I just assumed it would clear 500,000 in its first week. I guess I had unrealistic expectations

ferret1603 said: I just assumed it would clear 500,000 in its first week. I guess I had unrealistic expectations

 I guess you didn't read the reports on this website about how many were shipped and the sell through rate. It is unrealistic to expect more to be sold than are shipped.

I haven't seen any reports. Do you have the link?

The reports are scattered through Y-Koron's Famitsu, Media Create and First-day-sales news threads. Also in the Preliminary Sales threads by TheSource. They are fun to read if you like following sales on a WW basis.

By that definition, I guess only the Wii was successful this holiday season.  That is, N. probably air shipped some Wii to sell for xmas that normally would have come in January via boat.  :)

@ ferret1603  "I haven't seen any reports. Do you have the link?"

 http://www.gonintendo.com/?p=30893

Wii Fit near sellout

Nintendo may have a Wii Fit sellout on their hands in Japan. The title has managed to move 254,000 units so far. From what we heard, Nintendo supplied retailers with 300,000 units for their initial shipment. While a sellout would be great, I really don’t think the game is going to be as big as Nintendo had hoped for. Japan is extremely fickle as of recently, and I am not quite sure what type of console gaming experience they are looking for. I do believe that Wii Fit will be a big hit in NA though.

and

http://www.cubed3.com/news/9132/1/Nintendo

Wii Fit only launched on Saturday, 1st December in Japan, but has already seen massive crowds gathering at various stores across the country to pick up the game and Balance Board package. With reports of only around 300,000 retailer pre-orders, though, Nintendo might be facing a complete sell out sooner than expected.

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250-260k out of initially 300k, and now with a month in, >1M. estimated sold.

Here another "unimpressive" game in Japan using your perspective :

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=2948

Japanese first 3 weeks :

1) 46,590
2) 39,456
3) 32,367

I hope you control the link ( And I know it is a drastic case )

So advertising a product in the US where it isn't available yet will help sales in Japan even though it is pretty much sold out every week. Amazing!

 So your fiance isn't a woman, I'm guessing. Is he over 36 years old? Does he live in England? Are you old enough to get married? All these questions and more are pieces of critical information needed to correctly assess the situation, re: Why not targetting 18-36 year old males in England is having such a drastic effect on Wii Fit sales in Japan.

I think that's what Ivader was trying to say. He'll correct me if I'm wrong. 

ferret1603 said: I just assumed it would clear 500,000 in its first week. I guess I had unrealistic expectations

You can't make those bords as fast as gamediscs... Shipments are around 100-200k a week in Japan, everytime sold out. So, who cares there were lines at the launch?... What Wii Fit is doing in sales is called LEGS, L*E*G*S!!!