Hasta La Gadget!

The Wii U seems to be off to a pretty good start in the US. As of yesterday, the console had been available for one full week, and today Nintendo told CNET that it managed to sell 400,000 units in that time. That certainly isn’t bad, with the Wii U beating out every other system Nintendo is offering at the moment.

Of course, that isn’t much of a surprise considering that the DS and the original Wii are on the way out, but it’s still something worth noting. The original Wii sold 300,000 units last week, while the the DS sold 275,000 and the 3DS posted a solid 250,000 sales. Good news all around, it seems, due in large part to the shopping frenzy that we like to call “Black Friday.”

All of those Wii U sales mean that Nintendo is having a hard time keeping the console in stock. Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime told CNET today that the company is doing the best it can to keep up with demand, as are retailers. “Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock,” Fils-Aime said. “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.”

For comparison’s sake, Nintendo managed to sell 600,000 original Wiis in North America during that console’s first 8 days. There are still many places around the world that haven’t received the Wii U yet – namely Europe and Japan – so it’ll be interesting to see how the console’s launch goes in those regions. Stay tuned.

[via Game Informer]

Wii U hits 400,000 US sales in first week is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nintendo of America’s president, Reggie Fils-Aime, has proudly stepped forward to claim that the recently released Wii U is “essentially sold out of retail”, and we’re talking about moving approximately 400,000 units here. In fact, over the last week, Nintendo sold over 1 million hardware units, and the Wii U made up approximately 40% of the total figure, with the rest of the hardware comprising of the Wii, 3DS, and DS. Hmmm, it does seem to me that the Nintendo DS still has some legs left in it, no?

In fact, the Nintendo Wii did seem to have some more staying power, mustering up approximately 300,000 sales over the last week last week. Not bad, eh? As for the portable segment, Nintendo managed to land over 500,000 hardware units, where 250,000 3DS and 275,000 DS devices thereabouts landed in the hands of avid gamers in the US. It seemed that the technologically inferior DS outsold the 3DS simply because of the “significant” deals that retailers offered on Black Friday.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Raspberry Pi Powers Small Arcade Cabinet, Minecraft Aids UN In Regeneration Projects,

In the pre-post-PC era, life was simpler for Nintendo and other successful competitors: Sell console. Sell discs. Repeat until wildly profitable. Six years ago, as Microsoft and Sony were taking part in a game of specification leapfrogging, Nintendo embraced casual and family gaming with the Wii even as it mostly ignored online play and convergent entertainment features. More than half a decade later, Sony has surpassed the original Wiimote with its Move controller and Microsoft has created a motion anti-controller with Kinect, but the Wii retains an advantage in that developers can assume the motion control is there.

Today, everyone in the games business still adheres to the basic notion of compelling software selling hardware, but the source of that software and the manner through which it drives revenue has changed via models such as digital distribution, downloadable content, free-to-play, subscription and advertising. In addition, Nintendo has launched the Wii U into living rooms in which game consoles must compete not only with each other but with Blu-ray players, TiVos, Rokus and Apple TVs for physical connections as well as smart TVs and tablets as other sources of connected entertainment experiences. How it has addressed these challenges reveals much about what the company has held dear from the Wii, what it has reluctantly accepted and what it has now embraced.

Continue reading Switched On: The Three Cs of Wii U

Filed under: Gaming, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo

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The Wii U has been available in US (we use the term “available” loosely, of course) for a little under a week, but folks in Europe are still waiting for the console to arrive. The Wii U is set to launch in Europe on Friday, November 30, and if you happen to live in London, you might want to stop by the launch event Nintendo is holding at HMV’s Oxford Street store. That’s because if you get there early enough, you might be able to snag a couple free games.

Eurogamer reports that the doors will open at 11 PM on November 29, and the first 100 Wii U purchasers in line will get two free games. These include New Super Mario Bros U and another game of your choice from a pre-determined selection of titles. If you don’t manage to snag one of the first 100 spots in line, don’t despair, because there will be goodies for other launch event attendees too.

For example, if you’re one of the next 100 people in line, HMV and Nintendo will give you £5 off the purchase price of Wii U hardware or software. The freebie isn’t nearly as good as two free games, but it’s better than nothing. Finally, the first 500 people in line will be taking home goodie bag full of mysterious presents. If you’re planning to pick up your Wii U and HMV’s Oxford Street store, it seems your chances of leaving the store with some free extras are pretty good.

There will also be playable demos of New Super Mario Bros U, ZombiU, and Nintendo Land at the launch event, so if you’re on the fence about which games to buy, you’ll at least be able to check out a few while you wait for sales to start. Here’s hoping that you get to take a console home with you, because if the Wii U’s European launch is anything like its North American launch, the console will sell out quickly. Are you buying a Wii U at launch?

First UK Wii U launch event attendees get free games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.