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The more they hold out on North America the more Sony and Microsoft eat away their market share, and as of late Ninty's been losing it at a rapid pace... and North America is a bigger market than Europe and Japan combined.

Originally posted by Khadgar:

and North America is a bigger market than Europe and Japan combined.

Yup...

Originally posted by Khadgar:

as of late Ninty's been losing it at a rapid pace

Source?

North America is a bigger market than Europe and Japan combined.

Source?

Population:
North America = 530 millions.
Europe and Japan = 731 millions + 127 millions = 858 millions.
I don't get the second statement at all.

But, of course I think that Americans should be able to buy these things as well. Don't get me wrong. Everything should be available everywhere.

NoA also caters the Sounth American market, I think... that ups the population numbers... But I also feel like Americans spend more cash on games than Japs do... especially with so many tech goodies to spend your Yen going around in SushiLand...

Gladly. North Americans buy more games and consoles than both Europe and Japan combined. It's about the money, not the population. North America has more money. Add to the fact that Canada isn't in a recession and never has been in much of one at all they're buying a lot of shit. This is about the Wii, so let's talk the Wii's numbers. Many months Japan buys more games and consoles than Europe. To date there's been 35,200,000 Wiis sold in the US, Canada, and Mexico. There's been 10,520,000 Wiis sold in Japan. There's been 23,245,000 sold in Europe, around 10 million of that to the UK alone. There's an additional 15 million sold elsewhere in the world, probably mostly in Australia.

10,520,000 + 23,245,000 = 33,765,000

33,765,000 < 35,200,000

For the past several months North America has outsold the rest of the world, not just Europe and Japan. So, the liklihood of Europe's catching up is not looking good at the moment. In terms of game sales there's no contest as North America wipes the floor with the rest of the world and always has since Nintendo reincarnated the video game market in the mid 80's.

Now, when it comes to Nintendo's competitors in the US (as I was talking about market share in the US) both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 have outsold the Wii in North America for some time now. It's back and forth every month, but for most months this year the Wii has been outsold by one of them or both. The only month where the Wii outshined its competition this year was May/June when Super Mario Galaxy 2 bolstered Wii's sales. Every time an Xbox 360 and PS3 are sold when a Wii isn't sold the Xbox 360 and PS3's market share goes up.

Nintendo shot itself in the foot by spending an entire year making nothing but silly party games. No one remembers E3 2008? They learned the hard way that their hardcore fans are the ones who buy their games, not the casual gamer market they were trying to conquer. There has to be regular release of good quality games to ensure a console's longevity, and for a while there the Wii had nothing. Microsoft and Sony capitalized on that with high console sales.

Nintendo initially upped production in Europe because of the Euro's value, but that in of itself was stupid because much of Nintendo's sales in Europe come from the UK where they mostly use their own currency. It's just unbelievably moronic for Nintendo to deny themselves potentially moderate to moderately high sales in the US when North America is their biggest market by sales and revenue both.

Originally posted by Khadgar:

Nintendo shot itself in the foot by spending an entire year making nothing but silly party games.

You mean the games that sell more than other games, and that actually make consoles fly off the shelves?

No one remembers E3 2008? They learned the hard way that their hardcore fans are the ones who buy their games, not the casual gamer market they were trying to conquer.

Huh? In case you didn't notice, the so-called "casual games" are the ones selling consistently for a longer period of time.

There has to be regular release of good quality games to ensure a console's longevity

How do you define "good"? If "good" is "what sells", then a game like NSMBW is amazingly good.

Microsoft and Sony capitalized on that with high console sales.

Huh? Last time I checked, Nintendo sold about the same as both of the combined (worldwide).

Well, I still don't think North America (or even America) is a bigger market. The US may be an economical superpower. But the money doesn't belong to the the common people. In fact, an average Japanese family has more money to spend compared to an American. And the same goes for many of the European countries.
And I don't think the Hollywood stars buy games as a thousand households would, just because they have as much money as a thousand households...
Also, statistics speak for this as well: http://kotaku.com/5458556/nintendo-reveals-lifetime-hardware-shipment-figures
Sure we may discuss that people from one region buy more games than another. But as we can see here, American people have at least not bought more consoles.

Edit: Your source may be more fresh. But you didn't provide us with one.

This is why NPD NUMBERS fueled this kind of 'war' Aaaah, you will be missed, NPD figures... you will be missed...

It's okay, Spook.

prd3, read what I typed, and try again. NSMBW isn't a party game. Most of the mods here own the game, and I know of at least 3 (including myself) who've thoroughly beat it -- including the world 9 special levels. I said that Sony and Microsoft were gaining ground in the United States, and they have been since 2008. I never for once said they sold more in total.

Do you even remember E3 2008? Do you remember the extremely loud boos at the presentation? Do you remember the angry interviews from the fans there? Do you remember Miyamoto stating they were working on Pikmin just to quell the riot? No? Go look up stories here or elsewhere on the Web. Even NSMBW was presented as a silly 4 player party game. People hated it until a few months later Nintendo revealed what it really was. People sold or got rid of their Wiis in protest. Mod Chris (Seaempty) here was one of them. The rest of us had faith Nintendo would turn around, and they have.

Tom, my source is from Nintendo's reports. Their last numerical report was last month with sales broken down by region per month. It's on their website, but you need to log in as press to access it. I haven't the slightest clue why they don't just put the numbers out in the open, though.

Your source from January does nothing but prove my point. Look at the North American sales. Notice the Wii sales are bigger? Your source doesn't even have Europe as a separate market. If you stripped Europe's Nintendo sales out of those figures and added them to Japan's they would still be less than North America's.

Even if you were to futilely attempt to measure disposable income you'd have to include Canada and Mexico in with the figures, not just the United States. Even if disposable income could be measured how in the heck would anyone know what percentage is spent on Nintendo consoles? I know people tend to forget about Canada and Mexico, but they exist and add a respectable portion of this continent's economic output. You can believe North America isn't a bigger market. There's people who believe Earth is only 6000 years old, too.

Originally posted by Khadgar:

I know people tend to forget about Canada and Mexico

We feel so left out sometimes... (sobs)

Well, I didn't forget about them. Both me and the article mentioned the Americas. Not just the US.

Plus in your original statement, you only said "North America". So if you add the rest, I could as well add Australia and Korea to Europe and Japan, where they also can buy the 25th anniversary (and maybe the red Wii, I didn't check).

Anyway, I'm not interested in taking this any further. In my opinion everything should be able everywhere, not matter how big the market is.

Originally posted by Siskan:

The US may be an economical superpower. But the money doesn't belong to the the common people. In fact, an average Japanese family has more money to spend compared to an American. And the same goes for many of the European countries.

Makes you wonder if the economists ever read these blogs. If people talking about Nintendo have this kind of dynamic level of thinking, why doesn't the governm.......oh, wait. I've answered my own question by rereading the part I quoted.

... on a side note, who's ready for some Donkey Kong Country Returns? I know I am! hells yeah!

Originally posted by Khadgar:

said that Sony and Microsoft were gaining ground in the United States, and they have been since 2008.

Really? They were gaining ground when NSMBW made consoles fly off the shelves? When NSMBW caused Wii to be sold out?

Do you even remember E3 2008? Do you remember the extremely loud boos at the presentation? Do you remember the angry interviews from the fans there?

Who cares? Nintendo isn't selling to hardcore whiners. Nintendo is selling to the mass-market. All they need to do is to keep making mass-market games like Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, and NSMBW.

Even NSMBW was presented as a silly 4 player party game.

No, Nintendo was aiming NSMBW at the mass-market, not at hardcore whiners. Hardcore whiners don't understand Nintendo's strategy (much like most people don't understand Opera's strategy, incidentally).

By the way, why isn't the limited edition DSi XL mentioned in the article?

Good point! Let's ask the author! ... DOH!
This article was just about the Wii, but you're right, we might have missed the fact that Europe is ALSO getting the Red DSi

Aaaand, I don't mean to fuel the debate even further... But have you guys checked the latest (and last) NPD numbers for console sales? Sony is keeping quiet and even they sold more PS3 than Nintendo did Wiis... XBox, on the other hand, is flourishing...

Still think Nintendo didn't lose market share with the post-E3-2008 fiasco?

Originally posted by Spook81:

Still think Nintendo didn't lose market share with the post-E3-2008 fiasco?

In case you didn't notice, E3 2008 was more than 2 years ago. It's 2010. The latest E3 was E3 2010, and at E3 2010, the "hardcore" were cheeling like crazy. Interesting how sales took a dive as the hardcore were cheering for Nintendo, don't you think?

All Nintendo needs to do is bring out another 2D Mario. Wii Party could also give it a nice boost.

It's all about the games. Nintendo needs to release games people want to play. Like Wii Sports Something or Mario in 2D.

All Nintendo needs to do is release the 3DS and market it - massive damage happen!

Anton has a point... E3 2010 was ALL ABOUT 3DS... That's what people cheered about...and about games that have not come out yet or are just about to, like Kirby Yarn or DKC Returns... Yes, Nintendo got the 2008 message... was it too late? We'll find out... so far, Nintendo IS losing market in America, and they need to get it back pronto...

No, I just mean that thing effing owns other hardware - and it owns it HARD, almost too hard. When just 1 kid brings it to school and shows his friends, ALL of them will need to have one too - it's bigger than justin bieber, and will multiply faster than germs.

Originally posted by CaptainSeagull:

it's bigger than justin bieber

Still don't get the kids fame... The Jonas I get... The Bieber... not even his hairdo...

Originally posted by Spook81:

Yes, Nintendo got the 2008 message...

Yes, they did. But not the message you think they got.

They did NOT get a message from hardcore gamers. They got the message that user generated content was a dead end. That was it. And then they realized that the market wanted 2D Mario.

So what Nintendo will be doing now is to make more 2D Marios and party games, and stuff like that, and sales will skyrocket. They will NOT make many games for hardcore gamers, because they will only lose by doing so.

Nintendo IS losing market in America

That is far too early to tell. They haven't even started their next round of mass-market games yet. They are saving those for the holiday season, when Wii will sell out again.