35 Million Wiis Sold in US By 2012, Says Nintendo

Nintendo said Wednesday that it expects to sell as many as 35 million Wii consoles in the US alone by 2012, which would place it close to the record 38.2 million PlayStation 2 consoles already sold in the market.

Over 2.5 million have already been sold, solidly putting it in second place behind the Xbox 360, which has sold some 5.4 million units since its debut in November 2005. Sony's PlayStation 3 remains in third with 1.3 million consoles sold.

Already the cheapest of the next generation consoles, Nintendo told Bloomberg News that it has no plans to cut the price even further. With demand already extremely heavy, a price cut could further cause supply shortages.

The company also spoke of market conditions, which they argue favor the simplicity of the Wii.

"We're starting to see in the performance of the PS3 and Xbox 360 that that's not necessarily motivating the market the way it used to," Nintendo of America marketing head George Harrison told Bloomberg. "So we're going to start work on future technology only when we believe it's necessary."

14 new games will be released for the console throughout the third quarter, many of which focus on more simple games that take full advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities.