Nintendo has no plans to replace its highly successful Wii gaming console this year in Australia, nor does it plan to deliver content similar to the US, with Australia being described as a “content wasteland” by a GFK analyst at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.
In Australia, all gaming companies are struggling to deliver compelling movie and music content similar to the US due to licence and copyright issues in Australia.
In the US, Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 users have access to thousands of movies and movie downloads with Nintendo announcing a new deal last night that will give Wii console owners access to content from online rental firm Netflix.
Microsoft Australia recently launched a movie service; however, content is limited to old content.
The move by games companies to position consoles as the centre of home entertainment is set to heat up in coming months, with Sony set to have an advantage due to its built-in Blu ray player and its ownership of movie studios and music production companies.
Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime says don’t count on Nintendo introducing an update to its hit Wii videogame console, or new system anytime soon.
Sony and Microsoft plan to challenge rival Nintendo’s dominance of the current console generation with add-ons they hope will deliver a more sophisticated take on motion control than the motion-sensing technology in the three-year-old Wii. But Fils-Aime, in an interview with Bloomberg, said, “We are confident the Wii home entertainment console has a very long life in front of it.”
The Japanese videogame maker is betting that upcoming instalments of its franchise hits Metroid Prime and Super Mario will reinvigorate the red-hot sales that kept the console in short supply for the first two years of its life.
Nintendo in October issued its first profit warning in six years as sales slowed sharply and the strength of the Yen, relative to the currencies of the US dollar and other countries where it sells its products, sapped profits.
According to BusinessWeek, industry watchers and analysts have been speculating for months that Nintendo is prepping an update to the Wii that offers more sophisticated high-definition gaming. Sony, which has HD gaming on its PlayStation 3, will later this year release software that will allow PS3 owners to watch movies and play games in 3D.
The PS3 has seen a surge in sales after Sony cut the price of its base model and introduced a slimmer version of the game system.
