@TheSource: You forgot something important, which is the competition aspect. Looking at Europe, it definately is the market where the competition is the hardest and it's the market where Nintendo basically cannot afford to lose sales, if it wants to compete Sony there. Wasn't it just recently, when Wii passed PS3 in sales numbers in Spain and Italy, despite PS3 getting released 4 months later than Wii, which possibly wouldn't have been possible if the supply would have been diverted to NA, where the demand is highest. If Nintendo wants to break the Playstation brand, they need to get the Wii ahead of PS3 before it gains enough ground.
@Kasz: That was only partially true. The lawsuits with Atari in the 80:s propably had much to do with Nintendo not being able to expand to Europe as they should have, at least not before Sega had already gained a strong foothold. Nintendo of Europe was founded in 1991, just prior to SNES release, but then they needed to learn how the market works, when dealing with numerous countries, cultures, laws and importers.
When Sony came into the market, it already knew how the market worked and how to deal with it (just look how much growth there was that gen in Europe, in comparision to other regions), with the experiece of selling electronics for decades here.
Before the PSX (atleast here in Finland), you could find games only from gamestores or electronics stores, while Sony pulled its strings and got its console to the markets that had a electronics section. I'd guess that Sony did practically the same everywhere else too. Not expanding the audience, but expanded the retail.
Ei Kiinasti.
Eikä Japanisti.
Vaan pannaan jalalla koreasti.
Nintendo games sell only on Nintendo system.
