The studio behind Mercenaries and the Destroy All Humans series, Pandemic Studios, has added a second development team at its Brisbane, Australia studios. They attribute this expansion to the success of Destroy All Humans 2 which is the sequel to one of the best-selling console games of 2005.

“Pandemic’s Brisbane studio has enjoyed great success with the Destroy All Humans! series and we are excited to build on our tremendous base of Australian talent with the addition of a second team,” said Josh Resnick, president of Pandemic Studios. “With the release of Destroy All Humans! 2, our Brisbane studio is now turning its attention to the development of brand new titles for next-generation gaming systems.”

Following the North American and Japanese launch dates, Nintendo announced that Australia will be getting the console on December 7, with Europe being last (but not least?) on December 8.

Aussie’s down under will be able to enjoy the console for $400 AU, which will get them the console, one wireless Wii Remote controller, one Nunchuk controller and Wii Sports. Europeans will have to cough up 249 Euros (£179 in the UK) for the same package.

The company also revealed that first party games for the console will retail between 50 and 60 Euros (£35 to £40 in the UK), though no rates for third party games were revealed. Rates for the different controllers were also disclosed for Europe: Wii Remote - 39 Euros (£29 in UK), Nunchuk - 19 Euros (£14 in UK) and the Classic Controller - 19 Euros (£14 in UK).

Proving that the Xbox brand is very popular down under, Microsoft released its Xbox 360 console to much fanfare in Australia. Marking the most successful console launch in the region, around 30,000 units of the Xbox 360 were sold, a third of which were purchased at midnight the day of release. This beats out the previous record of PSP’s 27,000 when it launched last September.

In contrast to North America however, Australian gamers picked up an average of 3 games per console, compared with 4 games in the Western hemisphere.