Analyst - Japanese Wii sales dipping due to lack of staying power in Wii Music, Animal Crossing City Folk, Monster Hunter may not be a huge hit

“If we look at the types of games which are still selling well for the Wii in Japan, we’re seeing software such as Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii. These are older games that obviously have shown tremendous stamina, but Nintendo always needs to bring out new ways to drive console sales forward, and we just didn’t see that with Wii Music and City Folk.” - Screen Digest Games Analyst Ed Barton

I’m pretty sure that Nintendo has realized the error of their ways with Animal Crossing: City Folk. I bet you see the franchise take a long nap while Nintendo retools it to offer more new features next time around.

One title that’s sure to cause some buzz in Japan is Monster Hunter 3, correct? Mr. Barton thinks the title will be big, but perhaps not as big as everyone is thinking.

“I agree that Monster Hunter is a massive title, it was the best-selling game in Japan last year. But with the Wii version you’re taking a huge title, which one-in-four PSP owners have, and you’re trying to transfer that userbase from handheld to home console. And so I feel there’s a relatively large risk that it won’t have the same level of success that it had on the PSP.”