New Nintendo DS planned for Taiwan, China

Sony and Nintendo are planning to expand their operations in the Asian market outside of Japan, targeting Taiwan and South Korea specifically.

According to the Japanese daily Nikkei, as reported by Thomson Financial, Nintendo is working on a special "localised" version of its DS handheld in Taiwan, to be sold through mobile phone stores.

No specific information was available as to what form that localisation will take, but it will be available by the end of July, with plans to extend the SKU into China by the end of 2008.

Meanwhile Sony has announced its own plans for Taiwan, which includes working with the government on training local education authority staff on game development, and making new titles available via the PlayStation Network.

Sony will also expand its operations in South Korea, a territory in which Nintendo has begun working with local developers and expects to ship 20 DS titles before the end of this year.