14 DAY TRIAL // Now, Nintendo is clearly the biggest videogaming company. The Wii is easily beating both the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony in terms of sales, sometimes topping their totals combined in the United States.
Meanwhile, videogames like Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit Plus, New Super Mario Bros., Super Smash Bros. Brawl are selling millions of copies over long period of times, providing Nintendo with constant revenue. But as the world progresses, the company could be threatened by certain trends, like the rise of the free-to-play model and that of social networks.
The Japanese giant is notoriously limited in the social options it provides, over the Internet multiplayer being quite limited on the Wii home console. And it seems that the company is not interested in moving away from the model in the future.
Cammie Dunaway, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, answered a suggestion about putting Mario on Facebook with a laugh, saying, “I don’t know. I think we will continue to save Mario for our own platforms. It’s one of the secret weapons we have. Mario and Zelda are intellectual property that is important to us and will only be seen on Nintendo platforms.”
Of course, Nintendo does not need to change as long as its current business model works. 2010 seems to be one of the years when the company leverages all its huge names. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is set to arrive on May 23 with fans being treated one month later to the launch of Metroid: Other M.
Statements from Satoru Iwata and Dunway also suggest that a new Zelda experience for the Nintendo Wii will be delivered in time for Christmas, the company aiming to draw attention away from the release of Project Natal from Microsoft and Sony's Arc, alternative motion tracking systems.