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Nintendo: What's in store for 2009? Something for the Wii hardcore audience?

by Steven Williamson on 20 January 2009, 15:25

Tags: Sega (TYO:6460), Nintendo (TYO:7974), DS, Wii

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2009, another year of family-friendly gaming?

2008 was a groundbreaking year for Nintendo. In the midst of a global recession, which saw a number of development studios bite the dust, Nintendo continued to break hardware and software sales world-wide.

Wii continued to fly off the shelves and in the U.S it became the first console ever to break the 10 million sales barrier over the course of a year. Even the DS, which was launched back in 2004, shifted more units than the year before. Incredibly, the DS has now sold over 85 million units worldwide.

There were some great games for Wii in 2008 with Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros being amongst the highlights and the main drivers of software sales alongside family friendly titles such as Wii Fit. Even the God-awful Wii Music has already managed to sell over a million copies since its October release and it's one of those timeless titles that will probably become a multi-million seller for Nintendo over the next couple of years.

Nintendo also broke its own world record for the best selling game of all-time. By bundling Wii Sports with Wii consoles, Nintendo ensured that its flagship title surpassed sales of Super Mario Bros. Wii Sports is a now gathering dust in 45.2 million people’s homes, yet Super Mario Bros. will still be played for many years to come. A real travesty.

In 2009 Nintendo is hoping to continue the momentum and have yet another profitable and groundbreaking year, but what can we look forward to?

Continued overleaf...