Not Remotely Damaged – Wii Launch Hits Its Straps

Internet searches for the Nintendo Wii have ousted the perennial favourite iPod to become the UK's most searched-for gadget in the run-up to Christmas, according to Hitwise. The recall of a wrist strap, due to over-enthusiastic users throwing remote controls around, can't have hurt its worldwide sales either.

Nintendo has sold around 400,000 Wii consoles in Japan and more than 600,000 in North America, including (according to NPD Group) around 476,000 in the US in its first two weeks – beating Sony's PlayStation 3 who have encountered production problems. Sony has promised 2 million PS3s worldwide by year's end, while Nintendo is targeting 4 million Wii units in the same period.

The Wii was released in the UK the week before last, and reportedly sold out rapidly with 50,000 consoles going in 12 hours. Share of UK Internet searches for 'nintendo wii' surged 147% in the launch week, according to Hitwise, while searches for 'xbox 360', 'psp', 'ps3' and 'playstation 3' all declined slightly. 'nintendo wii' ranked as the fourth highest volume product search term and the number one among those including a company or brand name. Nintendo also has the second most searched for games console, the DS.

The Wii features revolutionary motion sensing technology which enables users to actually 'play' sports, swinging tennis rackets, wafting swords and bowling balls. In the last week this led to the recall of more than 3 million of the wrist straps supplied by Nintendo to hold the remote control onto players' hands. The strap has not proved strong enough, resulting in damage to remote controls, walls and furniture, but surely no damage at all to the product's marketing effort.

Billy Pidgeon, an industry analyst at IDC in New York, is quoted on Yahoo! as saying the recall 'helps to spread Nintendo's message on the unique interface of the Wii' and should not affect demand. 'At the launch of a console' says Pidgeon, 'it basically has to be fatal to hurt sales.'

Hitwise' UK operation is online at www.hitwise.co.uk , IDC at www.idc.com and Nintendo at www.nintendo.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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