Nintendo is going to make a bigger bid for the game download market by launching Wii Ware, an online store which the company hopes will mean no more lost sales.

Announcing the project in Tokyo, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that prices will be lower on Wii Ware as, obviously, there won’t be any problems with stock.

And in order to maximize the number of Wii owners who use the service Nintendo also wants to spend more time helping users set up connections to the internet, although it is not yet clear exactly what form this assistance might take.

It would seem that this renewed interest in its online sales has stemmed from the fact that the company has now passed the 7.8 million download mark on Virtual Console, and not wanting to keep all the good news to himself Iwata also mentioned the possibility of more third party involvement in Wii and DS game development.

"In Japan, Nintendo has 50% of the DS software market this year. From here on out, the share should shift to other software makers."