Will Wii Fit resonate with North Americans? Wedbush Morgan Securities thinks it just might
Nintendo appears to be making the North American release of Wii Fit this May 19th one of its biggest yet, and it just might show up Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The upcoming health oriented non-game has reached well over million-selling status in Japan earlier this year, but Nintendo is hoping Wii Fit will make an even bigger impact in the larger North American market.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter confides that Nintendo has set aside its largest marketing budget in the company's history (at least in North America) for Wii Fit, one which could reach as high as $40 million USD. Nintendo itself would not confirm this figure at time of writing. In any case, Pachter believes Nintendo stands to strike gold with Wii Fit, selling 3 to 4 million units in North America alone provided their marketing is indeed as aggressive as predicted.
Reaching over 3 million units in sales would send Wii Fit in the upper echelon of bestselling game titles, at least based on 2007's sales figures. The video game market itself is expected to grow even more in 2008, so the bigger picture will remain fuzzy until monthly sales figures start pouring in for the title.
Church of Nintendo will always sell well as long as it's stupid consumers keep buying the products.