Nintendo announce their Aussie pie slice

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 05:35

Your IT - Entertainment

With Australians spending over $1.3 billion on video gaming in 2007, it is not surprising that all the major players had good years.  Both Microsoft and Sony pulling in some happy numbers, it was inevitable that Nintendo – with the Wii achieving a number of sales records - also enjoyed some healthy returns.

Nintendo have released the following sales information straight from research company Gfk.

First off a number of milestone sales figures were achieved, with the popular Nintendo DS hand-held notching up one million sold in Australia, in a little under three years from launch.

Meanwhile big brother the Wii has hit 300,000 units in Australian homes after 58 weeks on the market.

Both these milestones make the DS and Wii the official fastest selling games consoles in the land.

During December 2007, the Wii racked up 73,318 units sold, placing it second behind the DS which nailed 133,691 units in new sweaty Australian hands. By contrast Sony shipped 48,000 PlayStation 3’s, with Microsoft matching the PS3 with Xbox 360’s during the same period.

In the software stakes, Nintendo claimed six of the top ten sales positions in 2007.  These titles were Pokémon Diamond, Brain Training, Pokémon Pearl, More Brain Training, Nintendogs Dalmatian & Friends and Super Mario Galaxy.

Nintendo’s Australian Managing Director, Rose Lappin was understandably buoyant with the end of year sales figures, attributing much of the customer appeal to the Wii’s intuitive pick-up-and-play design; “We are finding that people who have not played video games before are now enjoying playing Nintendo DS and Wii, which has resulted in the sales results revealed by GfK Australia”, says Lappin.

The Nintendo Press Release goes on to give a glimpse of what to expect in 2008 – hit page two for the words.