Sure, Nintendo might be conquering Europe, but Russia is another beast altogether. Just ask Napoleon — or Hitler. Hey, just ask both!
Inna Bukatina, head of international licensing and acquisition at Russian publisher GFI, believes that Nintendo won't take over Russia like the rest of the globe.
The reason? The Wii is only a game machine, and Russian consumers prefer devices that have multiple uses like the PS3 and PS3 says Bukatina. The Wii, Bukatina points out, is only for Wii games. That's true. It is.
Forget the older demographic as well. "The gaming society in Russia is pretty young, and I remember when Nintendo attempted to attract more people from older demographics — they put on their last slide a babushka, an old woman, in a headscarf sitting in the countryside and playing on a DS... but actually it's very hard to see that really happening in Russia.
I know that in other parts of Europe, older age ranges are playing these games, but in Russia they don't know what to do with it — they never owned a computer, and probably never worked with a device that's more technical than a telephone, for example."
The Russian Front [Games Industry]