Nintendo to launch Wii Sports Resort in June

TOKYO, JAPAN: Japan's Nintendo Co, which competes with Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp in the global video game market, said on Thursday it would launch its "Wii Sports Resort" software in June in Japan.

Wii Sports Resort follows its popular "Wii Sports" game, which helped drive sales of its Wii game console as users can play baseball, tennis and other sports using its motion-sensing controller.

Wii Sports Resort, which lets users throw a frisbee to a virtual dog or duel one another with swords, will hit overseas markets in July, Nintendo said.

Nintendo's Wii game console far outsells Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, and its DS, which competes with Sony'sPlayStation Portable, dominates the handheld video game market.

Nintendo shares were down 2.8 percent at 27,940 yen, little moved by the news. The benchmark Nikkei average gained 2.9 percent.