EEDAR predicts New Super Mario Bros. Wii will outsell Modern Warfare 2

Posted by Mister-X on November 11th, 2009 at 10:04am

In statements that seem to back up the words of Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime, market analyst Jesse Divnich from the research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) has said how the firm believes that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will ultimately outsell the recently released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - a game that is widely believed to be the most anticipated game of the year.

“EEDAR feels comfortable to make the prediction that the New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii will be one of the top titles this holiday season,” wrote Divnich in a preview report of NPD’s US videogame sales.

“While in the short-term the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may surpass New Super Mario Bros.,” the report continued, “in the long-term New Super Mario Bros. will easily become the best selling title released in 2009 with expected lifetime sales exceeding 15 million units worldwide.”

“It is a good possibility that New Super Mario Bros. could outsell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and all of its versions throughout its lifetime.”

While EEDAR believes that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will continue the evergreen sales trend of Nintendo’s previous titles, such as Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, Divnich did stipulate that one of the major contributors to this prediction is due to the presence of yearly editions of Call of Duty, and those entries’ affect on subsequent releases in the franchise, resulting in waning demand for previous games:

”A title like New Super Mario Bros. is a style of game that only comes along once every four years and gives it incredible legs on retail shelves,” Divnich wrote.

While this prediction is a little less aggressive than that of Nintendo’s Fils-Aime, it does point to one of the reasons that Nintendo’s titles continually manage to sell in excess of 10 million units during their lifetime, while other development companies consistently cannibalise their own software sales by releasing annual entries to their games.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 released worldwide yesterday (November 10th), but we’ll have to wait for the sales battle to begin when New Super Mario Bros. Wii releases on November 15th in North America and November 20th in Europe.

Source: Gamasutra