Nintendo seems to have bucked the recession. The Japanese videogame manufacturer has doubled November sales of the Wii in the U.S. from a year ago, according to NPD’s latest release on gaming sales.
Nintendo Co.’s sales are speeding along faster than a getaway car, shrugging off economic woes as if they were bugs on the windshield.
Its Wii videogame console continues to be sold out in many stores. Sales of its DS handheld console remain hot despite its being a four-year-old product, ancient by game technology standards.
Guitar Hero World Tour couldn’t boost Activision Blizzard’s share price despite a decent debut this weekend. Decent, but not stellar. Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game were near-sellouts, the PS3 version less so. Good news, then, that UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter thinks the videogame industry could be recession-resistant.
The latest data on video game software sales from market research firm NPD shows continued robust demand.
In May, video game software sales rose 41% on a year-over-year basis. Pacific Crest’s Evan Wilson, in his review of the data, noted that console hardware sales saw little benefit from the launch of Take-Two’s (TTWO) Grand Theft Auto IV.
Here’s the metaverse mystery of the week: This strange new private island with a very familiar name recently emerged on the server grid of virtual world Second Life. Spotted yesterday by Second Life blogger Tateru Nino (and confirmed when I checked the world’s dynamic map today), we have to assume it’s an official Nintendo property. When someone buys a virtual island from Linden Lab, they also get to name it. Given Linden’s DMCA enforcement policy, it’s unlikely they’d let just anyone dub an island “Nintendo.”
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