This shocking news just in: Nintendo's consoles have sold very well in Europe.

Nintendo have once again proven to the world that the Blue Ocean strategy is making money, lots more money, and then some. Today, it was Nintendo of Europe's turn to churn out the numbers and give themselves a big pat on the back.

Despite some complaining of a lacklustre year for software, the Wii's sales were up by 58% in 2008 compared to the previous year. A total of 8.3 million units were sold in the twelve months, which breaks a new record for the largest ever annual sales of a home console in Europe. These figures place Nintendo's little white box at 14.2 million units sold in Europe in its lifetime.

Things were looking more than rosy on the handheld side of things too. In 2008, Nintendo DS moved a staggering 11.2 million units. This does indeed take the record book and rip it a new one, as the DS's performance in 2008 made it the highest selling console ever in a single year on this continent. Showing no sign of letting up, DS sales stand at around 31 million in Europe.

Laurent Fischer, Managing Director of Marketing & PR at NoE had this to say on Nintendo's unprecedented success:

"The sales trend on both Wii and Nintendo DS, hardware and software during 2008 shows that more and more people in Europe are enjoying video games as part of their daily lives. This proves that Nintendo's wish to expand the gaming population has strong potential in Europe."

With Nintendo's success showing no signs of drying up, it begs the question how many more records are there to break?