Wii streams out of Japanese shops

Million sales eclipse Sony's PS3 games console as Nintendo dark horse heads for Europe

Nintendo celebrated another successful Wii launch in Japan at the weekend, where 400,000 consoles were snapped up in a matter of hours.

It launched 400,000 units in Japan on Saturday but most retailers say their stock was gone in hours as eager gamers braved sub-zero temperatures for the latest in console gaming. In contrast, Sony only managed to provide 100,000 PS3 units for its Japanese debut last month.

With more than 600,000 units shipped in the first eight days of sale in the US, this brings sales of the Wii comfortably over the million mark. Nintendo has claimed that it expects to ship four million Wiis by the end of the year.

As console launches go, the global rollout of the Wii is the least troubled to date and Nintendo has confidently claimed that it can re-supply the consoles at a rate of 250,000 per month.

Lucky UK gamers will get their first chance to see what all the fuss is about when it goes on sale here this Friday.