The Wii was a success, it was hard to find, it was sold out everywhere, even pre-orders were on a limit and got sold out in a matter of hours. As soon as Wiis were put on shelves, they were taken by customers waiting days for a restock. It really did great. I've helped many friends get one by telling them when and where shipments were received for different retailers. Future Shop couldn't even put the console on the shelves that they were sold out. They received about 2 or 3 units per week for every retail store.
But what about the Wii U? Regis Fils-Aime told CNET that 400,000 unit is a great number because the console is SOLD OUT all around the country. He also added that "As soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately." Nintendo is apparently doing its best to restock the retailers. Seems like the story of the Wii success is upon us again! So if you want one for Christmas, you might have to get one of those cardboard consoles instead.
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| Should you get one of these until Wii U gets restocked? |
Well I find it a bit awkward that after the Wii's long term shortage that lasted about 6 months, Nintendo did not plan on making their new console a little bit more available at launch due to the increase in Nintendo buyer potential. So I went and looked around the web for that shortage. Where is it? I can't tell!
I check store availability for Walmart in many states:
Florida : Out of 17 stores, 4 are Out of Stock.
California : Out of the 8 Stores, 1 is Out of Stock.
New york : Out of 20 Stores, 6 are Out of Stock.
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| Stocks everywhere in New York, same thing all around the country. |
In Quebec, I checked Future Shop, it's a little more true for them, but still less than 50% of the stores are out of Wii U.
On about 30 stores, 12 are out of Stock.
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| Canada the same thing, It's everywhere! |
Just take that in context, those stats were taken just after Black Friday! So if it was such a big success, shouldn't it be sold out everywhere? I called a Future Shop store just to make sure. Well it seems they have about a dozen consoles for sale. WHAT!!!
I'm calling it a big deception by Nintendo that is trying to make a false shortage to raise sales by having everyone jump on the "New Trend" that is supposedly out of stock making sure people grab one when they see it in case it disappears from the shelves for months like the Wii did! I'm really sorry for Nintendo today.
Feel free to tell us if you had a hard time getting a Wii U or if you see them in stores where you go.
The same way Sony "units sold" numbering works, maybe Nintendo's "Sold out" simply means Nintendo's warehouse are empty, it doesn't mean stores's warehouses are empty.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I wonder if the hype and shortage is more something the hoarders are trying to push (the ones selling the consoles at 500+$ on eBay).
You might not have read my last edit where Regis also added that : "As soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediatly."
ReplyDeleteStill this could be "some retailers". Playing with words is big part of deception. And yeah, unfortunately they should stop counting the "shipped numbers" and really get the "sold numbers".
None the less, if 400,000 is the shipped numbers, they are in deep trouble if they did not sold out those.
Ok they might not be in "deep" trouble, but it is not bright news.
ReplyDeleteLet's wait the next few weeks, and the launch in EU and Japan.
There seems to be lots of confusion around the number of consoles that were sold, mostly regarding if it's US-only or N.A. numbers; but yes, if you can easily find some on shelves "Sold out" isn't quite the right term. Then again, if there had been none available, we would probably have accused them of not having learned their lesson from the Wii launch.
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