The MD Of Nintendo Australia has said that the company’s return to Harvey Norman, new games and a new controller will lead to big growth for Nintendo in Australia.
Fresh off bumper earnings, Nintendo has also ruled out a price cut for its smash-hit Wii video game console with local MD Rose Lappin forecasting that new software will make the Wii console popular this Xmas.
Speaking to SmartHouse she said, “We have several new games coming for the Wii console which will drive sales. Despite a shortage of Wii software titles we have grown our business and during the next six months we will be launching a lot of new titles from both Nintendo and third party developers. This will put us in a strong position.”
According to Aussie Nintendo web site, this year Wii Sports was the best performing title, with sales of more than 11.1 million copies. Wii Play’s the next-best performer, having sold more than 6.3 million copies, due most likely to the value offered by the included Wii Remote. Mario Party 8, was next in line, with sales of 2.9 million copies.
Big Brain Academy for Wii, to be released in Australia on November 8, followed with 1.8 million copies sold, and the last noted, surprisingly, was Mario Strikers Charged Football, with 1.3 million copies sold globally.
Profits at Nintendo have surged on the runaway success of the Wii and the portable Nintendo DS machine forcing rivals Sony and Microsoft to slash console prices in a desperate catch-up bid ahead of the holiday season.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said the company was struggling to meet demand of the Wii and a price cut was out of the question. The Wii sells for less than Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
“We’re still focusing on how to meet booming demand,” Iwata said Friday. “We’re absolutely not considering a price cut.”
Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Iwata said Nintendo planned to start selling Wiis in China next year, opening up a previously untapped market for the manufacturer of Pokemon and Super Mario games.
“We barely have enough Wiis to meet global demand this year. But next year, I think we can bring the Wii to China,” Iwata said.
Nintendo still needed to work with Chinese games developers to craft games suited to the market there, Iwata said.
He declined to give a sales target, but said Nintendo’s “future potential there is huge.”
Since the Wii debuted in November, Nintendo has sold 13.17 million units worldwide and expects to sell 17.50 million this fiscal year through next March.
Nintendo said Thursday that net profit more than doubled to 132.42 billion yen ($1.16 billion) in the six months to Sept. 30, and raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 275 billion yen ($2.40 billion) from the 245 billion yen it forecast in July.
