Sony's playstation 3 beating Nintendo to the punch..

[joeorc]

for those that do not know the playstation 3 is already seeing systems sales in both of those region's already.
is microsoft selling xbox360's there also..?

Nintendo to launch Wii in China, S.Korea next year
Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:09am EDT

(Adds South Korea launch, president comments, share price)

TOKYO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) aims to launch its hot-selling Wii videogame console in China and South Korea next year, company president Satoru Iwata said, in a move that could help accelerate its break-neck growth in recent years.

"We suffer a global shortage of the Wii. Our responsibility now is to deliver as many consoles as we can to existing markets," Iwata told a news conference.

"But next year, I think we can bring the Wii (to China)."

Robust global demand for the DS handheld player and Wii, which features an innovative motion-sensing controller, helped Nintendo almost triple its operating profit in April-September and raise its full-year earnings outlook.

Shares in Nintendo have soared more than fivefold over the past two years to make the game maker Japan's third-most valuable company behind Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T: Quote, Profile, Research).

Underscoring white-hot demand, Nintendo on Thursday raised its Wii sales target for the year to March 2008 for the second time this business year.

It now expects to sell 17.5 million units of the Wii for the current business year, compared with its July forecast of 16.5 million units and up 25 percent from its original estimate of 14 million.
Nintendo to launch Wii in China, S.Korea next year
Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:09am EDT


In comparison, Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), battling with Nintendo and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) in the global videogame market, on Thursday stood by its PlayStation 3 sales target for the year of 11 million units.

On the portable side of its game business, Iwata said shipments of its DS handheld player have topped 20 million in Japan this week.

"It has been said 20 million units is a limit (for one game hardware) in Japan. But we aim for deeper penetration by promoting the shift in trend to 'one machine per person' from 'one machine per household'," Iwata said.

Shares in Nintendo closed up 2 percent at 67,700 yen, outperforming the benchmark Nikkei average (.N225: Quote, Profile, Research), which gained 1.36 percent.

((Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Reuters Messaging: kiyoshi.takenaka.reuters.com@reuters.net; +81-3-3432-8837; kiyoshi.takenaka@reuters.com)) Keywords: NINTENDO WII/CHINA

(C) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution ofReuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expresslyprohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuterssphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.nT158052

http://www.reuters.com/article/consu...9?pageNumber=2