Pachter says, “Nintendo will die unless they release a Wii HD.”

Got some salt handy? You might as well go to your local grocery store and buy a big bag of it as this story is about Michael Pachter, the infamous gaming industry analyst whose name keeps coming up again and again in Nintendo news, despite his predictions’ not-so-good accuracy record.

Today, Pachter boldly stated that he believed Nintendo’s doom was imminent unless they were to release an HD-enabled version of the Wii that could compete with Sony and Microsoft in the horsepower race.

You know frankly, the box isn’t as powerful and anybody who has an HDtv (sic) has to think twice about buying a Wii when they can get a 360 or PS3 for not much more.

Out of all he said, this sentence was most believable and is in line with previous reports of the Wii’s slowing sales. Pachter blamed this on Nintendo having gotten accustomed to the Wii’s continuous surge in sales during its first few years on the market.

I don’t think it is a bad thing that sales are down. I don’t think they were sustainable at that level…and I think demand is just tailing off to something much more normal.

So far, I think his reasons make sense, but then the conspiracy begins.

I think Nintendo is kind of going to continue to fade unless they decide to refresh the box, and as we all know that Wii HD should be coming out next month…

I find this last bit contradictory to what Pachter said just before it: if Nintendo is now selling their Wiis at “normal” rates, doesn’t that suggest that sales have stabilized and will stay at this level into the future?

Regardless, Pachter thinks that Nintendo needs to release an HD version of the Wii – not an entirely new console, just an HD version of the one they have – to regain the interest of the public and rise back to the top of the charts. He also mentioned that it would be wise for Nintendo to adopt a strategy like Apple’s, where they release new iterations of a product on an annual basis, incrementally adding new features to it year after year.

I don’t agree with either of Pachter’s suggestions – at this stage, Nintendo is better off dedicating resources to the development of the Wii’s true successor rather than an HD version of the same console; and they’re very unlikely to go the Apple route of annual hardware redesigns. Nintendo’s philosophy is one of delivering a consistent experience to all of their customers and people unwilling to upgrade from an older model of their system could potentially be restricted from experiencing a new game in its full glory.

What do you think of the latest word from Pachter?

Source: Nintendo Universe