Wii wins speed record!

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 23 July 2008 06:07

Your IT - Entertainment

The Nintendo Wii is officially the fastest selling console in Australia, breaking half a million sold barrier almost six months earlier than the PS2.

You could argue that statistics can be bent to say anything, or that simply the market place is both larger in population terms and broader in demographic, but the raw numbers say the Wii has broken the land speed sales record in Australia.

GfK Australia the independent market research company has reported the Nintendo Wii hitting 500,000 units sold after 84 weeks on the market.  This breaks, by 23 weeks, the record held by the Sony PS2 of 107 weeks. 

By broadening appeal, the Wii has managed to bring back a more mainstream consumer to the game console market. 

Titles such as Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Wii Play, Super Smash Bros Brawl and Zelda: Twilight Princess along with the unique control system has kept the Wii at the top of the sales chart.

Just how successful the future release of "Wii Sports Resort" and the Wii MotionPlus is naturally yet to be seen, but when that happens, it could help Nintendo prolong their winning streak even futher.

Nintendo has also given iTWire some information about upcoming releases for both the Wii and handheld DS.

The following info is from the latest Nintendo Press Release, dates referred to are applicable in Australia. 

Upcoming releases for Wii include Trauma Center™: Second Opinion, available 28 August. The Nintendo DS® surgical simulator comes to Wii with updated graphics, a second playable character, a new sixth chapter and new instruments to wield.

In Trauma Center: Second Opinion you take the role of rookie doctor Derek Stiles, a surgeon with the extraordinary ‘Healing Touch’ ability. Using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk you can manipulate more than a dozen different instruments on-screen in realistic ways, such as injecting with syringes, making incisions with scalpels, removing tumours with tweezers, and bringing patients back to life with defibrillators.

  – Check page two for more...