That figure? 400,000, apparently.
“Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock,” he said in an interview with 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. You couldn’t walk into a retailer and buy a Wii until spring of 2009. We’ve certainly learned many lessons from that and we are replenishing retailers more quickly this time around.”
“We are looking to have as much product into retail as possible. It’s driven by consumer response.”
Sounds exciting, but then is coming from the bloke who also claimed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 looks better on Wii U than the other consoles. He would, of course, but plenty would disagree – the common thought is that the frame rate is considerably worse.
How does 400,000 stack up? It’s 260,000 less than the GameCube moved, and 320,000 less than the Xbox. The Wii moved 475,000, and the PS3 just under 200,000.
The Wii U launches this Friday.
Correction: the Xbox shifted 320,000 units in total, not more than the Wii U.
UKZ-N3M1515
Reggie needs to stop taking photos while forcing a log out
bunimomike
There’s definitely something happening below the waist although I think it’s around the front. He looks way too happy to be dropping his kids off at the pool.
Bilbo_bobbins
ha ha, brilliant comments
trollmonster
Looks more like he picks kids up from the pool.
TSBonyman
Wii U has the advantage of being the first next-gen console to market. It matters not that visually it won’t compare to the next-gen PS/Xbox devices, Nintendo have brought a new way to play and for many that’s very appealing, myself not included. Wii, Kinect and Move have all been successful due to the ‘new way to play’ factor, regardless of how well they worked or whether there were plenty of killer apps for them. It’ll be interesting to see how the Wii U fares when the PS4/Xbox720 launch but for now they have time on their side.
gazzagb
I think because of it’s target audience, it won’t be something that people rush out and buy as soon as it’s released (apart from the hardcore Nintendo fans), it’ll more do well over the xmas period as families buy presents for their kids etc.
Awayze
By week 3, it’ll be on store shelves waiting for a price drop.
xdarkmagician
If its sold out, its sold out. It doesn’t matter how many more or less was sold, especially at different economical times. Nintendo aired on the side of caution and shipped less units then before. The important thing is that every Wii U being made today is already sold. Theres no over stock, so financially for nintendo its a win, and I’m calling it- The Wii U is a success.
KeRaSh
I agree. Nintendo is actually playing it smart. If they released a higher specced console a little later to put it up against the PS4 and the next Xbox they would be directly competing with Sony and Microsoft. This way they try to create their own market again, like they did with the Wii, DS and 3DS.
The comparisons between the different COD versions also don’t mean much. The lead dev platform obviosly was the Xbox and the devs are still getting used to the new tech so it’s hardly going to look next gen. I’ll reserve my judgement until Nintendo comes out with their HD Zelda. :P
djhsecondnature
It’s not sold out though… it’s “essentially sold out”. In others words, not sold out.
KeRaSh
That’s your interpretation of the statement. xdarkmagician interpreted it differently.
The point is, it’s a pretty successful launch. The Wii U was sold twice as many times as the PS3 at launch, for which Sony had to take a huge hit (Nintendo only needs one game sale to turn a profit) and according to Greg’s post, it outsold the 360 on it’s home turf.
djhsecondnature
But it’s not sold out. There’s plenty of reports in the US stating it is not sold out. Hence the use of the word “essentially”.
Plus selling out 400,000 units is not better than selling half of a million for what it’s worth.
KeRaSh
But it’s still better than selling only half of that. Your point is?
djhsecondnature
My point was just that selling a smaller percentage of a greater amount is better than selling a larger percentage of smaller amount.
And that the Wii U isn’t sold out :-p
KeRaSh
Can’t argue with simple math. :)
Greg Aldridge
Launch figures for the 360 from NPD were 326,000 in total. Not 320k more than the Wii U.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_launch#North_America
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
Xbox or Xbox 360? He says Xbox above. You say 360. There’s a pretty big difference!
This article could be clearer.
Bilbo_bobbins
Adults, including myself will be wondering what they can gain from getting a Wii U, if its just graphics then most will hold off and grab a few more games for Wii wont they? I know I would.
The old “its sold out at retail” is a classic way of making people think its popular and really good. It worked for the Wii so why not try again eh Reggie?
djhsecondnature
Also the Wii opening eight days was 600,000, a lot more than 475,000.
Dom El
They’re very solid sales figures, but first week sales aren’t everything.
However they are relatively close to those achieved by the 3DS in it’s first week on sale in the US and that’s continued to reach sales milestones despite what many considered a weak launch lineup, and terrible software drought following it.
Hopefully with Nintendo vaguely learning from past mistakes and holding back games to take into next year they won’t experience a drop off of quite the same magnitude. Either way I’ll be adding one more sale on Friday!