@hk458: Well, everyone knows toilets flush backwards there. It's clearly related to the Coriolis Effect. :P

(yes, I know that the above is not true)

mind in rewind

@Eden.B:
In that case the laws of physics must be wrong in NZ.
....Does It Eat Money???

hk458

The thing is, in NZ Nintendo doesn't print money.
Seriously.

Crazy, I know.

Eden.B

@Luke Plunkett:
So its true!!! They did throw all of their money into devices that make babies cry.

Seriously thought the Execs must have been laundering money from the company because I dont see how this is possible.

hk458

@Luke Plunkett: Curse you Softprint!

on a side note...thats...interesting.

Raziel Dune

This is weird.

Betcha it's some kind of internal issue, embezzlement or something. Either that or the Kiwis get even more fucked over on prices than we do and have decided to make a stand or something.

This should be interesting to watch unfold.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

@hk458: I didnt make it cry. Softprint made it cry.

Luke Plunkett

How could you Luke, you made that baby...er...um...thing...cry???

Did they throw all of their $ bills into the furnace that powers their devices that makes babies cry?

hk458

Nintendo has always struggled here. I've never known anything about the distributor up until now, but I'm not surprised about this news at all. They do (did) a terrible, terrible job of marketing.

I wonder if this will mean we no longer get the hilarious inflated prices for Activision games on Steam. Probably not.

frostcircus

@ShaggE: Ha! *hands gold star*

TheJeanGenie

Yeah, the lack of Activision will make a far greater impact, the only people with DSs here are kids under 10, and I still never see them...Same with Wii...
Not surprising when Nintendo consoles/games have been marketed by a now defunct business for the past few years, although, I must say, I saw a Wii Sports ad once! (the tennis one, with creepily happy players)

Activision however is rather large...won't affect me so much, since I import PS3. But Activision games on Steam are marked up a shitload, so dunno what'll happen to PC sales...

TheJeanGenie

New Zealand? What was wrong with the old Zealand? (I know. Lame, overused joke. But I like it. Let me have my moment, dammit.)

ShaggE

@hk458: Probably!
Honestly, basically NOBODY in NZ owns a wii or DS. (I know, because I live there).

Eden.B

Nintendo has never really been very strong in New Zealand. I grew up there and in terms of consoles, Sega were the substantially stronger competitor there up until the Playstation hit the market.

atomicstrawberry

I heard a rumour (about a year ago) that quite a few of the major game retailers in NZ were sourcing their Nintendo products straight from Australian distributors, in order to avoid dealing with the New Zealand distributor.

If that is true, then there mightn't be too much of a disruption to sales of Nintendo products. It could also explain why the New Zealand distributor went belly-up.

Of course, it might also be a totally baseless rumour.

Marlor

At least when I'm sad about how Australian gamers are treated, there are always times like this to make things not seem so bad.

@hk458: Kiwi birds always cry. They have seen things no eyes can unsee!

wait, did that make sense... maybe it should be seen things no eyes should see. Oh well, no point steering now. *crashes into a tree*

Polite Society

Wiiware and VC FTW!
Try not selling *that* Softprint!

Their all losers Mrs Jade, LOSERS!

=(

damn...

Importing it is then....

ren666

@Crackman: It was also the first

frostcircus

In New Zealand, the last Nintendo console that was REMOTELY popular was the N64.

Crackman

EBgames has seemed to parallel import their Nintendo stuff from their Australian parent company as I understand it, which means Softprint would only have sold to independent retailers, I think, which probably contributed to their downfall. At any rate parallel importing is usually a cheaper option here on the opposite end of the world.

sigh...

Deckart

Being a New Zealander who hasn't been brainwashed by Sony or MS this sucks BUT hopefully we can expect a drop in prices with a new distributor? Pretty please?

Right now the Wii is selling for around 390 US dollars in shops, that's the basic console set with Wii Sports.

The PS3 and Xbox360 reign supreme here. Oh and the PSP dominates the DS as well. So in effect nobody will care :(

AngryTankManMax

Yeah, nintendo's not too strong here anyway. Activision might be missed a bit more though.

dnzperson

Yeah, Nintendo doesn't make nearly as much money in New Zealand.
Xbox 360 and PS3 are the oh my god awesome consoles here, and only (I KNOW) kids and "hardcore" gamers have Wii's.
It's madness, but it's true.
Also, we do get absolutely raped, price wise. We pay about $80-$90 USD per game. A normal new release game.
$150 odd for Guitar Hero 3 with a Guitar.
SAVE US, SERIOUSLY.

toejam316

No wonder the only WII titles one see's at The Warehouse (NZ's version of Walmart or something)are launch titles.

pottsynz

Not suprising at all - Nintendo suffers here because of softprint, even before them, the last company who handled everything sucked too.

I returned a wiimote for repair, and it took 2 months to come back - god knows what SP did with it, or to it. I just hope my gear doesnt fail now.

Crab_Botherer

It might have nothing to do with Nintendo and Activision -- Softprint might also have been the distributor for things like N-Gage and Gizmondo, and the turds they were carrying caused it to go belly-up.

rentahero1

He's crying because he's up late and he's tired. Kiwis are nocturnal.

Oh, and the fruit is delicious.

Islandkiwi

Nintendo need to set up shop here. They have the friggin money. Tis a love-hate relationship I have with Nintendo.

juliopalio

I live in New Zealand and I have both a Wii and a DS. I feel the minority in my own country... ;.;

Tystarr

This will make sense to any New Zealander (and probably Australians) when they realise that Softprint was being run by ex-Sega Ozisoft NZ staff.

floppylobster

Does the KiWii only output sound in monotone?

Bobby McPresscott

@floppylobster: That does indeed explain it. Sega Ozisoft are infamous.

It's true as many are saying that Nintendo has always fared poorly here and really it's no less than they deserved given how shabbily they've handled this market. I have a Wii and two DSes myself, but almost all my games are imported to avoid their delays, price gouging and self censorship.

I'm honestly not going to be shedding any tears here, if anything it'll be hard to notice they're gone.

MattB

New Zealander here. Be interesting to see what the impact is. I have had a nintendo console in my house since the NES, but I know that it was never as popular as the Sega Master system or the Mega Drive (Genesis). Someone needs to open an import store. :(

monkeyjay

I'm in NZ, and I'm fairly sure that Nintendo don't sell great. I only know a few people with Wiis. It's 360, PS3 and PC territory down here..

atreides

You can get stuff cheaper if imported anyway but however that 5 seconds of Freeloader is gonna hurt!

KillerScooter

Nice job on the kiwi picture.
Most people still havnt got Mario Kart Wii, I was lucky enough that EB Games got a handful in and i got one.

Savage505