Nintendo Exec Fights Back at Recession

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata touted the recession-proof resilience of his company’s products at a rare press conference Thursday, even as he acknowledged that Wii sales in Japan have fallen sharper than expected in recent months.

But the company’s immediate future may lie more with the portable DSi than the headline-grabbing Wii.

Although the Wii beat the PlayStation 2 in becoming the fastest games machine to pass the 50 million sales mark worldwide last month, other news has been less positive recently for the console.

Domestic sales figures for the last week in March, from Japan’s Media Create, show that while Nintendo’s DSi had regained the top spot with 57,401 units, the Wii was once again in fourth place behind Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PlayStationPortable, with 17,276 consoles sold.

“It’s

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