Nintendo unleashed its next-generation Wii console in the Americas on Sunday, hot on the heels of Sony's launch of the PlayStation 3.

Early reports suggest that thousands of die hard Nintendo fans hit the stores to get their hands on the goodies over the weekend.

Nintendo's console is proving to be far more available than the PlayStation 3, however, and only those gamers outside the US are being disappointed at present.

Brand new PlayStation 3s were being sold on eBay for close to $4,000, but auctions for the Wii were mostly hovering around the actual selling price of the console. A few were hitting the $500 mark.

Nintendo is shipping four million Wii systems globally through to the end of 2006. Twenty new games have been made available at launch, while the console itself comes with a Wii Sports package with five games.

A total of 33 new Wii games are set to be available before the end of the year, along with downloadable access to another 30 Virtual Console classics.

"The most important advance for video games in the past 10 years was the introduction of Super Mario 64, which ushered in the era of true 3D gaming," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America.

Like the PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii also makes use of a motion-sensitive controller which can be swung like a racket in a tennis game or like a sword in an adventure game.

Nintendo has set up Wii Mall Experience centres around the US to encourage non-gamers to take the console for a spin.