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Nintendo Australia

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Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd. is currently the distributor of all Nintendo and The Pokemon Company products in Australia. The company commenced operations in 1994, taking over distribution of Nintendo products from Mattel.

Contents

History

Nintendo's products in Australia had been distributed under Mattel, but with the successful establishment of Nintendo of Europe, Nintendo Co. Ltd. wished to maintain tighter control over their operations in other territories. In the middle of 1993, they commenced work on the establishment of Nintendo Australia Pty Ltd.[1]. First managing director was Satoru Shibata? Originally HQ'd at Mulgrave, moved to Scoresby in 1999.

Australian games published by Nintendo

Notes

  • Mattel/Nintendo distribution deal for Italy ended 16/09/92
  • Klim deal covered 1998-2000, was "face of Nintendo" in Australia for this period. Rumoured to be worth up to $1 million. Expansion into Asia and Europe was considered, as was Michael Klim video game [2]
  • Nintendo record sales of $400 million for 1998-99 FY, up $250 million, thanks to debut of Pokemon. That made Australia Nintendo's second largest market that year, and gave it a 50% share of the local market for hardware, with 36% of the market for software.[3]
  • Nintendo primarily targeted teenage boys with the Nintendo 64. Pokemon increased the participation of females in gaming. Sold 600,000 consoles worth 150 million in Australia (just in 1997), 250 million in software across 100 titles. 11 games were planned for 1998 [4]
  • Nintendo expected to ship 220,000 N64 units in the last quarter of 1998, taking the total to 350,000. [5]
  • NAL HQ originally at Dunlop St, Mulgrave. Outgrew location. Shifted to purpose built warehouse and office complex at Scoresby Industrial Park. 4500spm warehouse, 2000sqm 2-floor office complex. Cost $4.5M. Built by Qanstruct.[6]
  • Being outsold by PSX as much as 4:1 by August 1998[7]
  • Opening of NAL announced October 23, 1993. Graham Kerry and Susumu Tanaka are joint MDs. Kerry previously was general manager of Mattel Australia and involved in Nintendo sales. Tanaka had been with NCL for 17 years and worked with Nintendo UK. Nintendo Australia handled marketing, distributing and administration services for Nintendo branded product while Mattel conducted the selling function at both the head office and individual store levels. Opened to capitalize on the growth of the Nintendo brand and to take an increased presence in the Australian and New Zealand markets. Nintendo Australia is the latest of six new companies formed by Nintendo in the last seven months. New companies were recently formed in France, the United Kingdom, Spain, The Netherlands and Belgium. [8]
  • Rose Lappin replaces Seiji Tsukasa as MD in October 2007[9]
  • Rose Lappin acknowledges PAL slow conversion time. Had been at Nintendo since 1993. Revenue up 94% year over on back of Wii release.[10]
  • Changed ad companies in March 2000. Expected ad spend was $8M. [11]
  • Shifted from Patts to Leo Burnett in October 2003. Spent $11M on ads in 2002. [12]

References

  1. ↑ Nintendo Australia Pty Ltd - ASIC - http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=060566083&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1
  2. ↑ Nintendo wins Klim's autograph Australian, The (Australia) - Thursday, January 29, 1998 Author: CHIP Le GRAND, MATP
  3. ↑ Australia second in Nintendo stakes, Inside Retailing, May 31, 1999
  4. ↑ Sproull, R. (1999, May 7). Nintendo plans to pocket the games market. The Australian
  5. ↑ Foreshew, J. (1998, November 17). Soaring sales name of the video game. The Australian
  6. ↑ Dunlevy, M. (1998, October 30). Nintendo game for bigger HQ. The Australian.
  7. ↑ Burbury, R. (1998, August 27). Games across the ages. The Australian
  8. ↑ Nintendo announces major investment in Australia. 25% toy sales. 1 in 10 households had Nintendo hardware(1993, October 23). Business Wire
  9. ↑ LeMai, R. (2007, October 15). Game over at Nintendo. Australian Financial Review
  10. ↑ LeMai, R. (2007, November 20). Nintendo vows to lift its game with new releases. Australian Financial Review
  11. ↑ Francis, L. (2000, March 24). Nintendo moves to Patts. Adnews
  12. ↑ Schou-Clarke, J. (2003, October 1). Nintendo shifts account. Ad News.
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