Nintendo: not affected by economic crisis, ramping up Wii production by 33%

Nintendo of America‘s Reggie Fils-Aime: “One of our competitors [the PlayStation 3] projects they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that’s three months of production [for the Wii].” Ohhh, burn!

Anyway, on to the news. Addressing the shortage problem, Fils-Aime has announced that they will raise production by 33%. About time.

Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America:

One of our competitors projects they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that’s three months of production [for the Wii].

Ohhhh, burn! In case you missed it, he was talking about the PlayStation 3. This is a nice change – it’s usually Sony and Microsoft doing the cat fights.

Fils-Aime has the right to be snotty though. The Wii is still selling like hotcakes despite the world’s current economic problems. In fact, while Sony slashed its earnings forecast by 57%, Nintendo is looking pretty sprightly. Fils-Aime comments on the economic crisis’ effect on Nintendo:

We have not seen any negative impact. The sales data show both the Wii and the DS up in September over a year ago.

The Wii continues to be largely sold out at retail. We know consumers see our form of entertainment as a strong value because the entire family can play and because each game has more than 50 hours of play time.

So despite the crisis, Nintendo’s still going strong. In fact, they’re finally addressing the shortage problem by ramping up production by 33%. About time.

Via LA Times