Nintendo shipped 700,000 GameCube game consoles out to US shops for Sunday's launch, but the company could not say exactly how many units were sold.

Gamers queued to buy in Burbank, California

Each game console sells for $199 (£140) and each game sells for $49.99 (£35).

There is now a three-cornered struggle for the US games market, with GameCube competing with Sony's PlayStation 2, released in November, and Microsoft's new Xbox, which launched on Thursday.

Earnings

But unlike its competitors, Nintendo's offering is mainly aimed at children aged six to 14.

GameCube: In a three-cornered market struggle

Nintendo's total for GameCube's weekend sales would put the video in the same earnings league as the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US.

The movie has reported a record-breaking weekend box office of just over $90m (£63.4m).

Nintendo's US spokeswoman Perrin Kaplan said: "Harry Potter's such a hot thing it's just kind of nice to be up there with that."

Nintendo has built its name on characters such as Mario

Nintendo plans to distribute about 100,000 consoles per week to US shops until the end of the year, said Ms Kaplan, which could mean total shipments for the year would exceed Nintendo's 1.1 million forecast.

The top-selling game for the console was Nintendo's own Luigi's Mansion, followed by Lucas Arts' Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2 and Nintendo's Wave Race: Blue Storm, she added.

Nintendo, which launched the GameCube in Japan in September, is set to unveil strong interim results on Wednesday, up on its May forecast of a 30bn yen (£172m) group net profit.