Wii U selling 'steadily' says Nintendo president

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave more moderated comments on Wii U sales than the ones from NoA head Reggie Fils-Aime, calling sales "not bad" and saying he feels it's selling "steadily."

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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.

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  • reply
    January 7, 2013 9:45 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Wii U selling 'steadily' says Nintendo president.

    Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave more moderated comments on Wii U sales than the ones from NoA head Reggie Fils-Aime, calling sales "not bad" and saying he feels it's selling "steadily."

    • reply
      January 7, 2013 9:51 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 7, 2013 9:57 AM

      Mr. Iwata then pressed the space bar and brought up an Obama image macro on powerpoint

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      January 7, 2013 9:58 AM

      Speaking of the Wii U, what is the deal with Funky Barn? Was it under printed or something? I can't find a physical copy anywhere local. It's also been sitting on the Estore as Coming Soon for weeks. MY WIFE WANTS TO DO SOMETHING TO A COW OR WHATEVER GAWD.

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      January 7, 2013 10:08 AM

      We need more games or announcements, I hope they have a solid line up at E3, we shall see.

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      January 7, 2013 11:29 AM

      Haven't turned mine on in weeks.

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        January 7, 2013 12:46 PM

        Ouch.

        This wasn't a problem back in the day. Consoles would have a steady stream of shooters, platformers, racing games, and all sorts of other stuff coming in. Nowadays, everyone is aiming to make the next AAA multimillion seller. So no decent games get financing, just games with guns and blood and 'splosions.

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          January 7, 2013 12:59 PM

          Well, if you're talking about the "back in the day" that I'm thinking off, then those games were definitely simpler and therefore easier to develop. You are correct though, when you're saying that the gaming world has turned into an industry that's almost exclusively about making money.

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          January 7, 2013 1:03 PM

          you're thinking of non-Nintendo consoles.

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          January 7, 2013 1:04 PM

          is this the same era when all games were 20-40 hours?

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          January 7, 2013 1:06 PM

          back in the day, longer than a month after release

          Whoever sells these rose tinted glasses must be making a fuckin killing. Everyone pines for the days of *

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            January 7, 2013 1:57 PM

            I still play my SNES more than my PS3. So this isn't a tint-in-the-glasses issue.

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              January 7, 2013 2:08 PM

              I play my with my abacus more than my SNES (even though I have the Super Scope 6).

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          January 7, 2013 1:33 PM

          Every launch has a "drought" period of games after launch.

          Unfortunately in Nintendo's case their flagship titles aren't 20+ hour games.

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          January 7, 2013 2:31 PM

          Also, back in the day, consoles were mostly for youngsters. Not thirty and forty-somethings.

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          January 8, 2013 4:42 PM

          [deleted]

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        January 7, 2013 1:15 PM

        Mine's being used more for Netflix and the TVii app than games, but that's just because I'm too poor to buy Darksiders 2 at the moment.

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        January 7, 2013 1:46 PM

        I haven't turned my 360 on in about 6 months does that mean it is a failure as well?

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          January 7, 2013 1:59 PM

          I never said it was a failure, but it's pretty much the only piece of tech in my house I've had no reason to turn on in the last 30 days. I beat Mario and got tired of Zombi-U. I'm sure this thing will have some decent stuff out for it , but look at the Vita. A great system that's not selling too well and devs aren't finding fun and interesting ways to use the hardware. The few games that have been worth a damn on Vita have been either "let's cram this full console experience into a handheld, it's OK if it runs like ass" (AssLib) or "this is innovative and way better than an iOS game" (Little Big Planet). Wii-U is probably going to be like this and hopefully the latter type of game will be much more prevalent, but I'm not holding my breath. I forsee either a wasteland like Vita or shovelware city like Wii. Both systems are new-ish so here's to hoping for the best.

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        January 7, 2013 1:54 PM

        Yeah same.

        I'd go back and play some Wii games but apparently I need both a Wiimote and the classic controller to play some and that isn't going to happen since I already have two different controllers for the thing. It's ridiculous that the Wii U Pro controller doesn't work at all in Wii mode.

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        January 7, 2013 2:07 PM

        That's funny, because mine hard crashed last night and I couldn't turn it off!

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      January 7, 2013 1:03 PM

      That sounds like damage control to me, why would a press release not exaggerate the shit out of things if it could, saying "HOLY SHIT, GET EM WHILE THEY ARE HOT" ?

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        January 7, 2013 1:17 PM

        Nintendo is weird, but from what I understand they underestimated demand for the deluxe edition and overestimated demand for the basic set. So while they've got this weird dichotomy of "our shit's sold out, but also on every store shelf"

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          January 7, 2013 1:56 PM

          It's doing terrible in Europe across all versions. I went to the hypermarket last week and saw approx 14 Deluxe and 20+ basics. Noone was in sight. There was also a lot of stocks (10/15) anytime even just before christmas.
          Also why would anyone buy the basic, wtf was Nintendo thinking? It's just a terrible deal.

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            January 7, 2013 2:35 PM

            I guess they thought the cheap option would tempt a lot of people on the fence, but the silly thing is, most early adopters are enthusiasts or fans who are usually willing to pay that little bit more. The cheap option would make more sense later down the line when they wanted to boost sales and could have offered a more dramatic discount.

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            January 7, 2013 2:39 PM

            Part of me wonders if any of the next gen systems will do well in Europe, but then I get all sad about the end of consoles and shake that silly thought out of my head.

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        January 7, 2013 1:31 PM

        I don't think I've ever seen Nintendo bullshit people. Saying, "HOLY SHIT, GET EM WHILE THEY ARE HOT" would look desperate for sales to me.

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          January 7, 2013 2:36 PM

          SInce you need at least one game to use a console, the "cheap" option is actually the most expensive.

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            January 7, 2013 2:42 PM

            This post was meant for disembodied potato

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          January 7, 2013 2:58 PM

          I dunno, they told us the Wii would be cool and fun.

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            January 7, 2013 3:08 PM

            Maybe you've mentioned it, but I don't have time to search your impressive post history so I'll just ask: Why didn't you like the Wii? You and others mention a lack of games--could you be more specific? Because I love my Wii. (That's what he said.) But seriously, it was a solid system that let you play lots of newer games plus granted access to classics on a number of retro consoles.

            I just don't get the hate.

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            January 7, 2013 8:41 PM

            This comes down to personal opinion, I accept that you didn't like the Wii. I happen to be a huge fan of it. Even in the end of it's life Xenoblade Chronicles (one of the best games ever made) and The Last Story are both games that RPG fans should not miss out on.

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      January 7, 2013 2:32 PM

      I will buy one the moment Pikmin releases.

      Or a new Animal Crossing

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      January 7, 2013 2:36 PM

      Nothing on it compels me to buy it, but once Nintendo starts putting out their properties on it, I'll certainly get one. And of course, as I've said in the past, if I don't have one when the followup to Xenoblade is released, I'll get one then.

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      January 7, 2013 2:52 PM

      I'm a known Nintendo defender, but this really isn't a big deal. Most consoles launch with a very small selection of games. Some systems are lucky to have one "system seller" type of game like Halo or Super Mario Bros. available on day one. In most cases, it takes several months for new, more compelling software to come out. I remember buying a PS2 within a month or so of launch and playing nothing but Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore for quite some time before another title caught my eye.

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        January 7, 2013 9:13 PM

        I remember some guys in school trading in their dreamcast with soulcalibur and more games just to get a ps2 with smugglers run. If I'm not mistaken I was playing quake 3 w/ dc mouse & kb and on the internet

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