Nintendo: Third Parties Dominating On Wii

According to a new report, Nintendo has been trumpeting its recent successes with the Wii and DS at its ongoing Media Summit, saying third parties have been outselling the company's own products on Wii - also, confirmation of Nintendo's sales relocating from Redmond to San Francisco. Consumer magazine Wired has been covering the event, where Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has highlighted a number of the company's key points at a speech kicking off the Media Summit event. According to Wired, Fils-Aime has said the U.S. market was in the throes of a "significant market change," with female purchasers of hardware up 42 percent. This goes especially for Nintendo's own hardware, with over 30 purchasers of its DS up 127 percent, and over-35 DS buyers up 212 percent. As time has worn on, too, Nintendo has seen the percentage that the DS accounts for overall holiday sales rise from 35 percent to 49 percent, said Fils-Aime, adding ""and that's with DS being essentially out of stock in January," according to the report. The Wii, said Fils-Aime, has seen 40 percent of its buyers connect to the internet, and 3.3 million Virtual Console downloads. On the software side, the president said Nintendogs has remained in the top 25 best selling games since its launch 21 months ago, as has Brain Age. Finally, on third party development, Fils-Aime is reported to have said that publishers and developers are "moving enthusiastically towards Wii," and that "contrary to popular belief," third parties are selling more games than Nintendo themselves. In related news, Wired was able to confirm this morning that 60 members of Nintendo of America's sales and marketing team, along with vice president George Harrison, will be moving from Redmond to new offices in San Francisco, which Harrison called "the center of innovation for marketing and technology."