Nintendo will release its palm-sized version of its 80's games console, setting up an old versus new confrontation with rival Sony as it released a brand new PlayStation 4.
The double launches marked a new chapter in the struggle for supremacy between Japan's top video game businesses as they attempt to take care of a abrupt rise in mobile gaming.
A lot of excited gamers queued at electronics stores in Tokyo to make an effort to get their hands on the Nintendo's new form of its Famicom and Sony's PS4 Pro.
The smaller version of Nintendo's classic games console called the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) overseas, sold more than 60 million units after its 1983 launching.
The new mini games console sells for about $60 with a solid nod to nostalgia by letting gamers lesser display quality to mimic playing on an old television.
The console is installed with 30 games including Nintendo's famous Super Mario and Donkey Kong characters.
Sony's cutting edge machine retails for about $400 and promises even sharper images than earlier versions of its PS4, which have sold over 40 million units worldwide.
Most games consoles had already been pre-bought, ruined the hopes of some Japanese gamers who dashed to stores for the double start day.
"We stopped taking preorders some time ago because demand for the two machines was beyond expectations," Yuko Harima, a spokeswoman for retail electronics stores Bic Camera, told AFP, without showing sales amounts.
Nintendo's system is being released in Europe and North America on Friday.
Both are quite distinct but their start could herald a new turf war among the competitors, said Hirokazu Hamamura, who heads game magazines publishing at the Kadokawa media group.
"You may consider it is no big deal that the cutting edge high end game machine and old style Famicom make their introductions on the exact same day, but I don't believe so," he said.
"This really exemplifies that we could see a staged war in the coming years," he told a recent seminar in Tokyo.
Both companies are competing to win so called crossover customers using smartphones, game consoles, and standard computers, he added.
Nintendo has been looking for a success to counter flagging Wii U games console sales, after making a long-awaited launch in the mobile gaming market for the first time before this year.
Meanwhile, the company last month stumbled as it gave a sneak peek at a long-awaited new games console called Nintendo Switch.
The hybrid machine can be played at home and on the go, thanks to a removable display like a tablet PC with the controls attached.
But the launch of a three-minute video of the system left investors underwhelmed, beginning selling on the Tokyo stock market of shares in Nintendo, which had been floated by the success of "Pokemon Go" smartphone application before this year.
Nintendo is bringing back the nostalgia of the first NES control by declaring the mini-NES. The mini-NES will cost around $60 and have 30 pre-installed classic games.
Nintendo has described the machine as NES Classic Edition that is determined by the ‘iconic design of the first NES control.’ The new apparatus, which is that of the size of a palm and will be accompanied through an HDMI cable and also a power adapter.
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