It certainly seems so. Games fans found themselves in the unusual position of waiting in line at stores that opened especially at midnight on Sunday, only to be turned away after they’d passed the cash till and rung up a sale for a Wii.

Nintendo’s online services also went live today, although the list of channels isn’t exhaustive yet.

But the number of channels isn’t finished there and more are on the way.

And if legendary Mario games creator Shigeru Miyamoto has his way, future performance updates will see the Wii changing channels, games and menus as quick as fingering a button on the TV remote.

The UK gets its official Wii launch in three weeks time, which is a lot better than the estimated March European launch date for the PS3.

The US launch of Nintendo’s new Wii console kicked off with a midnight store opening at New York’s Toys “R” Us in Times Square