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Forums - Nintendo - Wii U shortage feared across UK retail

CVG

A retail source connected to the matter told CVG that the group does not have enough Wii U units to fulfill pre-orders.

The 25,000 figure they provided was then put to a distribution source working at a separate retailer, who said the number was "in line with our estimates".

However, a third source at another UK retail chain said his team was expecting the UK to receive "anything between 75,000 and 100,000 units during the launch period".

"What we don't know is whether this allocation will arrive on day one or be distributed across a number of weeks," he said.

Nintendo was unavailable for comment when approached by CVG.

The company expects to ship 5.5 million units to retail globally before April. Profit forecasts have been slashed and the company's president, Satoru Iwata, told investors on Wednesday that "production capacity, rather than consumer demand, that will place limits on our Wii U prospects for this calendar year".

In August, CVG learnt that manufacturing issues had limited Nintendo's supply options for Wii U on launch day.

Months later, in October, Nintendo was reported to have hit a second supply issue due to a factory fire. The company denied that the incident would impact on its Wii U production plans.

Week one sales of games consoles are largely reflective of supply constraints rather than demand. In 2005, Xbox 360 sold out during its first weekend after some 70,000 units were snatched up by eager consumers. One year later, Wii managed to break new weekend records with 105,000 units sold. PS3 broke new ground several months later, with a huge launch supply of 165,000 units all sold out in during its opening weekend.

Nintendo has confirmed a Wii U release date of November 18 in the US and a Wii U release date of November 30 in Europe. The company has set the US Wii U price at $299 for the basic model, while the UK Wii U price starts at £230.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/374838/wii-u-shortage-feared-across-uk-retail/



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well, if Nintendo supplies 5,5m and and intends to sell the same amount, theorically the WiiU will be sold out and only accessible through reservation EVERYWHERE for MONTHS.



I'm assuming the figures given are for units on shop shelves at launch, and not pre-orders. At least I hope so. Mind you I did pre-order with Zavvi earlyish so hopefully I'll be okay. Mind you, if I do get my ZombiU bundle at launch I might be tempted to flog it on eBay if they're going for twice the retail price. It'll be like buy one get one free lol. But the question is can I allow myself to wait to play ZombiU..?!? :Oo



Panic!
Panic.

Shoudl I pre-order once more somewhere else?

Oh My GoD!

I am going to q outside HMV right now!



Switch!!!

Called it in my thread a few weeks back.

Nintendo always seem to get something wrong.



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Man, the Xbox 360 sold how many in its first year? I know they planned on selling 10 million but I think they only sold like 6 million or something. If the Wii U manages to sell 5.5 million right out of the gate (number pulled from ryuzaki's post), that would be pretty epic.



Excellent...