I was in Gamestop in the Augusta Mall on Saturday and they had a ton of Wii U's on display. I asked the clerk if it had been selling and he said they were sold out. He told me good luck finding one--to which I replied, "I got mine like a week ago. I was just wondering how they were selling." He said it was crazy (and suddenly he didn't care about the line as I paid for my copy of Hitman), that they called one guy and told him that his name came up on the waiting list. The guy didn't come until the next day and, since he didn't come right then and there, they sold it to somebody else.  He was pissed (according to the clerk).

Maybe the Wii U is available at places like Wal-Mart and Target because Nintendo only allowed each retailer a set number of consoles. Either way, Gamestop seems to have exhausted their supply.

*edit* those Wii U's on display were just empty boxes.  Thought I should make that clear.

No it isn't. And if driving around spending gas isn't your thing you can pay just a little more to order one off ebay.But I've been able to find one in every store i've walked into around my area. Check around I'm sure you can find one.

They're available on Amazon.com (or at least they were this morning) for a mere $50 more than retail for the basic and $100 more than retail for the Deluxe, though.

It's pretty simple.  They expected more product.

Makes sense.  Nintendo was supposed to have more product available but didn't.

There were rumors of production issues with one of Nintendo's screen makers for the tablets.

That most likely was true.

i'd agree with this.  i saw wiiU in 3/5 store visits i've done but to date i've only seen the basic version.  personally i don't get the difference...the deluxe saves a bit of coin if you wanted nintendoland but not a lot.

There are some good reasons to get the deluxe version.

1 - It has bigger flash memory (32GB) than the white one (that after the first update has less than 3GB)

2 - It has nintendo land $10 cheaper

3 - it is black

4 - And the most important, the deluxe version has a 10% "refund" system for all games buyed on e-shop before december 2014

Just watched one go on ebay for 405 with 12 dollar shipping fee. After tax mine was 378 so that's 40 dollars more than normal price. Not bad if you really want one.

Checked every store in germany, Wii U nowhere to be seen on store shelves. Severe shortages confirmed.

i can only speak for myself but

1 - 32 Gb is a joke.   really bad joke at that.  i'd get a minimum of 500 Gb external so 32 vs. 8 is the difference between terrible and really terrible.

2 - not my bag, don't want it at any price.

3 - meh.  i'm indifferent personally.

4 - i can get that but there aren't that many games on e-shop yet.  how much would you save if you bought the entire catalog of games?

Lol!