international logo type proprietary limited subsidiary private industry video games founded 1994 headquarters scoresby victoria australia key people tom enoki managing director hiroshi yamauchi graham kerry susumu tanaka products game boy line nintendo 64 gamecube nintendo ds wii nintendo 3ds wii u video game software revenue a 105.9 million 2013 14 1 net income a 15.1 million 2013 2 number of employees 74 2014 3 parent nintendo website nintendo australia nintendo australia pty. ltd. nal is oceania s local head office for sales licensing and distribution of video game products and other intellectual properties created by nintendo and other companies . it is headquartered in scoresby victoria was established in 1994 and is a private company wholly owned by nintendo co. ltd. in japan . prior distribution of nintendo products inside australia had been handled by mattel . the company was originally jointly managed by susumu tanaka of nintendo uk and graham kerry who worked prior as the general manager of mattel . 4 it is currently managed by tom enoki who took over from yuji bando in 2014 who had succeeded rose lappin as managing director in march 2010 . 5 rose lappin had worked for nintendo since the early 1990s when nintendo s products were distributed in australia by mattel . general manager of nintendo uk david yarnton was nintendo australia s director of sales & marketing from march 1995 to september 2003 . aside from distributing its own products the company also distributes some games for its systems by developers including capcom and atlus . nintendo australia distributes nintendo s products to most of the oceanic region . distribution of nintendo s products in new zealand was handled by monaco corporation ltd then softprint interactive ltd until softprint went into bankruptcy . there was a major delay of nintendo australia s products in new zealand after softprint s bankruptcy until nintendo australia took over marketing and distribution of their products in new zealand in the middle of 2008 . nintendo australia then heavily marketed the ds and wii in new zealand throughout september and october 2008 . nintendo australia also acts as the australian office for the pok mon company and handles all licensing for the pok mon products and also handles licensing of nintendo s other ips to toy companies like takara tomy . nintendo australia handles all licensing of the pok mon anime and has given the australian distribution rights to magna pacific . former distributors were siren entertainment and shock . contents 1 marketing 1.1 exclusive hardware and games 1.2 community and charity 1.3 events 2 distribution 2.1 distribution deals with 3rd parties 2.2 countries which nintendo australia distributes to 3 sales performance 3.1 consoles 3.2 software 3.3 cards 4 localisations 5 controversy 6 references 7 external links marketing edit nintendo australia markets their games though mass media magazines and the internet and has the australian version of the monthly magazine official nintendo magazine . before 2011 nintendo advertised heavily on busses and billboards however they now focus their efforts on digital advertising playing several ads on tv and in cinemas and placing internet banners on popular websites although they continue to employ physical advertising . they created a youtube channel in late 2011 initially to promote the legend of zelda skyward sword . nintendo australia will often create their own ads but also re use some from other regions as well . 6 originally marketing of nintendo s products in australia had been very relaxed but picked up considerably since rose lappin was named managing director of nintendo australia . before 2014 nintendo australia did not produce their own nintendo direct s instead broadcasting european nintendo directs on their website which are sometimes slightly modified to adhere to classifications and other regional differences . 7 in 2014 nintendo produced the first nintendo direct australia 8 and also created official twitter and facebook accounts . australia s first region specific nintendo direct also happens to announce the new nintendo 3ds hardware being the first after japan and releasing the new iteration roughly three months before north america and europe . exclusive hardware and games edit over the years a few games have been released far earlier than in europe such as 1080 snowboarding which was released in march 1998 while europe waited until december animal crossing was also released nearly a year ahead of europe though it arrived in australia over a year after north america . the australian version of the legend of zelda ocarina of time contained a gold cartridge though the european version did not . the game boy color had a custom shell featuring the australian flag and the game boy advance sp received a model that had branding by rip curl . an all blacks sp was also released and for a limited time only toys r us was selling a limited edition gold coloured game boy advance sp which was only available to australia . games that were distributed in australia but not in north america or japan include super international cricket . nintendo australia have the nintendo rights to some games from capcom and has most of the rights to new games from atlus for the wii and ds . nintendo australia has been publishing the harvest moon games on nintendo consoles since the late 1990s . nintendo australia also published several games which originally had no north american release such as xenoblade chronicles with a special soundtrack cd which contributed to the foundation of operation rainfall . australia and new zealand were the first countries outside japan to receive the new nintendo 3ds and new nintendo 3ds xl on november 21 2014 with no plans to release the systems in north america and europe in 2014 . 9 community and charity edit nintendo australia is an active and longstanding sponsor of the starlight children s foundation providing nintendo consoles and games that can be wheeled to a child s bedside while they are in hospital . nintendo characters and games gurus also visit children s hospitals nationally . nintendo also donates product to various sporting leisure not for profit and youth organisations nationally . since the nintendo ds was released in 2005 nintendo and telstra which was then a part of the australian government now only hold a 49 % stake announced that they had become partners and that telstra would put wireless hotspots in every mcdonald s restaurant in australia except food courts and would have ds game demos available for download in every restaurant . this service has since been discontinued . events edit a view of the nintendo booth at the eb games expo 2015 . during the publication of nintendo magazine system 1993 until 2000 nintendo ran party tours in conjunction with toys r us . these events were only promoted in nintendo magazine system and happened every two to three years . each year since 1999 nintendo stages free national tours involving live character appearances stage shows nintendo challenges product giveaways and competitions . to date nintendo s pok mon tours have been the country s biggest free shopping centre activities ever including pok mon mew tour in 1999 pok mon stadium 2000 and pok mon celebi tour in 2001 . nintendo australia also hosted the world s biggest pok mon event in sydney in 2000 including the global pok mon stadium championship . in january 2006 nintendo held the nintendo ds connection tour 06 and visited 4 states ; new south wales queensland south australia and victoria . another connection tour was held during june july 2006 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of nintendo s mascot and most famous character mario . during this tour they visited four states including victoria queensland new south wales and western australia . in september october later that year nintendo hosted the pok mon 10th anniversary journey across oz tour . this tour was held in victoria new south wales queensland and western australia . a number of toys r us stores also held events in the states mentioned before and south australia . in november nintendo australia hosted a national play wii event allowing potential wii customers and non gamers to try nintendo s newest console nintendo wii just over a month before it was released across australia on 7 december . games playable included wii sports wii play the legend of zelda twilight princess excite truck and many more . however some states were limited to wii play wii sports twilight princess and warioware smooth moves . in june july 2007 nintendo australia held the nintendo ds connection tour 07 . the main focus was on the newest pok mon games pok mon diamond and pearl . the tour visited five states victoria queensland south australia new south wales and western australia . 10 in september october nintendo australia held a nintendo wii tour called big games for big brains . the tour was to promote big brain academy wii . the tour went to five states south australia victoria western australia queensland new south wales . 11 in january 2008 nintendo australia announced that they would sponsor the 2008 australian open as the official gaming console . because of that sponsorship nintendo australia held a nintendo wii competition called wii championships . the winner got to play mark philippoussis . there was also a lounge to relax and play sight training . nintendo australia announced in mid 2008 that it would open an australian nintendo world centre in melbourne in the near future and opening stores in sydney and brisbane is a possibility . in november nintendo australia and eb games australia announced the nintendo experience which is essentially a demonstration of what nintendo has to offer . it was held at eb games swanston street store and eb games has hinted that it is looking at doing the same thing in brisbane and certain stores on queensland s east coast since eb games australia s headquarters are in brisbane . nintendo australia ran a competition for 15 vips to attend on its opening night . rose lappin announced that club nintendo australia would launch at christmas or q1 2009 . in october 2009 nintendo australia officially opened the nintendo connection at myer in sydney . this is the first australian nintendo centre to be located outside victoria . this will be the place to hold nintendo events at sydney . in june july 2010 nintendo australia held the nintendo connect10n tour . the main focus was on the mario series games in particular super mario galaxy 2 where players could play the game before it was released in queensland only the rest of australia was done after the release date . the tour visited five states queensland victoria western australia new south wales and south australia . also new zealand was part of the tour . in addition at each of the connection tour sites the new super mario bros. wii coin challenge took place where the winning solo player and the winning tag team at each site competed against each other at the national final held in sydney . the winners at the national final won flights and accommodation to new york to visit the nintendo world store and 1 000 spending money . in september 2011 nintendo australia held the nintendo connection tour 2011 similar to the 2010 event in which the main focus was the legend of zelda skyward sword with a demo version available along with demo versions of other upcoming games and already released games . the tour went around to each state at selected westfield stores . in october 2012 nintendo australia was one of the exhibitors at the 2012 eb expo in sydney . the main focus was the wii u where players got a chance to demo games that ll be released on the wii u including nintendo land new super mario bros. u and pok mon black and white 2 on