Will New Wii Paid Video Service Bump Sales?

The Nintendo Wii is definitely still keeping its footing in the video game world. Recent survey statistics and a new stream of revenues insinuate that Wii is doing well and will only do better this Christmas season. Survey data from an online wish-list and gift-giving site called Lottay show that the Wii and all its games and accessories will definitely gain some more momentum.

The Wii and everything that goes along with the game system were wished for over twice as much as the PS3 or Xbox 360. Now a wish does not mean that the product will necessarily be bought for the hopeful recipient, but since there is a shortage of super exciting gifts this holiday season, the Wii and other less-new products should be able to be successful in sales.

Although Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said just a few weeks ago that the Wii game system hadn’t been as strong as they imagined, Cammie Dunway, who is the executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, seems to remain extremely positive about the current sales and the future sales of the holiday season.

In the U.S., Nintendo’s focus for the Wii has been more on games and accessories for the system instead of additional services like the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live, which gives users access to Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm.

Now in Japan, the Wii console is much more sophisticated that it is here in the U.S. Nintendo previously launched an advertising program to the Japanese systems that turns family time with the Wii into a somewhat commercial endeavor, and it also introduced a catering channel that allows users to order food from a variety of assorted vendors right through the console and have it delivered to your door.

Just this weekend, Nintendo has added a variety of interactive services, with a paid video download service for Japanese consoles. The new service, “Theater No Ma,” offers a range of movies, anime, and a variety of other downloadable content from providers such as Walt Disney and Sesame Workshop.

Services such as this have been available in the U.S. for quite some time but not so much in Japan. Nintendo researchers were able to find out that 87% of Japanese Wii users have their console hooked up the biggest screen in the house which is normally in the living room. This will cause the new video downloading system to most likely appeal to Wii users because of the ease and location of the TV and console. Nintendo hopes that this new paid service will bring in more revenue and bump their sales statistics up.