October 27^th, 2004 (7:45pm) - Both the Nintendo DS and PSP will be launching in December in Japan and it seems that both companies will not be shipping an overly large amount of hardware pieces to retailers over in the land of the rising sun.

Nintendo has announced that they will ship 300,000 units of the Nintendo DS when it launches in Japan on December 2nd. The company plans to have one million units of the dual-screened handheld delivered by the end of the year, with more shipments coming every week following its launch. From these numbers and previous statements issued by company representatives, it has become clear that Nintendo is focusing on the North American launch of the console more than its Japanese launch. By the end of March 2005, Nintendo plans on having shipped 4 million units of the Nintendo DS worldwide.

Sony has also revealed that they will ship a mere 200,000 units of the PSP at launch, with 500,000 additional units planned for shipment by the end of 2004. While 700,000 pieces of hardware may not sound like a small number, a dilemma occurred when the PlayStation 2 launched with similar numbers, causing a shortage. However, this can be seen as a wise business strategy, since shortages often increase the demand and build up a sort of hype around a hot item. Throughout marketing history corporations have intentionally planned shortages of hot Holiday items.

In similar news, Sony has announcedthat they will launch the PSP in North America and Europe in March 2005.