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Wii sells out in Japan on the first day

1 December 2006 19:06 by Dave "Davedough" Horvath | 10 comments

In a totally unorthodox move in the video game market, console underdog Nintendo introduced it's Wii to Japanese consumers almost two weeks after it's successful American launch. The famous electronics store, Yodobashi Camera in the Machida district in Tokyo opened at 7:30am, 2.5 hours earlier than normal in anticipation of the Nintendo launch. By 8am they had already posted signs saying they were sold out for the day.

Some eager consumers said they had been waiting in line since 6:30am the earlier day. Although this length of time waiting for a product launch pales in comparison to how long US comsumers were waiting in line for Nintendo's competitor, the Sony PS3.

Nintendo shipped 400,000 units to Japan which quickly sold out everywhere. This is in contrast to the 600,000 units sent to the United States which were said to be all accounted for in eight days. Nintendo remains hopeful that it will meet it's goal of reaching 4 million by the end of this year.

Instead of going head-to-head with the technical marvel of rival companies Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo decided to go for a fun-for-all approach. After taking a back seat to Sony with the introduction of the Playstation in 1994, Nintendo executives began looking at the 20 billion dollar video game market a bit differently. They look to achieve a healthy market share with their innovative controller and unique gameplay.

Source:
Bloomberg

Permalink to this article

Wii beat 1.2 million estimate in U.S.? (5 January 2007)

75 million PS3 units sold by 2010? (2 January 2007)

Nintendo faces a lawsuit (21 December 2006)

Nintendo's Wii console launches in Europe (8 December 2006)

Wii European launch tomorrow (7 December 2006)

Nintendo Wiijoices over launch sales (28 November 2006)

Nintendo Wii debuts in the US (19 November 2006)

Japan will see 400,000 Wii units on launch (15 November 2006)

Disney forms a Nintendo-exclusive video game studio (7 November 2006)

Nintendo Wii: All beauty, no brains? (31 October 2006)

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Discuss this article!
xyron (Member) 1 December 2006 20:29
now i got a say that this just proves that even the smallest of creatures(comparing with sny and micro***) can change the course of the future [ + quote]
ZippyG (Inactive) 1 December 2006 21:52
Nintendo used to be king...I guess they miss that feeling. :) Now i actually wanna get a Wii even tho it is basically an OCed Gamecube with a new controller. [ + quote]
OzMick (Inactive) 1 December 2006 21:59
Nintendo is still the only one making a profit, and have done each year. Sony and Microsoft have been loss-leading on their consoles for years. Combine that with healthy first party games development and Nintendo have to be laughing. They're again the only one making money on the base console, and people are snapping them up, don't think for a minute the big N is dead... [ + quote]
limelight (Member) 2 December 2006 5:38
Hooray for Nintendo!!! I hope they sell millions more of the Wii!! [ + quote]
oofRome (Senior Member) 2 December 2006 9:44
Was that a Lord of the Rings reference, xyron? [ + quote]
davidl1l (Junior Member) 2 December 2006 10:29
i hope they out sell that high price crap playstation and xbox... [ + quote]
WKnight (Newbie) 2 December 2006 14:10
I think very many people have underestimated Nintendo for many years...Now Nintendo will take the lead in the console wars.. [ + quote]
AntiHer0 (Newbie) 2 December 2006 14:52
What a joke!! LMAO!!!! [ + quote]
halfhere (Member) 3 December 2006 14:29
keep laughing it off, and watch all the other keep theirs and be happy with their purchase. [ + quote]
xyron (Member) 13 December 2006 19:15
Quote: Was that a Lord of the Rings reference, xyron? lol ya it was a lord of the rings one, hope its not copyrighted my halo 2 modding tut http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/244804 my xbox games backup tut- http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/299366 [ + quote]