A message to our European and Australian readers; if you think you’re getting screwed by later release dates than those found in the US and Japan, just realize that it could be worse.  For example, Nintendo just announced that after several false starts, the Wii and DS will finally be officially coming to India on September 30.  The two systems will be distributed by HCL and Samurai-India, which have apparently already began unofficially supplying retail stores with the systems.  According to the TheAngryPixel.com article, the Wii will be priced at NR 19,990 and the at INR 7,990.  What these numbers translate into in real money is anybody’s guess.

Now I know that India and the subcontinent isn’t exactly the world’s premier gaming market, but two years for the Wii and four years for the DS in a nation of over I billion people?  It almost seems like Nintendo forgot about the world’s second most populous country.  This is a nation with over 54% of their population under the age of 25, the world’s largest youth population, and internet usage expected to increase by a factor of 200 over the next few years.  Both Microsoft and Sony have had a presence in the region for well over a year, and both have seen modest success in the growing market.  We’ll see if Nintendo will need to make up for lost time, or if, like in the rest of the world, the hardware will sell itself.

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