Nintendo Wii Breaks Aussie Sales Records

Nintendo has just informed us that first four days of sale, 32,901 consumers have purchased Wii. While not a huge number on the world scale this now means that the Wii has officially broken the Australian record for the biggest launch of a video game system in history. Wii console sales accounted for 43% of all video game hardware sold last week. This was followed by the Nintendo DS, which represented 24% of the total market.

All together, Nintendo accounted for 67% of all hardware sales last week – Two out of three consoles sold in Australia last week were Nintendo consoles.

Full Press Release inside

Nintendo is pleased to announce that in the first four days of sale, 32,901* consumers have purchased Wii.

This means the Wii has officially broken the Australian record for the biggest launch of a video game system in history.

The launch of Wii has been a fantastic success for us, says Rose Lappin, Director of Sales and Marketing. We aim to bring gaming to the masses and I think we have taken some large steps in the right direction. Our main priority now is to deliver as many units as possible into retail channels, as quickly as possible, to try and meet this exceptional demand.

Australia-wide, retailers experienced a surge of activity, with many reporting large queues in front of stores at openings and total sell-outs on launch day.

Myer has just experienced a strong spike in total business which can be largely attributed to the introduction of Wii, explains Bernie Brookes, Myer CEO. We couldnt be happier with the fantastic products Nintendo are releasing. Our Wii launch experience has really shown that consumers have made Myer a destination store for gaming.

Advertisement

The Wii has already proven to be a sell-out success in North America and Japan, and very recently sent Europe into a retail frenzy.

Nintendo is targeting to deliver 4 million Wii hardware units globally by the end of this calendar year and 6 million by the end of this fiscal year in March.

Wii is sold for an SRP of just $399.95. The price includes one wireless Wii Remote controller, one Nunchuk controller and the groundbreaking collection of five different Wii Sports games on one disc.

The highest selling game for Wii is the critically acclaimed, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Reviews are flooding in, for what most are calling a modern masterpiece. IGN Australia says, Go and get it; give yourself time to savour it. It will amaze.