Wow, that's buttload considering how Nintendo's never really done too well in Europe... and as you say, how crappily PAL gamers are treated by them. Nintendo's pretty much the only company that doesn't try to do global releases of games these days.

This probably contributes to my inability to find one. Boo!

I liken this to when a dog comes back for more once it has been kicked by it's owner...

** sounds of miyamoto wii-slapping gordon brown **

I've no hope they'll start treating us better either. :(

I think the comparison is more like being a beaten wife.

PS. Putting the Wii there would improve a lot of the hi-rise architecture around Westminster.

I think we europeans have too much money :o

I'd like to see the "Last played my Wii" statistics. I haven't touched mine since September.

And the casuals don't care if NoE treats us badly. They're happy with their Carnival Games.

I bet 2/3 of those owners don't even know what Brawl is.

@infi: Indeed, if they patch the VC games to ACTUALLY playback in 60hz, you'll sell more! *sticks thumb up to a bloody obvious request*

@Chadders: I wonder if some people will think the picture above is what our capital actually looks like, complete with Wii. Maybe a good game of Wii Bowling is used when a vote is too close to call in the house of lords. I'd like to think so anyway. Maybe the Wii is the answer to democracy.

The Wii has outsold the GC in both JP and EU so far, which really shows what a sales flop the GC was.

@DON KING: Considering some peoples amazing ignorance it wouldn't surprise me.

8 million copies of Nintendogs *jaw drops and dies inside*

Anyway for the obvious comment, I'm sure this figure would be a lot higher if there were actually some in stock...

Heh, let's have a "How often do you play your Wii" poll. That'll shed some light on this success.

The Wii's both cheap, and used as the new "board game" for the whole family. There's the explanation.

@Ashurahori: Great minds think alike. Unless you meant the statistics will show people do play their Wii still. Then you're a maget.

@Ashurahori: 250 million copies of Monopoly have been sold in 80 countries. Let's see this £179.99 console reach those dizzy heights ay'.

yeah i have one,but the thing never gets used...i cant even see any games i want in the future,whereas the PS3 at least has metal gear,final fantasy and home to look forward to,even if that at the moment is in the same state as the wii in my house(not used)

249 million copies of Monopoly have been sold in 80 countries and are now under their respective owners beds...

man those british people sure build Wii shaped buildings fast

I play my Wii all the time. It's so awesomely funny to watch all these fanboys come up with excuse after excuse after excuse XD I could buy both a ps3 and 360 and refuse to check out any games for it and then say that I never play it.

@Jashan: But its a sad and true story for many many people out there owning a Wii. Its the same here with me. No real games that interest me are out or even on the horizon.

Well, according to the bastions of quality at Famitsu magazine Nintendogs in a 40/40 game, in the same league as FFVII and SSBB...

This is all good news to me. Microsoft are evil and Sony are becoming increasingly sociopathic, so I support the ineptitude of Nintendo instead. Unintended idiocy trumps deliberate greed any day.

@Jashan: it's not refusing to buy any games. It's refusing to buy the endless swarm of terrible games. Galaxy, Metroid, No More Heroes and Brawl will probably be the Wii's best games for a long while. But even then, I completed Galaxy and Metroid within a week (combined) and haven't played them since. There's no replay value.

@Bleentastic: It will be our new God!

As far as consoles go, I only have a Wii, because I enjoy playing games with it's controls. It's also quite cheap! Hence why I haven't had a console since the NES.

I enjoyed Metroid a whole lot more than looking down at the ground in Call of Duty 4 on the 360. Plus as I never had a Playstation123 so have no desire to play FFXLII: Cloud vs the New England Patriots.

Yeah the idea of having a test on how many Wii's are in use on a general basis would be of intrest, but that should show up in the attachament rate for the Wii.

The more Attachament of games pr console should show in some degree how many are used. Cause I can say that my Wii ain't as interesting as my DS, and it currently just collecting dust bunnies for some time in the future where some new great game might come out.

I'd rather play an interesting innovative mediocre game for the Wii then a big budget hackneyed, tawdry, rip off game I've seen a million times before on the ps3 or 360.

In a way, it's a shame we're getting these numbers simply BECAUSE of how badly NoE treats us, and I always feel a bit ashamed on some level when I buy Wii games for adding to this.

Fortunately DS is region free so I can import =D

@holytramp:

You don't like puppies?

Why is this so surprising? Europe has at least five times the population of Japan (more if you include Russia and Turkey), and it loves party games.

Also, Nintendo's dicking about with European customers doesn't matter so much on the DS, as we can import.

8 million Nintendogs (and counting)! Woof woof!

Oh god, we're like a house wife who know her husband is out with his mistresses JP and US but are ready to forgive Nintendo if he would just be a little kinder and make us feel appreciated.

Where's my SSBB?

@Ryumeka: I'm personally getting a little tired of hearing this nonsense about a lack of "proper" games for the Wii. Unless you own, have played and/or completed every single one of the following games, then don't tell me there are no proper games on the Wii:

Galaxy
Metroid 3
Super Paper Mario
Ghost Squad
Zack and Wiki
Heatseeker
Umbrella Chronicles
Resi 4 (it's a port, but it is a proper game all the same)
Eledees
Twilight Princess
NiGHTS

Now this is by no means definitive, but that's quite a lot of games. And with No more Heroes, Geometry Wars and Brawl out soon (to name a few), it makes for what I consider to be a fairly good list, for a console just about beginning its second year. And this isn't even going into the VC.

Therefore, people complaining about the lack of "proper" Wii games either:

a) Don't own Wiis
b) Don't buy any games
c) Don't know what they're talking about

And the poster who claimed to have completed Galaxy in under a week, claiming the game has "no replay value" is full of it. I very much doubt that poster got ALL the stars as both Mario and Luigi AND unlocked the secret galaxy in under a week.

People can not use their Wiis or not buy games if they so choose, but don't say there are no games, because that's patently not true. And if you must bash to console, at least try to be more imaginative about it.

When you look at the size of the market, it's really pretty ridiculous how Europe gets treated, really. Considering how late/slow/never released games are here (Australia/Europe/Other/Whatever), you'd never imagine there's about 3/4s of the market of the US, or more than Japan.

I mean, I'm not sure about how exact VGChartz is, but according to it, Europe is the biggest market for DS sales, 4% behind the US in PSP sales, the biggest market for the PS3, half as many sales on the XBox360 as in the US [Must be some sort of homeground advantage?], 35% behind on the Wii.

I guess the sales of games must be way lower?

Wow. Man, with this amount of consoles sold, I'm hoping that more and more 3rd parties pay attention to the console and make better games.

"Especially when you consider how poorly Nintendo treat their European customers!"

Poorly isn't the word Luke. Nintendo straight up shit on us and them smear it in our faces. It's not just Nintendo though, but many Japanese game developers in general. They also shit on Australia just as bad. I think gamers over there are still waiting for Trauma Center: Second opinion, or they've given up hope.

I'm not all that shocked at Nintendogs. That game still has it's own row and its own display in many stores and I bought that game long after it released when Nintendo dropped the new blue DS + Nintendogs pak.

@dicklaurentisdead: "Unintended idiocy trumps deliberate greed any day."

Bang.... that's the sound of fanboys being blown away.

@DON KING: my monopoly board is collecting dust. We just haven't had any proper games on it lately.

I'm genuinely shocked at how well the Wii and DS took off in the PAL regions. Around here, it was always Playstation or Xbox. Thats literally how people refer to gaming consoles/handhelds. Playstations or Xboxes.

Surprisingly, I've been holding off buying a Wii though. I mean, I could probably do it, but I think, for what it is, it actually costs too much. I could just be mad, but I'm really reluctant untill fullblown homebrew comes out.

@Random J: What's the difference between European Nintendo fans and abused wives? Nothing. They always go back for more and think everything will be better, but it wont.

Haha, I'm just screwing with you J. Your .gif on your site when Brawl got delayed was PRICELESS!

Hang in there!

Galaxy: Like I said, it's over so soon. Nothing special. Fun while it lasts. And I did complete it in about 3 days. Friday to Sunday. Mario and Luigi. 121 stars each.
Metroid 3: A nice shooter. Great controls, has too much 'adventuring' in it (I know it is an FPA, but it could have been a better FPSA)
Super Paper Mario: Now this definetly has no replay value. That Flipside power up at the end was pointless seeing as you couldn't do much else after.
Ghost Squad: An average lightgun game.
Zack and Wiki: Now I actually like this.
Heatseeker: Just poor
Umbrella Chronicles: Half baked - fun at some times
Resi 4 (it's a port, but it is a proper game all the same): Oh yeah, I forgot about this.
Eledees: Now I liked this for a month. But it's just so...dull after a while
Twilight Princess: I rather liked this too, but it's forgettable.
NiGHTS: A bad sequel.

@DON KING: We get it, your a troll.

@inphanta:
Heatseeker is terrible, Blazing Angles has better dogfights, you should give it a go.

I'm starting to notice a trend.

Those who play games and beat them as fast as the can, aren't that happy with Wii.
While those like me that take a while to play games, taking up to a week or more, seem content.

Of course that doesn't apply to everyone, nor have I done any real study of it, it's just a random observation I've notice on here and other sites.
---------

Blazing Angles is quite fun for a Wii dog fight game. Not the best ever made, but hope for the future and all that.

Hmm... maybe it's better to say: "To each his own."

Even though how valid each one's opinion is, it is never a good idea to generalize and think that it's the same for everybody.

I personally have a lot more Wii games than X360 games; something like 12 vs 7 (not counting the VC vs XBLA games, where I have more VC games as well).

I think I like more casual and brief plays rather than long and complex ones. I'm 30 years old and have been a gamer since the NES days.

Although I pretty much think I can be representative of the "gaming fathers" crowd, I'd still fall short since I don't play FPS games (sadly due to motion-sickness). :-\

So like I said, to each his own. Don't generalize, and more importantly don't take it personally if others have a different opinion as your own.

@Chadders: man i heard that FXLII: Cloud vs the New England Patriots got delay'd to 2159 sucks too b/c i had just put my $5 down on it at GameStop

This thread is getting grumpy...

This is about European Sales figures so why aren't we simply commenting on this?

We have a habit of condemning commercial success of our respective console manufacturers too easily, I've been guilty of this myself many times.

The fact is that the commercial effect of the Wii is helping the industry as a whole... at the moment the dire Wii ports and lack of killer software for that console are making the "hardcore" Nintendo ownership feel isolated and unimportant in the eyes of the company they have followed for so long, and that's the emotion represented week in week out at Kotaku in it's posts.

However, more revenue means more profit, more profit means better R&D, profit means greater investment in development of new games. My hope is that all this money that Nintendo is making is going somewhere... not just into shareholders pockets.

With the Wii we have a fairly sophisticated motion controlled system, a massive commercial success, and a promise of a more innovative next generation of gaming systems next time round. While the Wii is in my mind an underpowered system, the next one surely won't be.

A lot has also been made in this thread about Nintendo's poor treatment of European gamers which is a fact well known to us all. However, there is absolutely no doubt that here has been a vast improvement this generation.

There is no doubt that i spend at least 60-70% of my time if not more on my 360 than my Wii, but that's not to say I don't love my Wii. It's still fun and its still great for parties and families, lets not forget this before we all get old and serious.

There is time for casual fun, and there is time for 40+ hours games as well.

@inphanta: No, see. The real arguement is the sheer volume of those good games. Sure, there's not as many as, say, the 360. But I'd honestly say there's more than are on the PS3 at this point. Or at the very least, the same amount.

The problem is, when you talk about people 'not playing through X', you have people who either aren't very open to new gaming experiences, or are looking for specific gaming that is harder to find on X system... or have no lives, and have no problem playing games 8 hours a day. There will always be someone unsatisfied if you gave everyone a million dollars, expecting two million instead. Unless of course, you ARE in the EU and suffer from getting a constant drought of most the games until way later, if at all.

Back to the topic at hand, however... I think Nintendo has always flubbed up in the EU sector, they just have never bothered to buy up either a good localization setup or a distribution center for the region. They should probably stop investing all their profits into various markets and instead work on increasing their size some. It's not only the EU, but newer, emerging markets as well. India, parts of the middle east, and China. (Though I'm not sure if the headache of China would even be worth it at this point.)

So six million Europeans have a Wii. Why then have I experienced a 25% paper loss on Nintendo stock? Seriously, I don't care if the whole tech sector is tanking. Nintendo should be immune. Nintendo is best. No one should be selling shares of Nintendo!

Hey at least you guys have club nintendo over there. We here don't get cool little gifts and toys.

@Hemlock: I believe it was because of their downturns in other sectors they'd invested in? A reaction from markets they are in that have been going sour as well. Thought we had a story about that here on Kotaku at some point, could be off.

@Ampillion : Now with 50% more LJ gaming blog.: If there is such a story I'd love to see it. I can't imagine what these other sectors are.

@Hemlock: Guess I was thinking of a story from a bit back, here. But that was a few weeks back, with even a story on the rebound after the Feds cut the rate.. Here.

So unless you're talking about that period and haven't looked to see it bounce back up, then it'd be an entirely new drop that hasn't been noted here yet, at least.

Good. Now stop treating us like shit and release PAL games on time like how everyone else does it.