US Wii U sales during holiday period not bad, says Nintendo president
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is satisfied with the sales of Wii U in the US during the holiday season even though the figures could not match to the sales of its predecessor Wii during the same period in 2006.
In a recent interview to Reuters, he admitted that the stores in the US did not run out of stock, something that the company had been hoping for. However, he still regarded the sales figures as nothing short of impressive.
"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 said. "But sales are not bad, and I feel it's selling steadily."
Iwata did not go into the details of the number of Wii U units sold during the holiday period. He also abstained from making a forecast.
The company had conceded in October 2012 that it is hoping to reach a figure of 5.5 million in sales by the end of the launch window, which ends on March 2013.
The Nintendo president also talked about the two-SKU system launch, something that had never been seen in the gaming market before.
Offering a 32GB Deluxe version of Wii U at a price of $350 and 8GB basic version at a price of $300 gave consumers an option to make the selection based on their available budget and perceived value.
Iwata did, however, admit that the strong demand for the deluxe version of Nintendo’s dual-screen gaming console was resulting in its stock running low in the market, causing a great deal of frustration for the consumers who were looking to get their hands
on a Wii U model of their liking.
"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. Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version
and couldn't find it," Iwata said.
Wii U is not only Nintendo’s first-ever HD console, it is also the first console in the next-generation space.
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