Major promotional tour planned for November; launch details may come this month

Details of Nintendo's promotion plans for the DS console in Japan have emerged at last, with the company planning to bring the new handheld to five major cities in November, around the time of its launch.

The company originally announced its intention to run a number of countrywide promotional events for the DS console when it admitted that it would not be exhibiting at the Tokyo Game Show this year.

At the time, Nintendo hinted that it was favouring an approach which would get the system into the hands of as many gamers as possible. The Nintendo World Touch! DS Tour, as it has been dubbed, will visit five of Japan's biggest cities - Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Fukuoka - giving people a chance to try out the hardware and some of the software for the system.

Full details of the tour are expected to be announced shortly - with speculation rife that Nintendo may choose to announce the launch date and price point for the console, along with details of the tour, at the end of this month.

In terms of the US launch of the console, which is expected to come within days of the Japanese launch, there was fresh speculation over dates and pricing this weekend when major retailer Wal-Mart gave the system a launch date and price point on its website.

According to Wal-Mart, the console will roll out on November 30th with a price point of $199.82 - a couple of weeks later, and around $25 more expensive, than had previously been indicated by sources close to Nintendo.

However, it should be noted that there's no evidence as yet that this price came from Nintendo, so it could just be a best guess from Wal-mart. Several other US retailers have already posted prices in this range, and begun taking pre-orders, based on guesswork rather than on official price information.