Nintendo launches PlayStation rival

Nintendo’s quirky new video game console, the Wii, goes on sale in the US today, just two days after the launch of Sony’s rival PlayStation 3 turned violent at some stores.

But the release of the Wii is expected to be less dramatic, mainly because Nintendo has made sure it will have a lot more units available than Sony could muster.

Launching right after the much-hyped PlayStation 3 is a brave move for Nintendo, which is playing catch-up after losing dominance of the home console market to Sony in the mid-1990s.

The console itself is a daring design: it eschews the high-definition graphics that are the main selling points of the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which came out a year ago.

Instead, Nintendo hopes to attract a new generation of fans by changing the way games are played. The console comes with a motion-sensitive controller that acts as a tennis racquet, baseball bat, steering wheel, gun or sword, depending on the game.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said the company made “some very tough choices” in designing the Wii.

“Tough choices about not including a DVD player at the start, tough choices about not including high-definition capability at the start. That’s because we wanted a mass-market price and we believe the market will validate those decisions come launch day on this Sunday,” Fils-Aime said.

In a somewhat unusual move for a Japanese company, the Wii was due to go on sale in Japan two weeks after the US launch, the opposite of Sony’s launch order. Nintendo said it made the decision to get in on US Christmas shopping, which starts earlier than shopping in Japan.

The Wii costs €200 and includes one game. The two PlayStation 3 models cost €406 and €487, with no included game. The two Xbox 360 models cost €236 and €325, with no game. Online, the prices are steeper: PlayStation 3s were selling for around €2,000 on eBay yesterday.

Sony had about 400,000 PlayStation 3s in North American stores on Friday. Nintendo has said it would have “five to 10” times as many Wiis available at launch, and will have shipped four million units by the end of the year. It still expects consoles to sell out in stores.

The relative abundance of units and a smaller fan base, should make today a calmer shopping day than Friday.

PlayStation fans and entrepreneurs planning to sell their units at a profit had camped out all week in front of some stores, and some crowds turned rowdy.

In Manhattan early today, people lining up at stores said they were waiting outside to show their devotion to Nintendo and celebrate the occasion rather than camping out because they were afraid of the Wiis selling out.