The Wii, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 will compete for attention on the shelves this Christmas.

Delays for PS3

The launch of the PlayStation 3 was dogged by delays and a glitch which meant that some older games were not playable on the new console.

The fact that only 100,000 consoles were made available on launch day left many Japanese gamers disappointed.

It was originally supposed to go on sale in early 2006 but production problems and shortages of key components forced a delay.

The European launch of the console has been pushed back to March 2007. Sony said 400,000 will be available for the US launch on 17 November.

Despite the shortages, it said it was confident of shipping six million PS3s by the end of March 2007.

Nintendo said it plans to ship 1.5 million units of its handheld game player, the DS, to Japan during December.

With the Wii console Nintendo is hoping to win fans among people who rarely or never play games. In a bid to make it easier to play, on-screen actions are performed using a motion-sensitive controller.

The Wii launches in Europe on 8 December.