Shares in Japan’s Nintendo Co. Ltd. hit an all-time high on Wednesday on soaring expectations that its new game console, the Wii, could repeat the success of its hot-selling handheld machine, the DS. Nintendo, known for game characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, said it will ship almost 400,000 units of the Wii for its Japan launch on Dec. 2, offering four times as many machines as Sony Corp. did for its PlayStation 3 debut last week.

The Kyoto-based video game maker also said it plans to ship 1.5 million units of the DS in December in Japan, doubling the availability from levels in recent months for the critical year-end shopping season.

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