China? Who the f**k in China can afford such luxuries besides the few overprivilieged? China is sweatshop land. It's a market driven by US and Japan, with Europe a somewhat distant third. Think 5 mil units a year worldwide, which is a high number since demand dries up quickly after the first two. Then consider a consoles lifespan, around 8 years. Do some calculations and then throw all of em out the window since money is made on the games, not the console units. I would not doubt if the Wiis sell at a profit, Nintendo was able to pull that off with the Gamecube. Nintendo also has the largest exclusives from their own games studios, like Zelda, Mario, Smash Brothers, etc. They rely on third party games the least, although I expect to see even more due to their new strategic direction. So buy the stock if you want, but that run up from months ago is because of E3 and the experts who were able to properly evaluate its launch. What you want to watch now is the handheld market which is basically PSP vs Gameboy Advance. PSP is here to stay for a while, awesome toy, it's Nintendo's move for a new unit. And if you actually know games, you can figure out the exclusive super hits that actually cause gamers to go out and buy the consoles.
Consoles in China are selling for 2000 yuan and people are buying them like a frenzy. I live in the Orient btw, lots of people have mobile phones(a third of the population in Shanghai in fact, or 5 million people or so) that cost over 1000 yuan, many families have computers costing 5000 yuan which may be the median price. And so on. Even though the average salary of a new college graduate may be around $125-$200/month lol. The few "privegled" that you talk about are probably nearing 100 million or more in numbers
I would like to see some official numbers behind that, it's a bit hard to swallow that people will spend their monthly salary on a console. It may not even matter as it depends on how many units are even shipped to China. For all you know, the demand in China is very limited, hence little supply is sent there. US & Japan drive the console market and no nation, especially not a sweatshop one, will just overtake that in a few years.
LOL, I'm in NYC, talk about pampered brats and the overprivilieged. But you don't need to be a pampered brat to get a console, even the lower upper and lower middle class get them. These luxuries have been commoditized, actually adjusted for inflation, they are cheaper than the original Nintendos of the late 1980s.