My friend Kyung is not a gamer. He knows next to nothing about the industry, stemming from the fact that he just doesn’t care much in the first place. However, Kyung happens to be absolutely crazy about Wii and DS.

That’s pretty impressive, considering the fact that the former system isn’t anywhere near release over here. We generally get together about once a week, and every time we meet, he asks me more and more specifics about the system — where he should get one, which games he should pick up, if he should get it modded or not (this is Korea, after all), etc.

Turns out Kyung has played a friend’s imported system, and according to him, Wii Sports and Cooking Mama (the latter especially critically-lambasted) are ‘brilliant; probably the two greatest games ever made.’ This reminds me of what Sega’s Scott Steinberg said a few days ago, and further proves that he’s missing the point — the gaming-ignorant public sees things very differently than industry experts do. [Related: The Pach-meister Reacts]

In contrast, ask Kyung (or any Korean in his position) about 360 or PS3, and you’ll get a very different response — blank stares and something along the lines of, ‘uh, they’re like really expensive, right?’ This past weekend’s PS3 launch ‘party’ effectively illustrated that point. The hype is on Nintendo’s side this time around, and it’s only going to grow.