In the restless world of video games, every passing month brings new challenges. After a disappointing March when PS 3 managed to outrun it, Microsoft is pulling itself together as it prepares for the launch of GTA IV.

Microsoft is hoping that GTA IV, anticipated as the most important release in the history of gaming, will have the same impact on the sales of Xbox 360 that Halo 3 had last year. PS 3 is still searching for that title to boost its sales, while Nintendo… well, things appear somewhat more complicated here and Jeff Muskus from The New York Times has a very interesting article about the goings-on in the world of Nintendo as far as games are concerned.

Even though Nintendo Wii is the best sold home video-game around the world, there seems to be some “trouble” with the Wii games, considers Muskus.

The newspaper gives as example Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a game which had one of the most anticipated releases of the year, selling more than 1.4 million copies in its first week. Unfortunately, over the next three weeks sales were so low that major retailers, such as Wal-Mart or Toys R’ Us, started bundling the game with the Wii machines for online sales.

Still, according to the latest figures released by The NPD Group, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has sold 2.7 million copies.

However, the fact that Nintendo Wii was conceived as a gaming platform for the casual gamers could mean a problem for the Japanese company in terms of games sales, Muskus notes.

Has the time come that the very arguments which Nintendo won the market with are turning against it? Has the market for casual gamers reached saturation in what concerns Wii games?

The average Wii owner buys only 3.7 games a year, compared with 4.7 for Xbox 360 owners and 4.6 for PlayStation 3 owners, said a Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, for the New York Times.  

Right from the beginning, Nintendo relied on market segments that Xbox 360 and PS 3 ignored. Is this strategy starting to morph into a disadvantage? It’s hard to say, especially as Nintendo Wii is difficult to compare with the other two consoles because of its position.

It is clear that the gamers’ profile is different, but this does not imply that games for Wii will not have as much success in the future.

According to VGChartz, Nintendo Wii has at the moment an installed base of 23,89 million, from which 10.35 millions in US. It’s very close to Xbox 360 which, according to the same source, has an installed base of 11.5 million in US.

Addressing 10.35 million users is an appealing idea for every games maker out there and my guess is that soon enough more and more third-party gaming companies will launch Wii versions of their main titles or just new games for Wii.

So, for the moment, there is a lot of room for growth in Nintendo’s world, both in terms of hardware and software sales.