Nintendo to conquer Europe
Nintendo is setting its eyes in the Europe market when it receives more than a lukewarm welcome in UK and Europe.
All looks rosy for Nintendo and its fans in the UK and the rest of Europe. Wii Fit is currently balanced on top of the UK charts (although GTAIV’s sales figures indicate that may not be for long), Mario Kart Wii snaked to the front of the pack at launch, and Super Smash Bros. has finally got a release date. To make things even sweeter, the Mario Factory has just been tipped by an analyst to oust Sony from the top of the heap in the region.
Despite a lukewarm response to Nintendo’s global outlook when it announced its most recent annual results and unveiled its projections for the coming year, David Cole of DFC Intelligence is projecting big things for the Japanese publisher in Europe. He points to the success of Sony’s casual-gaming products such as SingStar and the EyeToy range as the prime indicator for Nintendo’s upcoming dominance in the region in a report published this week.
He believes that “the Wii product line and control system are an evolution of what made the PlayStation 2 so successful in Europe,” and indicated that the move to Atari by Phil Harrison, who was president of SCE Worldwide Studios and seen by many as the standard bearer for Sony’s charge into non-traditional markets, was a turning point. “In many ways this departure is symbolic of how the torch in Europe seems to be passing to Nintendo,” Cole said.
- 
