Nintendo Wii U North American sales top 400K in first week
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says Wii U sales crested 400K units in its first week, according to internal sales data. That's just part of a 1.2 million hardware sales week that Nintendo's enjoyed across the past seven days -- which include the crucial Black Friday -- where the Wii saw 300K units sold, and portables dominated. Nintendo's 3DS sold 250K, while the aged DS moved 275K -- not too shabby for an eight-plus-year-old console! CNET snagged the data from Fils-Aime in a post-Wii U launch phone interview, where he characterized 3DS sales as continuing on a "record-setting pace" (now at more than 6 million units sold-in to North American retailers).
As for the seemingly paltry launch sales of the Wii U console -- 200K units shy of the original Wii's launch week -- Fils-Aime says it's a question of his company's ability to keep it in stores and not of lacking demand. "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," Fils-Aime explains. Without giving any concrete promises or timetables, he adds, "We are looking to have as much product into retail as possible."
Update: Nintendo tells us it, "actually sold approximately 475K Wii systems in the U.S. in the first 7 days back in 2006 (per NPD data). The 600K number is in reference to the Americas, not just the US." Of course, it's unclear how many Wii Us sold across "the Americas" in the same time, which we've asked Nintendo to clear up.
