C3 Feature: South Korea Not Riding Nintendo's Wii Train Yet?

First of all it was announced by Nintendo of Korea that after its first eleven months on the market, the DS Lite had sold one million units, whilst just a week or so ago, it was confirmed that after only two years on the market there has been a very impressive two million Nintendo DS Lite systems sold throughout South Korea, a fact that was mirrored by the president of Nintendo in Japan, Satoru Iwata, when he briefly touched upon expansion into other markets being successful, with the company now able to sell a million DS systems each year in Korea. You may wonder why this is such a big deal, though, considering two million of the dual-screen machine is nothing compared to the ridiculous numbers posted around the world so far. Well, as of June last year, the previous leading platform was the PlayStation 2, which had sold just over 1.3 million pieces of hardware since launch. Sony's grip on the country has well and truly been shaken, with Nintendo swooping in to claim the throne in just a short time.


But the question on everyone's lips was 'Could the Wii emulate the success of the DS?' and for all intents and purposes it looked like the answer was a firm 'NO'. Or at least that is what a large sector of the Press seemed to almost hope when it was stated that upon launch on 26th April, 2008 Nintendo of Korea shipped 50,000 Wii units to retail and 'only' sold 35,000 in the first month. Obviously people were forgetting that its competitors, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, had sold 50,000 and 150,000, respectively, so the Wii was playing catch-up pretty damn quickly, even if it was not selling as fast as the DS. Nintendo did not even roll out the big guns from Day One either, and its releases since then have been few and far between. Simply taking a quick look at the official Korean Wii website clearly indicates the Seoul-based arm of Nintendo is biding its time, gauging interest throughout its first year on the market after the disastrous GameCube era (Korean distributor Daewon simply launched the Japanese language version, barely supported it and has been openly criticised several times for its treatment of the platform...).


The only First Party releases on launch day were Wii Sports and Wii Play, with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games coming at the end of the following month. After that, Korean Wii owners had to wait until early July for Big Brain Academy, the beginning of September for Super Mario Wii (yes, not 'Galaxy' as in the West) and then Mario Party 8 finally landed at the start of November. Hardly coming out with guns blazing, right? 6th December was Wii Fit day, though, with Nintendo's killer application hitting the market in a flurry of advertising, in-store promotions and a price-tag of that equates to a mere £48! Quite a difference from the minimum £69.99 we pay here in Britain, that is definitely for sure. There are five TV campaigns on rotation, which are still being shown frequently nearly two months after release. Then not only that, large stores such as Homeplus (the Korean branch of Tesco) and the video game section of massive retail outlet Techno Mart still have Wii Fit banners on display and video trailers on constant replay to entice the population to leave behind their PCs and try a healthier regime from the comfort of their own home. After all, fitness and an overall healthy lifestyle is such an integral part of Korean life, so obviously it pays for Nintendo to focus on the product that has already been a roaring success around the world as it will no doubt tap into that public frame of mind.


What is next on the cards for Nintendo of Korea, though? What will be able to keep this newfound momentum for Wii? Well, all we currently know is that Super Paper Mario will hit the streets 26th February, hoping to cash-in on the continued strength of New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, which is easily still the most popular DS game amongst all demographics (from personal anecdotal evidence of parents and pre-teens both remaining hooked, a year-and-a-half after the game's release). There is still no sign of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Mario Strikers Charged, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast, Mario Kart Wii or Wii Music. Even Link's Crossbow Training is absent, although the Wii Zapper is already out, being advertised alongside last year's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and January's release of Call of Duty: World at War. Also, the WiiWare service has yet to launch. So there is certainly a lot of potential sitting in Nintendo's secret chambers. As for the system's popularity amongst my extended family and their circle of friends, the system is starting to find its way into more homes, with favourites being Naruto (mainly for the younger boys), Wii Fit (mostly bought for and by parents), Mario & Sonic (fun for the whole family), yet from all accounts most of the younger market had not even heard that much about Mario's galactic escapades, similar to how Super Mario 64 DS was (again, anecdotally) overlooked in favour of the 2D antics of New Super Mario Bros.


To conclude, Nintendo still has a lot of aces up its sleeve in terms of pushing Wii in South Korea, and signs are already pointing towards the system beginning to increase its infiltration of the PC-friendly nation. With the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 having already stalled by pricing themselves out of the market from their respective off-sets, 2009 could well be the year where we see Wii pick up even more momentum thanks to it being advertised to all sectors of the community...