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.
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Church of Nintendo will always sell well as long as it's stupid consumers keep buying the products.
For example, buying the gamecube without Melee, or any other of the rare good titles just because it's Nintendo and they expected something good. I grew up mostly with the NES, SNES, and N64. It was the dominant game power of the world with it's only competitor being the ever weakening SEGA (before sony came on the scene). Star fox 64 was a great game and die hard Nintendo people thought, "hey, a new Star Fox game is coming out for the gamecube! Let's get it!" And guess what. It was no way near as good as the N64 one. I, on the other hand, am not a loyalist. I play games that are good and try not to relate to a series' glory of the past. I also do that with my consoles of choice. Since the 360 was coming out with a lot of titles that I enjoyed a lot, I got an Xbox 360 instead of being a Nintendo loyalist and buying the Wii. Not only that, but I even questioned Bioware's Mass Effect even though I had enjoyed Kotor I. I got it after I heard some reviews for a couple of friends and stuff. However, because the Wii has a few titles I REALLY like, I'll get it to play those titles. They include: Metroid Prime 3: corruption, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, all of which I have tried out. Seeing as how I am not a mega Nintendo only fanboy, I will not be getting Wiifit even when I purchase the Wii; I don't really think it is all that entertaining and I get enough exercise.