Nintendo: New Wii colour, DSi XL, Monster Hunter Tri

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 14:01

Your IT - Entertainment

Nintendo started its world-wide press announcement day in Melbourne Australia.  The event gave us some hands on time with the new look Wii, coloured Wii remotes, DSi XL and some previews of Monster Hunter Tri, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver and a pre-announcement of  some big named software being shown tonight.

Today began the first of a world-wide Nintendo roll-out of announcements, with the first being held in Melbourne Australia.

There was muttering amongst the journalists in the assembled audience that when these sorts of events include retail based invitees there are not going to be any great revelations.  And for the most part this was true; there was nothing here for those wondering if we would see a Wii HD or Wii 2 announced, let alone any software for the Nintendo Vitality Sensor.

Instead, Nintendo Australia boss Rose Lappin introduced marketing director Greg Arthurton to the podium to recap 2009 and give some tasters for 2010 from Nintendo.

The recap included the fact that the Wii dominated the Australian / New Zealand marketplace, garnering a best-ever 58 percent market share during 2009, even when up against some hugely competitive marketing campaigns from rivals, Microsoft and Sony.  The Wii has now entered some 1.7 million Australian homes.

The Nintendo handheld DS commands a slowing, but still increasing market-share over the Sony PlayStation Portable of 81 percent.

On the software front, Arthurton waded through numerous slides depicting sales dominated by Nintendo first party titles.  Statistics such as New Super Mario Bros.Wii topping the charts reaching 200,000 Aussie sales in just seven weeks, as well as Wii Resort sitting at 300,000 titles shifted.  Arthurton noted that 52 percent of Australian Wii owners now have a Balance Board and Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus sitting in their living rooms.

The retail based onlookers were rewarded with impressive revenue bar graphs showing just how profitable Nintendo SKU's are based on rival gaming platforms.

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