better non-holiday months. The decline is due to the fact that at this time last year the Wii was doing ridiculous numbers like nothing we've ever seen.

The Wii only sold 50M so far, the DS has twice that and the PS2 allegedly thrice.

iWiiSlimPlusGoDuoLite will help Wii shatter those records it needs.  Just the thing to help already-Wii owners think it's all right to pick up another Wii system for the household, to prevent kids from tying up Dad's Tiger Woods game after work.

But the PS2 is around ~125m sold not 150m

Maybe Nintendo should try raising the price of the Wii, that increased sales of the DS.

But then that would basically be releasing the WiiHD. A wii with higher stats than the original Wii at a slightly higher price.
That is what they did with the DS when they raised the price.

TV ad campaign with Beyonce playing Wii from her fluffy bed.