China is only at about 1.3 Billion right now, actually. But, as was pointed out, at this moment only about 12% make enough money to get a Wii anytime in the near future (Latin America level incomes are enough). Of course, Nintendo could be making a profit with the Wii at $200 w/ WS packed in, now, so they could easily be able to sell the things for $150 apiece by the time they launch in China.  Since they build the things in China anyway, it shouldn't be as much trouble (added cost) to get them out to the Chinese people as it is to get them to Latin Americans.

 Does that change something?

 True, but with all things considered, that's entirely the point.  A smaller percentage of the population might be gamers, but the larger population makes it possible to become an important home console market.

 As others have said, how does that change anything I'm saying at all? Regardless of raw population size, the point is that the high end PC gaming market (with online connectivity, no less) in China is almost certainly as big as that in America, if not larger. If that's true, why would we assume that they're incapable of supporting a console market, as well? Perhaps they will choose not to support a gaming console -- because it doesn't suit their tastes -- but I'd say it's fairly clear that they're capable of supporting the market on a purely economic level. 

I'm waiting for the discussion about whether or not we should be including pirated versions of Wii Sports in software sales figures =P You know someone is gonna ask eventually.../sigh

Pirated... Wii Sports?

You might think this is a big deal but the upper chinese middle class is not as big as it might look from the outside, plus they have lots of luxury to catch up on, videogames are not on top of that list... yes I also read the "Wii is more important than democracy "article but that is bull since the chinese really don´t care for democracy.

Something to consider, however, is the fact that China is growing at a disturbingly fast rate. In 2004 China took measures to slow their economic growth just to insure that inflation doesn't get ahead according to this site: http://www.china.org.cn/english/2004/Jan/85390.htm

They may be very little now, but they are quickly becoming a major market. Heck, they had more than 10% real gdp growth last year compare to 2-3% for each of the U.S., Japan, and the E.U.

Great! The gift feature sounds cool. I have a US Wii Points card laying around here that a relative brought by accident... it doesn't work here in EU obviously, so maybe a good soul from the forum can do an exchange for me when this feature is up and running. I'll send him/her the code for the 2000 points and he/she can send some games keeping the leftover wiipoints :)

... wait ... it might be only for people in the same region ... might not work overseas ... damn!

now, how to track those sales?

and yes, there are some people in china who can afford it, but not as many as you might think. especially at a 250 USD price tag. and 20% of population being as wealthy as ppl in US, now thats very far fetched....