DavidYarnton
Latest
Wii launches in Europe, loads of people buy it
The demand for the system has been "unprecedented," according to Nintendo UK's David Yarnton. He notes that Nintendo is very confident about the Wii's launch and predicts nothing but a huge success -- a prediction very much backed up by the gigantic lines that formed at the UK's HMV store in Oxford Street yesterday. The crowd even had to be broken up and asked to return at a later stage, though not before being given several (likely sturdy) wristbands. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, Tim Ellis, head of games at HMV, says that demand is most certainly exceeding supply and that the retailer could easily have "sold many more times than we've got, to be honest." Despite the presence of orderly lines and a lack of violent, Wii-related crimes (so far), he goes on to label the launch as "bedlam." Not to worry, Nintendo promises more stock is on the way and aims to satisfy everyone that wants a Wii this Christmas. That would be everyone, then.
.jpg.cf.jpg)
DS rocking in the UK [update 1]
Well, according to Nintendo, at least. Nintendo's UK boss, David Yarnton, claims that the heat of the handheld battle with "another company" (he never mentions Sony by name) has helped drive the DS to a 75% market share. He says that by the end of the year, Nintendo will have sold 2.7 million DS units in the U.K., and that week by week, those numbers come out to 75% worth of dominance in that market. Just imagine how it would be if the games weren't continually delayed![Update 1: Completely ridiculous typo fix in the last line. "How" is not spelled "would."]
David Yarnton speaks on UK launch
Nintendo UK's David Yarnton recently said during an interview on Eurogamer TV that Europe would receive the biggest launch in the company's history. He's quick to cover his keister, however, by stating that even "20 million [units] wouldn't be enough" to cover the demand for the system.David says that with the Wii "we're looking at about four million units before the end of the year globally and Europe will get a reasonable proportion of that. The stock that we're looking to get we believe will probably be more than we've ever had for any console launch. But from the feedback we've had from our retailers, whatever we have won't be enough as the demand from people is really heating up for it."Yarnton absolutely expects there to be shortages at retail come this holiday season. Considering Nintendo has had the finalized Broadway chips for some time now, are we to expect the types of shortages the Xbox 360 suffered from and the PS3 will undoubtedly face?[Via gameindustry.biz]
