Japanese women have overtaken their male counterparts to become the biggest users of Nintendo’s Wii and DS machines in a seismic shift that the company said would “transform the video games industry”.

The surprise upheaval of the games market comes within a year of the launch of Nintendo’s wildly popular Wii console and was unveiled in Tokyo today by Satoru Iwata, the company president.

If the change repeats itself around the globe, said analysts, it could force a complete change of business model for many of the world’s largest games makers.

Many could now be forced to make dramatic alterations to their entire software development plans and advertising strategies.

Already Nintendo itself has pitched its Christmas offerings for this year at what is likely to be a predominantly female audience.

Wii Fit, which uses an innovative floor-based sensor to register body movement, takes players through a daily regimen of yoga, balancing exercises and other fat-fighting activities.

Nintendo said that the sensor would cost 8,800 yen (£40) when it is released in Japan on December 1.

Women gamers, Nintendo said, have already shown themselves to be particular fans of titles such as Wii Sports, where the motion-sensitive controller simulates, among other implements, a tennis racket, a bowling ball or a boxer’s glove.

Forthcoming titles unveiled by Nintendo today included a game simulating various musical instruments.

According to Nintendo’s own Japan-only figures, 51 per cent of Wii users and 53 per cent of players on the handheld DS machine are women.

Women have been attracted to the handheld machine by games such as Nintendogs and a rich variety of "lifestyle" titles in Japan that teach cookery, healthy eating and make-up tips.

The company said that the shift is part of an overall transformation of the demographics of gaming.

Where previous Nintendo products reached mainly a market aged between 7 and 16 years old, the Wii and DS have an ardent and sizeable Japanese fan-base aged between 40 and 62.

Via the Wii, Nintendo continues to assert its dominance of the latest generation of games consoles.

And ramming that message home yesterday, Mr Iwata showed a clip, which, for veteran gamers, represents the ultimate boast: Sega’s cherished mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, will appear alongside his arch rival, Mario, in a series of games scheduled for release early next year.

During the Nintendo v Sega console wars of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Sonic v Mario rivalry was as heated and bitter as corporate competitiveness could get.

Fifteen years later, Sonic and Mario will appear arm-in-arm for an athletics-based game set around the Beijing Olympics.

In what could also deal a heavy blow to Sony, which announced yesterday a Japanese price cut for its Playstation3 console, Nintendo also disclosed that Monster Hunter 3 would appear on the Wii console.

Analysts believe that Capcom, which makes the series, may be leading an exodus from the Sony platforms.

The Monster Hunter series used to be the exclusive preserve of Sony’s machines and the second episode was the first title for the Playstation Portable to sell more than a million copies.

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