JUNE 2, 2008 • Since its launch in South Korea on April 26, the Korea Times reported that only 35,000 to 40,000 Wiis have been sold in the market. Nintendo Co. Ltd. has not announced official sales figures for South Korea, but the estimates indicate that Korean gamers are not happy with the region coding that prevents Korean Wiis from playing the much larger selection of Japanese Wii titles.
Impact: The best-selling system in Korea has been the PlayStation 2 with 1.3 million units sold in a six-year period. In its first year in the market the Xbox 360 sold about 80,000 units. So, for a first month total, 40,000 Wiis sold is not bad. However, unlike the rest of the world, it does not appear that Koreans are rushing out to buy a Wii. The PlayStation 2 did not allow for playing Japanese titles (over 4,000 for the PS2), however there were still over 500 PS2 titles officially released into Korea. The Wii reputation alone is probably not enough and having a decent selection of games will be key to success in markets like Korea.
