Wii U selling 'steadily' says Nintendo president

Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime was bullish after the Wii U's first week of sales, claiming it was "essentially sold out." Now that the dust has settled on the holiday season, though, company president Satoru Iwata has made more moderate comments. He conceded that it didn't replicate the Wii's booming success, but expressed confidence in its health on the whole.

"At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn't as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom," Iwata told Reuters. "But sales are not bad, and I feel it's selling steadily."

Iwata also acknowledged that splitting the console into two flavors made it difficult for Nintendo to balance the stock for each. "It was the first time Nintendo released two models of the game console at the same time ... and I believe there was a challenge with balancing this," he said. "Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version and couldn't find it."

The Wii U sold about 400,000 units worldwide in its first week on the market, and sold more than 600,000 during December in Japan. That crosses the million mark, without counting holiday sales in the US or Europe. Nintendo has stated that it intends to sell 5.5 million Wii U units by the end of March.