With the mud hurled at the company by so-called ‘hardcore’ gamers in the wake of its now infamous E3 2008 conference still proving a little sticky, Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway has insisted that 2009 will be a great year for core Nintendo fans.

Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, NoA VP of sales and marketing Dunaway stated: “I think that next year you’re going to see the tide turn a little bit, in terms of people realizing that the Wii can have something of interest for everybody. I feel there are titles that should make [the core] stand up and pay attention next year.

“If you look at something like The Conduit, that’s really pushing the edge of graphic capabilities on the Wii and doing things that people didn’t think were possible. And I think, one, that makes other developers stand up and take notice. And two, that makes consumers say, ‘maybe there’s something to this’.”

Dunaway also pointed to the release of Sin & Punishment on Virtual Console, as well as the recently announced fully-fledged sequel.

Fans, however, may be disappointed to hear no mention of the new Zelda and Mario titles heading to Wii at some point in the future.