Nintendo released Wii Mini in Canada first. It has always favored the United States' hat.

I'll echo the same sentiments and say that my first real experience with video games was a GBC/Pokemon Blue. That might have had more to do with my brother and I being infatuated with Pokemon than any conscious decision on my parents' part though. We also got a PS at some point (7 year old me sure had a fun time trying to navigate MGS), but yeah, regardless of who drove the decision, Nintendo was always king in our household. At the very least the pricing and kid-friendly content made it infinitely more easy for them to say yes.

The article is really great. The only issue that i want to talk is the 30% sales on digital releases. I suppose canada have the digital sales powered up by the entire south america.Nintendo just have WiiU Eshop, on Usa, Canada and Mexico.In my country (brazil), all of people who wants to buy digital or a DLC on wiiU, creates an account on canada. Because it's the only way. We can't buy on USA, because of some rigid bank laws.Even with 3ds, that nintendo still have a Brazilian Eshop. It's better log on canada, because than you'll have the opportunity to buy in better prices.I can't talk about argentina, chile, uruguay and the others, but i suppose they live with the same problems. Because even when nintendo was still on brazil, ou eshop sucks...Piracy on wiiU doesn't exist. On 3DS it's a very small %. The main problem is the exchange rate on south america. So you make money on canada.

Fixed size issue - Shaymin

As a Canadian personally I noticed that until the PS2/GC/XB era most people I knew seemed to have Nintendo consoles.  I knew one person with the Genesis during the 16 bit era and like maybe two owned a PS1 while everyone else seemed to have an N64.  That changed big time with the Gamecube where it seemed like hardly anyone owned one.  Of course those other consoles were current when I was in grade school so I might have been a little more aware what game systems people had since videogames tend to dominate the conversation a bit more when you're a kid.

Canada and the US have subtly different tastes and it pretty odd that it works out that way.  Our cultures seem superficially identical from a distance.

Maiden heaven you say?

Wow, thank you so much for writing this article! As both a Canadian and a big Nintendo fan, I really appreciate it! We are very used to hearing podcasts and websites talk about the video game market as if there are only 2 places: Japan and America. (Ie, "The American version", or "Brought to America"). It's refreshing to know we also exist in the gaming sphere. :)

As a trans-Canadian American, I feel Nintendo's games share a great deal of the same cultural values as my people.