Nintendo Wii sees weak sales

A month has passed since Nintendo Korea launched its much-anticipated Wii game console in the Korean market. But although the Wii has become all the rage in the United States and Japan, the console has fallen short of expectations here in Korea.Compared to its smash-hit predecessor, the portable Nintendo DS, the Wii has seen slow sales. While total DS sales surpassed 1.4 million in Korea as of April, with more than 100,000 units sold per month, industry experts estimate that only some 40,000 Wiis have sold here. Nintendo Korea refused to disclose how many Wii consoles it sold from April to May.Unlike its competitors the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3, the Wii operates using a motion sensor. Thus, instead of simply mashing buttons in a sedentary state, Wii players move their bodies in order to play games. The unique style of play has led to the Wii’s popularity over its competitors.But given that the Xbox 360 sold only 150,000 units in two years and PlayStation 3 sold 50,000 units in one year upon release, sales volume for the Wii is not that bad.Industry experts, however, say the Wii’s sales volume has failed to live up to the industry’s expectations, especially considering the fact that the Wii is cheaper than its rivals. The Wii costs 220,000 won ($214), while both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 cost more than 400,000 won. “Compared to the Wii’s great success in other countries, its sales volume here is a little disappointing,” said Kang Rok-hee, an analyst with Daishin Securities. “In Korea, gaming has a negative connotation. Children are already hooked on online games and the Nintendo DS. And here comes the Wii, which has to be connected to a TV in the living room. But most parents think having a Wii in their living room is too much for their children.”Other factors hinder the Wii from seeing sales as high as those in other countries. First, the console supports less than 10 game titles, and the Wii does not even support games from the GameCube, the Wii’s predecessor that launched in 2001. Regional lockout, which prevents media bought in one country from being used in other, also bothers Wii players. Thus, if a person buys a game for the Wii in another country, those games will not work on a Wii bought in Korea. Nintendo Korea explained the regional lockout system by saying that other branches of the company in the United States and Europe also practice this policy to protect local software industries.“In order to protect the software industry from illegally downloaded game titles, this is necessary,” said Kim Sang-yeon of Nintendo Korea. Simply put, Nintendo Korea wants to stop seeing losses from illegal downloads, which the company suffered with the Nintendo DS. Despite the company’s healthy sales of Nintendo DS consoles, about 40 percent of users modified their consoles to support illegal downloaded games. This meant Nintendo Korea could not sell as many game titles, according to the Korea Software Industry Promotion Agency.However, a hack chip, which unlocks regional codes that prevent players from playing illegally downloaded games, enables players to bypass this barrier. Recently, reports of stalls in Yongsan Electronics Market selling the Wii hack chips surfaced. The chips provide another bump in the rocky road to high sales for the Wii.When asked about the Wii hack chip of Wii, Kim of Nintendo Korea said: “We haven’t looked into the case yet, so we have nothing to comment on it. But we do not provide any customer service on any device that has been illegally modified.”Industry experts say the hack chip is hard to install, so Wii players will not use the chip as much as DS users. But some gamers have already begun making alterations to their Wiis. “We cannot modify the Korean version of the Wii console, but it is possible with Japanese Wiis,” said an employee at Njoy, a game shop located the Yongsan market, on condition of anonymity. “It costs about 400,000 won in total to buy both a Japanese Wii console and a hack chip,” he added.