The president and chief executive officer of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata celebrated the glory of Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS gaming consoles, in his keynote speech, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, on Wednesday. Mr. Iwata stated that Nintendo Wii has become the fastest-selling games console ever, surpassing the PlayStation 2, with the global sales of the console surpassing 50 million, and claimed that Nintendo has shipped 100 million units of Nintendo DS handheld console around the globe.

Mr. Iwata said, "Frankly speaking, before the launches of the Nintendo DS and Wii systems, almost no one expected them to reach the current level of mainstream acceptance. It's even beyond what we possibly hoped for. The market has expanded as video games have been accepted by more consumers than ever before."

The Nintendo CEO said that Wii made dramatic entry and surge in the US market. He said that "about 3 millon people in the U. S. - about 20 percent of Wii households in the country - had no other video game system when they bought their Wii.

"It's a cliche 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," the Nintendo president said at the Game Developers Conference.

Mr. Iwata claimed that the global sales of Nintendo DS portables have surpassed 100 million, and the next generation handheld console, Nintendo DSi has achieved 2 million sales in Japan up to now. He announced that the company will start shipping DSi in Europe on April 3 and in the United States on April 5.

The Nintendo CEO also announced some new games titles for Nintendo games consoles. He announced "Rhythm Heaven," a rhythm game for Nintendo DS, "Rock 'n' Roll Climber," a Wii Ware game, in which gamers use both controllers and the Wii Balance Board to simulate rock climbing, and "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks," a new Zelda game for the Nintendo DS.

Besides, the company announced that it has added high-capacity storage to its Wii game console. Nintendo announced a new firmware that would get support for SDHC
(Secure Digital High-Capacity) flash memory cards capable of providing up to 32GB of storage space. In a statement, Nintendo said, "As the library of downloadable WiiWare and Virtual Console games continues to grow, Wii owners have asked Nintendo to provide easy, expanded storage space. Starting today, Wii owners will be able to save downloaded WiiWare, Virtual Console video games, and Channels directly to High Capacity SD cards, in addition to SD memory cards."

Today (on Thursday), the Game Developers Conference will feature keynote speech from Hideo Kojima, Corporate Officer, Executive Producer and Director of Kojima Productions, on the subject of creative game design in a presentation called "Solid Game Design: Making the 'Impossible' Possible".