This is kind of meaningless to argue over. No one can claim that the Wii U did not sell well, as it appears to have moved most of its stock. Likewise, no one can brag about having sold a low number like 40k, as pretty much any console would have moved that much at launch.

It's a wash for both camps. Time to find a new battlefield, this one offers no strategic importance.

Yeah, everyone ignored this.

1)depends on how many units were shipped.you can't sell more than you have.
2)the prize is to high for the usual nintendo gamer who wants some fun for little money
3)the hardware is to weak for the usual core gamer who was tortured since the DS/3ds/wii with low standard graphics by nintendo and who is no longer willing to buy nintendo stuff as long as nintendo does not change their low tech agenda.And as long as there is no 3dmario or zelda there is no reason to buy the Wii u and as long as all known wii u exclusives don't even come close to look like uncharted or gow few units will be sold.
4)the casual gamer has recently bought a 2dmario game for 3ds and is a little bit tired and bored by yet another mario.
5)many uninformed casual gamers.I've been yesterday on german amazon for layton/3ds and was wondering why the avarage rating was so bad(4.0)I can't remember the exact numbers,but around 20 voted 5stars,10 four stars,no 3 or 2 stars,but around 12 one star rating.All one star raters were complaining that the game does not work the old ds handheld.This means 1/4 of the ds owners have absolutely no idea about hardware.the same with the Wii u.
6)the wii u pro controller does not work with nintendoland and mario.that's the most stupid thing i've ever heard.you buy a second controller to play multiplayer games because the tablett is not available,you've sold your wii to buy a wii u and you can't play multiplayer.
7)my best gaming experience was with the n64,great games like mario,zelda,KI,1080,wave racer etcetc,but since than nintendo is getting worser and worser.no new franchises for core gamers,no old franchises for core gamers(f zero,wave racer)just two great mario galaxies and metroids,one great donkey kong,ugly zeldas and recycled,cheaply fast build 2d marios made with a little big planet-like editor.I'm no longer willing to pay for this onegood game per year company.Instead of creating new IP's they are paying for monster hunter and dragon quest to become exclusives and I have to play those ugly nintendo versions that still look like ps2 games.(and i bet the new mario 3d and zelda won't look better than a middle class ps360 game)
Nintendo has to rethink their strategy in several ways .thanks for nothing nintendo.

Christ all mighty, its one fucking country.

If you call that a disaster, what the hell do you call Vita?

a predictor of things to come?

B-b-b-b-ut Vita sold more than Wii U in first week.

VITA is not doomed CONFIRMED!!!

I order "In stock" items all the time. Only, they ship it 2 weeks later when they actually got new stock in.

In other words, they are selling you future stock.

Good, screw eBay-ers

Not true. Look at Kowenicki's post.

"Our servers are constantly checking for Wii U stock, so you don't have too."

To give you a clue here. Wii has been on sale for just about 6 years and has sold 8 million. Ps3 came out 3 months after wii and has sold 5 million. Now you can argue that ps3 started at a far more expensive price but wii, so far, has beaten it. Especially when wii and ps3 are so close in time frame.

Considering the numbers were higher then expected and they still shifted most (if not all) their stock I would say they did well. To deem this a failure like runqvist did is utterly foolish. But at least you are willing to give some kind of credit. They got more numbers then they expected and there are still reports of shortages so they should be happy.

It is possible nintendo is taking things slower in this region to keep up with demand as it is there. Although it could also partly be the controller causing stock to slow down. I would like to hear what runqvist says next year should there be reports of lower sales from xbox. Which wouldn't surprise me. If you look at 3ds and vita's struggles here you can hear them shouting to be £150 or they won't sell thick and fast.