Report: Nintendo Plans Localized DS For Asia

Representatives from Nintendo have revealed plans to create a localized version of the Nintendo DS Lite console for Taiwan and other Asian markets, as well as encouraging local developers to produce new content for the format. According to a Japanese newspaper report, as detailed by the Thomson Financial news service, the customized version of the console will be sold in Taiwan through mobile phone retailers from this month. The differences from the standard international version of the console are not detailed, but the hardware is also planned to launch in China by the end of the year. Although both markets are notable for their piracy problems an iQue version of the Nintendo DS was released in China as long ago as 2005. The new version of the hardware has not been announced for South Korea, but instead Nintendo has taken steps to encourage local developers to work on the format. A total of twenty new titles are due to be released in South Korea this year, despite the dominance of the PC as a video games platform. The same report suggests that Sony is pursuing a similar tactic for its formats, sending staff to local educational institutions in Taiwan to help train developers working on the PlayStation 3 platform.