GC: Nintendo focuses on Wii, DS success

Apart from pinning down release dates for a pair of big titles, Nintendo has announced no new Wii or DS products at this year's Leipzig Game Convention — instead choosing to focus on the company's well-documented successes of the past year, Eurogamer.net is reporting.

Using the consumer convention to open up its E3 titles to the public, the format-holder has said it will release Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii on October 26 in Europe, and DS hit The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass a week earlier on October 19.

Instead of the usual press conference, Nintendo opted for a more intimate approach; groups of around thirty journalists at a time were led around the company's exhibition stand.

The company had already stated it was taking a more low key approach to the Leipzig event earlier this month.

Nintendo Germany boss Bernd Fakesh spent forty-five minutes showing journalists the impressive European sales figures for games like Brain Training, Nintendogs and Wii Sports.

"As we move through the tour, we must remember that gaming, too, is on the move," Fakesch began, claiming that Nintendo's dual strategy of new game concepts and easier, more intuitive control had opened up gaming to 'millions' of former non-gamers, especially among young females and the over-40s.

Nintendo games occupied 16 of the top 20 slots from January to July this year in Germany, and Brain Training stayed in the top 10 for over 60 weeks. Fakesch also boasted an 80 per cent hardware share for Nintendo in the handheld market, and 65 per cent of the total games hardware market.