A “Wii HD” has been one of the longest swirling rumors in the business, and one analyst in particular has touted its feasibility more than most: Wedbush Securites Analyst Michael Pachter. Late last month the analyst released a brief on the industry, where he predicted that a Wii HD would be coming:
“We expect Nintendo to sustain [their] competitive advantage by introducing a high definition version of the Wii, perhaps as early as the end of 2010, in order to convert its large installed base into true ‘next-generation’ households,” Pachter said in June.
How, if Nintendo intends to do this, would they market this new high-definition device? Would they phase out the current Wii system, or treat the upgrade much in the same vein as the DS, DS Lite and DSi? Neither, Pachter told us — look at the Wii and Wii HD as the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
“Of course, it’s just speculation,” Pachter prefaced in an e-mail to EndSights, “but I see them having two consoles in the market at once, more like PS2 and PS3. They will likely try to get consumers to trade up to the Wii Plus while still selling the Wii for $100 cheaper.”
Subject: Analyst: Wii and Wii HD Will Be Similar to PS2/PS3 
Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:05 am
