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Wii U sells 400K in launch week, 'essentially sold out'
by Andrew Yoon, Nov 26, 2012 1:00pm PSTAs expected, Nintendo has "essentially sold out" of Wii U's initial launch supply. The company has sold 400K units of its new-generation tablet-integrated console.
"Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock," Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told CNET. "Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves. But as soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately."
With 400K units sold, the launch has bested that of Xbox 360, which debuted with 326K units sold in its first two weeks of sales. However, it comes short of the tremendous demand of the original Wii. Nintendo's previous generation console managed to sell 600K units in its first week, and remained perpetually sold out for years.
While Nintendo will likely love a repeat performance, Fils-Aime is skeptical. "Wii was a unique phenomenon," Fils-Aime said. "We've certainly learned many lessons from that and we are replenishing retailers more quickly this time around."
Comments
As expected, Nintendo has "essentially sold out" of Wii U's initial launch supply. The company has sold 400K units of its new-generation tablet-integrated console.
As expected, Nintendo has "essentially sold out" of Wii U's initial launch supply. The company has sold 400K units of its new-generation tablet-integrated console. : Shacknews
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I agree that only having 400K for the first week when the Wii sold over 600K in its first two is silly, but they also can't exactly tell how many they'll sell either. 400K+ for a console in a single region isn't really 'that little product' either. Yes, not as much as needed, but normally it would be a perfectly adequate amount. Nintendo may have very well expected fewer sales for various reasons. There might also be another 300K machines mid-way through the distribution chain for all we know, which could be why some areas seem to have plenty, while others are out. Or it could just be a miscalculation on where demand would be strongest. But the Wii U still has time to match and beat the Wii's sales, if the units have actually been in transit.
If you can't compare console sales to other consoles though, then what do you compare console sales to? Yes, when comparing the sales to those from 5+ years ago you start to lose how well you can compare them, but it's the only thing you really have to compare them. Different strategies on where they make their money doesn't really matter though. If you've sold twice as many consoles as the competition on release and were losing money on each one to keep the price a bit lower, planning on recooping it on game/peripherals/online subs/etc sales, then you've still got twice the number of customers to then buy them.
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