I'm not suggesting that digital sales have been remarkable, but I think a lot of retailers are very threatened by digital distribution ...

I could be wrong but I think that a digital store that is set up something like Steam can really kill off a large portion of second hand game sales. After all, how big will the market be for second hand games if publishers start selling most of these games for $10 to $20 a year or two after they were released?

Are they dissapointed in Basic Set, Deluxe Set, Software or Overall Wii U performance?
Would be good to see their "expectations", thought.

Also Ben, you and others don't seem to realise what supply-constrained means. It doesn't mean a bunch of soccer moms beating each other up to get the last one like they did with the Wii a few years ago. It doesn't mean you don't see them on shelves. It simply means that they are leaving stores at a rate that is at least equal to the rate they are entering stores. This can take days or weeks, but it is definitely the case. We know it because the sales are on pace with Nintendo's manufacturing projection pace. I hate anecdotes, but can say personally that when I walked into a several WalMarts and Gamestops and BestBuys on the days before Christmas there were no WiiU's. Stores may and wherehouses may or may not have inventory, but it's not a growing inventory. Not yet anyway. Therefore the supply chain is supply-constrained.

Just wnt to go ahead and bring up something. Nintendo expects to sell 5m wiiU's in it's fiscal year. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that was nintendo's prediction. I don't know when it'
s fiscal year ends but I'd judge it off of that.

But there is a massive difference between being sold out and being supply limited ...

Being sold out implies that you can't walk into a store anywhere and buy a system, being supply limited means that there are some sales that are not being completed because there is limited supply in the area where people are looking to buy a system.

@Jay.  They project to ship 5.5 million units by the end of March. Their sales are consistent with those shipping numbers.

Nintendo's fiscal year ends March 31st ...

It is likely that as of December 31st Nintendo will have sold more than 2.5 million units, and if they sell over 150,000 units a week for the first 13 weeks of the year they should be close to meeting their shipment estimate of 5.5 million units.

I can agree that stores dont have huge stocks of Wii Us as that isnt the case.  However the majority do have inventory.  This isnt anywhere similar to back when the Wii launched where it was a complete sell out the moment inventory arrived.

So if your simply saying supply is constant without ever being overstocked I can certainly agree with that.  It seems Nintendo is simply keeping pace with sales well.  I see people on these forums at times imply the Wii U is in a similar situation to the Wii and thought you were trying to agree with them.  

Boy, that escalated quickly...

New year, will be key. As was the case for Vita. Sadly it did not go well in that case.