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Worldwide sales of the Nintendo Wii games console have topped 50 million, the company's president told an industry conference in San Francisco.

The Wii is now the fastest-selling games console in history, surpassing Sony's PlayStation 2. The announcement was made as Nintendo unveiled some upgrades for the Wii included a new storage system.

Earlier this year the Japanese computer games console maker predicted demand for the Wii console would eventually slow as the rise of the yen undermined the value of sales to the United States and Europe. Satoru Iwata, president of the company, said he hoped the economic slowdown would lead to innovation and creativity. He told the conference, attended by many computer game software experts, that he believed "anything is possible".
He said: "The great depression in the 1930s resulted in the jet engine, TV and chocolate chip cookies. The future of video games is in your hands and I can't wait for you to show us your surprises."

Mr Iwata said that Nintendo's hand-held DS console had shipped 100m units around the world.
Nintendo Wii has more female and older fans than previous games systems because if offers programmes games like virtual tennis and playing musical instruments as well as the usual driving and shooting games.

"Almost no one expected them to reach the current level of mainstream acceptance. It's even beyond what we possibly hoped for," Mr Iwata said. "The market has expanded as video games have been accepted by more consumers than ever before. It's a cliché but it's not just the 18-year-old kid, it's the mom on the train, it's the high-school girl after she's done with her homework, everyone plays games."
He also said that, in the United States. one in five Wii owners had never before owned a games console.

[Source: Telegraph.co.uk]