Nintendo to launch GameBoy Micro in US on Sept. 19

Nintendo to launch GameBoy Micro in US on Sept. 19

The world’s largest maker of handheld gaming machine and the creators of some of the most iconic gaming characters ever Nintendo is set to launch their latest handheld gaming machine the cell-phone sized GameBoy Micro, in Japan on Sept. 13 and the United States on Sept. 19. Nintendo is trying to counter the falling sales of its existing range of small screen gaming devices like the GBA and the DS handheld.

The problems for the company has intensified after Sony launched their Playstation Portable gaming console and is rapidly expanding its feature set with software upgrades. The GameBoy Micro is expected to be priced around $109 in Japan and $99.99 in the United States. It would feature a two-inch screen and comes in four colors — black, silver, blue, or purple, the company said Thursday.

GameBoy Micro will be 4 inches wide, 2 inches long, seven-tenths of an inch thin and weigh 2.8 ounces. This is a much more compact unit than the original GameBoy Advanced SP. Nintendo would ship it with three removable faceplates that can be used to personalize the device and protect its screen. Nintendo is targeting global sales of 4 million units by next March. Europe is expected to get this device by Nov. 4. Sony has still not launched their PSP in the European market till now.

GameBoy Micro has been developed to support all the existing GameBoy Advance games. This means that more than 700 gaming titles are already available for this yet to be released handheld gaming machine.