It has recently come to my attention that New Zealand is slightly backwards when it comes to game consoles. Going by global sales figures, Nintendo’s mighty Wii is clearly dominating, with around 32 million consoles shipped. Sony’s Playstation 3 trails globally with 15 million consoles, and the Xbox 360 sits in the middle with 20 million.

Sales figures in New Zealand are a completely different story. The 360 leads, PS3 sits in the middle and the Wii brings up the rear, although the PS3 may have overtaken the 360 since the figures were published.
Maybe the state of Wii sales is because Nintendo is the only console manufacturer without a headquarters in New Zealand, or maybe the poor effort of advertising by the distributor is to blame. The distributor for Nintendo products (Softprint Interactive) recently declared bankruptcy, and distribution is set to be taken care of by Nintendo Australia. This explains the current prime-time adverts for both the Wii and DS; hopefully this will be the boost that Nintendo needs to get a well-deserved foothold in the console market here.

Keeping on the topic of Nintendo, rumours keep popping up of a DS redesign/complete overhaul. The DS has ruled the hand-held market since its introduction in 2004, selling a massive 80 million units globally, but with sales now showing signs of slowing, maybe it’s time to retire the old hardware. Although there is a bunch of A-grade titles set for release: Trackmania, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Kirby Superstar Ultra, and Henry Hatsworth to name a few.

I’m not making any bets until after the Tokyo Game Show in October.

StillAlive DS
Platform: Nintendo DS

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