Despite ramping up supplies for the DS and the Wii for the holidays, and despite the Xbox 360 Arcade now being cheaper than the Wii, it seems Nintendo still won't be introducing a price cut for either one in time for Christmas. What a surprise. Next they'll be saying they'll make another Mario game.

No one can doubt the phenomenal success of the Wii and the DS. But will they be able to keep their momentum? And will the Wii be able to keep up with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 in the long run? David Yarnton, Nintendo UK general manager, answers this question in an interview. Check out his answers to these questions in the full article.

Nintendo of UK has been bombarded by a chronic case of console shortage just like its counterpart in the U.S., and according to David Yarnton, General Manager of Nintendo UK, they need to do a lot better. More details in the full article.

It's almost Christmas, folks, and you know that that means - plenty of shopping to do. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are sending out word even as they make their preparations, they will still be expecting shortages to start occurring on certain areas in the UK. To this end, each company's sent out their corresponding representative to reassure the fans that they'll do what they can to keep the expected holiday (relatively) sane. Visit the full article to read each representative's detailed announcements.

Remember Nintendo UK boss' David Yarnton's recent speech about Nintendo still catering to the hardcore set? The speech appears to have raised some hackles, particularly this part (in verbatim):

For all the recent talk of record breaking entertainment launches, it might just be that the defining and most influential video game of this generation is a simple game of tennis that the whole family can gather around and play and enjoy together.

Some people thought that "record breaking entertainment launches" quote is a dig aimed at Bungie Studios' wildly-popular Halo 3, which helped in Microsoft's current Xbox 360 hardware sales jump (as shown by the NPD group in their recent hardware sales chart). 

However, Nintendo clarified that Yarnton did not refer to any specific game in his speech, especially not Bungie Studios' opus. " We were merely putting Wii Sports into a wider cultural context alongside cinema, books and TV," said a Nintendo spokesperson, adding that they consider the Halo games as indispensable to the gaming industry.

Well, that certainly helped in stopping a console war storm before it even started...for now, at least.

With the trend of games being released under the Touch Generation label and the vast popularity of Dr. Kawashima's disembodied head, Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton still reassured hardcore gamers that they are not being ignored - whether you're talking about titles on the Wii or DS.

At a press conference in London, a couple of Nintendo fans who grew up on the classic first-party titles on the NES and SNES (oh, you can throw your own example here: Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, etc.) expressed their concern about the recent and upcoming releases that Nintendo has in its games library. A couple of games that were pointed out were Brain Training and Wii Fit.

Yarnton replied with a number of games to prove that they are indeed not ignoring the hardcore gamer. Said Yarnton, they (Nintendo) are still very much in touch with their roots:

It's important to know that we're not ignoring the hardcore gamer. They're still very important to us. // And Christmas alone we have already catered on the Wii with Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy, and on DS with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

We all have different definitions of "hardcore" gaming. And true enough (some of you might even agree), Metroid Prime delivers in the hardcore department (Ridley battle FTW!). Galaxy does go back to the Mario 64 roots with a lot more to offer. And Phantom Hourglass, despite having a new kind of control scheme, still takes us back to the days of classic top-down dungeon crawlers like A Link to the Past.

But what about other games to follow Super Mario Galaxy? Let's hope Nintendo starts making announcements soon. We can't wait for a Star Fox on the Wii.

According to a report by UK-based MCV Interactive Entertainment Weekly, Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton has recently revealed up-to-date sales totals for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS from three market viewpoints: in the UK, in Europe and globally.

 

Yarnton claims that the family-friendly console Wii has smashed their sales target for the UK, while the phenomenal Nintendo DS continues to sell like hotcakes - just 60 million units shy of breaking the PlayStation record. According to the exclusive interview featured in a current issue of MCV Weekly, Nintendo UK has sold close to 438,000 units of Wii in the past five months.

Yarnton continued, "It’s really hard to have targets – we have seen unprecedented demand. We set targets originally and we have definitely exceeded those. They are continually being re-assessed all the time." The full list of figures of Wii and DS sales across three viewpoints follows:

DS

• Global: 40m
• Euro: 11m
• UK: 3.1m

Wii

• Global: 5.84m
• Euro: 1.3m
• UK: 438,000

Games Industry reports that new figures from Chart-Track have revealed that Nintendo's DS handheld gaming system has sold over 3 million units in the UK.

The Chart-Track figures also give the DS a commanding lead over other handheld gaming systems. It currently holds a 68 percent share of the UK market during the first three months of this year. According to Games Industry, Nintendo pointed towards sales of Touch! Generations games such as Brain Training and Nintendogs as one of the major factors for the DS's success across a much wider demographic.

"It’s a great testament to the strength of the DS hardware and software range available that just as Nintendo DS has passed its second birthday here in the UK, it reaches such a landmark sales figure," said Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton. "With many more Touch! Generations games launching in 2007, Nintendo DS and Wii will continue to be the main driving forces behind the expansion of the videogame market this year."

So you thought North America would be the only one with a busy holiday shopping weekend, did you? The lucky folks over at Europe would also be screaming "Wiiiiii!" as Nintendo UK's David Yarnton just promised yet another shipment coming soon. After the first 12 hours of having sold one unit per second, they're going to continue their sales with unabated force.

Yarnton says that they're going to hold up their part of Nintendo's promise of shipping four million units internationally by the end of the year. He adds:

We are continuing to work with our customers to make regular and multiple shipments across the UK in the coming days and weeks in order to manage the unprecedented demand for the biggest global launch of a console the industry has seen in the last decade.

We're wishing them all the luck with their goal. At the rate that they're going, it seems as if it's not that hard a goal for them to achieve. It's just the start, after all. They'd have to build on their launch success with these kinds of promises. Spread the holiday cheer, Ninty!

The first Wii promotion we saw for the German market. This video was taken from a German TV show called "50 Jahre Bravo" and it showed Wii Tennis, one of the games for Wii Sports. A title where, utilizing the Wiimote, players must be able to execute the correct swing and stroke to send the ball flying beyond the net. The multiplayer mode of the game supports up to four players simultaneously which makes it an ideal family game.

The video was able to capture two men having a great time checking out the playable version of the Wii Tennis. In case you haven't noticed, the older guy is Peter Maffay, a German musician and actor. Looks like he is hooked to the console too! Both of the gentlemen commented that Wii Tennis is fun and is not a far cry from the real thing.

Germany and the rest of Europe will get their hands on Wii on December 9 this year for the price of 179 Euros (US $225). David Yarnton, Nintendo UK's General Manager has already spilled his thoughts on Wii's European pricing and release. In an interview, Yarnton said that by the time Wii was already released in European territories, there won't be shortages anymore as 4 million units will be sold all over the world after the initial release. Sound promising but let's keep our fingers crossed until then.