I realize that both DS & Wii are selling "well", and may even be selling better than the PS2 at this point in its life cycle, but still...I think the DS at least is past the point where PS2 sales should be used as a yardstick - it's its own beast, and in comparison to how it was doing last year, there's been a pretty significant drop-off (30%? 40%?)
I don't think any company would be satisfied with such a significant percentage drop in sales in a year's time - I thought the DS used to regularly clear 100K a week (and to put it in perspective, it took MHP2G to raise the PSP's hardware numbers to levels even comparable to the DS's run-of-the-mill sales last year). I know people get sick of the word "saturation" being thrown around, and ~50K sales/week are nothing to sneeze at, but Nintendo has to have taken notice. It's not going to be satisfied because "well, we're still selling better than the PS2 was" - it's going to evaluate the DS's current sales against the DS sales of last year and in 2006. This is probably the reason Iwata & co. are testing out new ideas like streetmap functions, etc., to introduce the DS to new audiences.
MKWii not bumping the hardware that much doesn't surprise me either way - sure, it's a huge game, but "big game" and "system seller" aren't the same thing, especially if it appeals to the current Wii userbase and not new users. It's hard to tell what Wii game will draw in new audiences - Wii Music? Animal Crossing Wii? (especially if it takes on a MMO form, which might draw in a different crowd).
I don't think any company would be satisfied with such a significant percentage drop in sales in a year's time - I thought the DS used to regularly clear 100K a week (and to put it in perspective, it took MHP2G to raise the PSP's hardware numbers to levels even comparable to the DS's run-of-the-mill sales last year). I know people get sick of the word "saturation" being thrown around, and ~50K sales/week are nothing to sneeze at, but Nintendo has to have taken notice. It's not going to be satisfied because "well, we're still selling better than the PS2 was" - it's going to evaluate the DS's current sales against the DS sales of last year and in 2006. This is probably the reason Iwata & co. are testing out new ideas like streetmap functions, etc., to introduce the DS to new audiences.
MKWii not bumping the hardware that much doesn't surprise me either way - sure, it's a huge game, but "big game" and "system seller" aren't the same thing, especially if it appeals to the current Wii userbase and not new users. It's hard to tell what Wii game will draw in new audiences - Wii Music? Animal Crossing Wii? (especially if it takes on a MMO form, which might draw in a different crowd).