Nintendo: Sony, MS Missing Opportunities

Too much focus on Grand Theft Auto and Halo, says George Harrison.

When it comes to brute strength, few would argue that the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 handily beat the relatively underpowered Wii.

But that's not hurting sales of Nintendo's console, which is outselling both Sony's and Microsoft's systems. And according to George Harrison, a vice president at Nintendo, they're letting it happen.

Discussing how he thought the Wii would sell during its lifetime, Harrison said in an interview with Wired News that the Wii could boost its slice of the US hardware pie to 40-45 per cent and possibly even as high as 50 per cent.

That success, he said, depends in part on what Sony and Microsoft do:

"If they only focus on the Grand Theft Autos and the Halos and things of that nature, they're focusing on a very tiny part of the market. The overall market is growing so dramatically that they're going to miss out on the opportunities that we're seeing in the expanded audience."

Harrison said that appealing to the mainstream is "not in their DNA" of either of Nintendo's rivals.

Getting a Wii, although easier, is still no cakewalk. Harrison confessed as much and said that Nintendo was toying with production output, trying to meet demand.

"Part of our challenge," he said, "is that we're being successful not just in one territory but in every territory."

In the UK, where the Wii is still hard to find, Nintendo's system is consistently outselling both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo