Nintendo Rocks GDC With Wii Domination, New Zelda Game

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told attendees at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco Wednesday that the Wii has become the fastest-selling gaming console ever, with Nintendo having shipped more than 50 million Wii units since the unit's 2006 launch.

Iwata took a few minutes to bask in the Wii and Nintendo DS glory during his keynote, Reuters reported.

"Frankly speaking, before the launches of the Nintendo DS and Wii systems, almost no one expected them to reach the current level of mainstream acceptance," he said. "It's even beyond what we possibly hoped for. The market has expanded as video games have been accepted by more consumers than ever before."

To illustrate how Wii has caught on with new gaming customers, Iwata said about 3 millon people in the U.S. -- about 20 percent of Wii households in the country -- had no other video game system when they bought their Wii.

Iwata also said, according to Reuters, that Nintendo's sales of its DS portables have topped 100 million worldwide, and that its next generation handheld console, the DSi has seen 2 million in sales in Japan so far. According to Nintendo, the DSi ships in Europe on April 3 and the U.S. on April 5.

News announcements from Iwata's speech included Rhythm Heaven, a rhythm game for Nintendo DS, a Wii Ware game called Rock 'n' Roll Climber that sees gamers using both controllers and the Wii Balance Board to simulate rock climbing, and a new Zelda game for the DS called "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks."

The GDC09 conference, which opened Monday, features more than 500 lectures, and a range of awards shows, demonstrations and other events for gaming enthusiasts.

Iwata's keynote was one of the most hotly anticipated events of the week, and on Thursday, attendees will hear from Hideo Kojima, Corporate Officer, Executive Producer and Director of Kojima Productions on the subject of creative game design in a presentation called "Solid Game Design: Making the 'Impossible' Possible.'"

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