Shares in Nintendo hit an all-time high today as expectations soar that its new game console, the Wii, could repeat the success of its hot-selling handheld machine, the DS.
Nintendo, known for game characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, said it will ship almost 400,000 units of the Wii for its Japan launch on December 2, offering four times as many machines as Sony did for its PlayStation 3 debut last week.
The Kyoto-based video game maker also said it plans to ship 1.5 million units of the DS in December in Japan, doubling the availability from levels in recent months for the critical year-end shopping season.
Last month Nintendo raised its DS sales target by 18 percent to 20 million units for the year to March, and it reported more than threefold growth in profits for April-September.
Shares in Nintendo closed up 3.2 percent at 26,750 yen, after hitting a record high of 26,770 yen. The benchmark Nikkei average was down 0.28 percent, while Sony slid 0.4 percent to 4,710 yen.
Nintendo shares have soared 88 percent since the start of calendar 2006, far outperforming the Nikkei average, which has edged up 0.8 percent.
The Wii, which features a novel motion-sensitive controller, will go on sale in the United States on Sunday and in Japan on December 2, competing with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 for holiday shoppers' attention.
Nintendo declined to comment on the scale of Wii shipments for the U.S. launch.
Unlike the PS3, Nintendo's Wii does not offer lifelike graphics or a high-definition DVD player function.
But it has been developed to entice game novices with innovative but easy-to-play games - the same concept that helped make the DS a smash success.
Sony packs the PS3 with its cutting-edge technology including a Blu-ray player and the Cell microchip, dubbed a "supercomputer on a chip." But the advanced functions and components drove up PS3's manufacturing costs.
Sony, which has dominated the global video game market over the past decade, sells a basic model of the PS3 for 49,980 yen ($425) in Japan, almost double the price of the Wii.