Nintendo unconcerned by Wii slowdown

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has defended recent sales figures for the Wii, emphasising its continued dominance in the US market.

Speaking as part of an investor Q&A, which also saw Nintendo president Satoru Iwata discuss development costs for the 3DS, Fils-Aime emphasised the strong hardware sales of the Wii, which in the U.S. has outsold the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined in the last 15 months.

Fils-Aime described the PlayStation 2 as the Wii's only other "meaningful competitor", but pointed out that the Wii is nearly five million units ahead of the PS2 at the same point in its life cycle.

As a result Fils-Aime characterised the 360 and PS3 as "losing ground even more quickly".

Questioned by an analyst over the Wii's software tie ratios, Fils-Aime stated that life-to-date software sales for the Wii were also "dramatically" higher than both the PS2 and HD consoles.

A second part to the same question asked when Nintendo would consider launching a new home console and whether this decision would be based on falling hardware or software sales.

Iwata answered simply by saying: "I do not think that there is an immediate need to replace the Wii console, but of course, at some point in the future, that need will arise. So I will answer your question from the perspective that we currently do not have an answer as to what point in the future that need will come".

Iwata went into slightly more detail in a subsequent BBC interview, commenting: "When we run out of ideas with the current hardware and cannot give users any more meaningful surprises with the technology we have, that's when we will launch the new hardware."

Although the successor to the Nintendo DS has been announced Nintendo was also keen to emphasis continued support for the format, which will be backwards compatible with the 3DS.

Speaking to website CVG, an unnamed representative stated that "In terms of DS support we're still very much committed to the platform and to making new and interesting titles for it."

The only DS game to feature prominently in Nintendo's pre-E3 conference was Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, although Dragon Quest IX, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem were also present on the show floor.

Curiously Pokémon Black/White, which has already been extensively previewed in Japan, was not featured at E3.