To date, Nintendo has sold nearly 35 million Wiis, including 12.6 million in the U.S., Nintendo's biggest market. That's lower than Sony's PlayStation 2, which has sold 43 million units since 2000. But it's still pretty high for a console that, at launch, was technologically a generation behind its chief competitors, Sony's PlayStation 3, with 13 million units in users' living rooms, and Microsoft's Xbox 360, with 23 million units. This year, the Wii is expected to sell more than the best-selling PS2 sold in its best year, 2003.
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Nintendo's strategy is to buy inexpensive components instead of making them in-house, allowing the Wii to sell for $260 while the PS3 costs $300.
But here's the winning point: Unlike its competitors, Nintendo has figured out how to make money from its console sales. Sony loses money on each Playstation sold. Microsoft might just break even. But every Wii brings in $6 of operating profit for Nintendo, says David Gibson, an analyst at Macquarie Securities.
Nintendo also sells 60% of Wii games itself, compared with 30% for Microsoft and 15% for Sony. Wii users are expected to buy the most games this year, 220 million, compared with 120 million PS3 games and 125 million for the Xbox 360.
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And Nintendo has a higher gross margin on game software than the others at 65%, compared with between 50% and 60%.
Der Gewinn pro verkaufter Konsole ist beachtlich. Allerdings haben ie ja auch seit Einführung den Preis noch kein Stück gesenkt, im Gegensatz zur Konkurrenz. Dafür sind die Spiele günstiger, ein großer Vorteil für den Kunden.