Nintendo, after months of hinting it would roll out a new game product in 2004, on Wednesday took the wraps off Nintendo DS, a portable video game system with two screens, one above the other. Nintendo had been expected by industry players to offer some sort of new handheld product this year to compete with Sony's PSP, an advanced handheld gaming device set for launch by the end of the year. Sony already dominates the console games market with its PlayStation 2.

"We're not trying to take on PSP, because this machine will be completely different than anything that exists right now," said Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa.

The company said it would hold back most details on the new product until the games industry's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles this May, but said it has already begun talks with game publishers around the world about developing software for the new device.

Industry watchers also expect Sony to show off the PSP at the Los Angeles E3 games show. Sony's PlayStation guru Ken Kutaragi has said the PSP will be the "walkman for the 21st century" and it will play not only games, but music and movies as well. He has said it will not feature a phone function like Nokia's N-Gage.

The new Nintendo unit will feature two three-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, dual processors and up to one gigabit of semiconductor memory.

It is scheduled for launch by the end of this year and will be marketed alongside the company's GameCube home gaming console and Game Boy Advance handheld device, Nintendo said.

The game system's dual processors will be based on chip designs from British semiconductor firm ARM, a leading designer of microchips for mobile phones and handheld computers.

The new game system comes after a series of price cuts stimulated a more than 70 percent year-on-year rise in holiday sales for the GameCube.