nintendo handheld given euro date nintendo s new handheld console  the ds  will launch in europe on 11 march  the company has announced.  the portable games machine  which features touch-screen control  will retail for £99 in the uk (149 euros). nintendo said 15 games would be available in the uk at launch  with prices ranging from £19 to £29. more than 2.8 million ds consoles have been sold since it first appeared in the us and japan at the end of 2004. rival sony has said it will launch its first handheld console  the psp  in the us and europe before the end of march. the psp is expected to compete for a large part of the same handheld market  despite sony s assertion that the machines are aimed at different consumers.  the 15 games available on the european launch date will include nintendo s super mario 64 ds  as well as titles from third-party developers such as ubisoft s rayman ds.  more than 120 games are in development for the new console  nintendo has said. the ds is backwards compatible with the game boy advance  allowing the earlier machine s back catalogue of 700 games to be played. additionally  a short-range wireless link for multiplayer gaming is built in to the ds  with a  download play  option which allows a group to play against each other  even if just one person owns a copy. other features include a short-range messaging application called pictochat  and a built-in microphone which is used in sega s launch title project rub. nintendo has also announced a media adapter  which will allow the console to play music and video on the move.  the launch price of £99 (149 euros) compares favourably with the us price of $149  according to john houlihan  editor of the computerandvideogames.com magazine.  it s a very  very competitive price point. there are some innovative features  and nintendo has created quite a buzz   he says.  however  the line-up of games could have been stronger. everyone wanted to see the eight-player mario kart ds  for example.   mr houlihan believes that there is likely to be an audience for both the nintendo ds and sony s new psp  with the former aimed largely at a younger audience and the latter expected to be marketed as a multimedia device.  the psp is a sexy bit of kit  but sony s attitude to the psp has been very understated in europe  so far   mr houlihan said. the worldwide handheld software market had an estimated worth of $2.6bn at the end of 2004  according to industry analysts screen digest.  in the past  games consoles and handhelds have generally launched much later in europe than in other parts of the world. however nintendo president satoru iwata said the company was  pleased to have offered such a short period of time between the us and european launch .  europe is an extremely important market for nintendo   mr iwata added. nintendo raised its sales targets for the ds console last december after selling a million in the us and japan in just a few weeks.