Nintendo Expands SEA Presence with Official Malaysian Website
Updated: Feb 25, 2022
Long-time Japanese and global games stalwart – Nintendo – properly kicked off 2022 with the opening of a second web domain in Southeast Asia. After its quiet, and very surprising, rollout into Singapore, there is now a web-portal for Malaysia as well.
Just like its Singapore counterpart, the Nintendo Malaysia homepage is a straight-up information dump for all things Nintendo. From the latest games and news, to release schedules and even a mobile games listing page, it is a complete replica of the Singapore landing page.
Oddly, there are no pricing details for the games or hardware that are listed here. Unlike the Singapore portal, which features a pop-up to the respective Lazada and Shopee stores for Nintendo, the Malaysian website adds that extra click/step to open a new page that shows partner-retailers that are working with Nintendo.
In Malaysia’s case, it is Maxsoft – also known as M.M.Soft – the longest and only known distributor for Nintendo in this country. Notably, the links that are shown here lead to the official M.M.Soft Lazada and Shopee pages, where fans and customers can legally buy Nintendo hardware and games.
With this latest move from Nintendo, what does this mean for Southeast Asia?
For one, thanks to the ongoing miss-steps from Sony PlayStation and Microsoft, demand for next-gen game consoles are still at an all-time high. With more and more Triple-A games hitting the shelves, gamers are left with two options to not miss out.
With the first option – getting the PC version of games – players will need to deal with possible hardware shortages as prices for graphics and solid-state storage are still insanely expensive. The alternative AKA Option #2, there is the Nintendo Switch. Beyond featuring publisher and hardware exclusives, the popular handheld system is more than ready for all the new games that have launched last year and will soon appear in the coming months.
Coupled with the fact that Sony had set itself up with its messy PlayStation 5 launch in Southeast Asia and Microsoft still has no official presence outside of Singapore, the situation is ripe for Nintendo to step in and fill up this gaping hole for gamers.
Beyond the two portals for Nintendo, there is also an official YouTube channel and Facebook page. This further confirms the fact that Southeast Asia is now a prime target for Nintendo and it has no plans to let it idle any longer.
The Malaysian website launch for Nintendo also includes the newly opened e-commerce channels on Shopee and Lazada
It is a move that comes 4 months after Nintendo launched its SG portal
Likely, Nintendo is looking to capitalise on strategic errors from both Sony and Microsoft