While North American consumers have been playing with Nintendo’s new console Wii since November 19, it wasn’t until this weekend that they launched Wii in Japan. Thousands of gamers lined up outside of Tokyo’s electronics stores and roughly 400,000 consoles were sold and many locations were completely sold out by noon. Amazon.com in Japan also sold out of its allocation.

Nintendo plans to ship one million Wii consoles in Japan by the end of the year. The company has already reported having sold over 600,000 units in the Americas, making the new system “a $190 million business in the Americas.” Nintendo remains on track to ship 4 million units globally as 2006 comes to a close.

With the Wii selling around 400,000 in Japan, it’s already more than double the estimated 160,000 PlayStation 3 units sold, as well as the estimated 180,000 Xbox 360 units (a system that has been on sale for almost a year now).

Source: GameDaily BIZ