It's like I said, they legally have to report sales to retailers, etc...

Prior to April 1, 2007, Sony was actually reporting units manufactured rather than units shipped.    They changed it to the industry standard of reporting sales to direct customers to comply with new SEC laws and regulations.

You also have to consider that they have no direct way to verify sold to consumer based projections.  Say they project console X to sell 20 million units.   You have to look at NPD, GfK Chart Track, Famitsu and Media Create just to get a somewhat vague idea how the console sold in the major territories.  That leaves out a lot of sales in emerging markets that don't have adequte sales tracking.  You coudl easily end up a million or two off from the tracking services but have in reality met your goal and never know it.

In a way I guess it is quite impossible to really track the sales to actual consumers.

Even though it still bothers me, it makes sense. Thanks for explaining!

The Wii also sold ~3.45 million from the week ending Nov 26 to Dec 24 in 2011.  That is only counting NA for the first week, NA and EU for the second, and then WW so it corresponds to the staggered release of the Wii U.  It has a good chance of staying ahead for the next two weeks as well.  So considering the Wii has been ahead by about 57% so far, it isn't that far fetched.  Of course the Wii fell down hard after Jan 7th 2012, so it's unlikely to stay ahead, but we also don't know yet what will happen to Wii U sales after the holidays.  I suspect Japanese sales should be strong enough to keep it ahead though.

to everything viper said i'll add...

nintendo (or whoever) can't just ship anything they want.  retailers have to buy them.  if consumers aren't buying the units then retailers won't buy them either.  there will be a bit of a lag between consumer sales rise/fall and retailer sales rise/fall but there is still a tight, direct relationship.  retailers try to manage their inventory very close to always have "just enough" stock. 

If they miss their target again, stock holders are going to be very unimpressed and one has to ask if the management of Nintendo is really adequate. 

Ok, now that makes even more sense! 

Thanks to both of you for explaining that.

In fairness to any new system I bought the Playstation 2 near launch (cursed shortages!) and for the first year I felt that way.  It went on to be quite possibly the best system I have ever owned (between it and the SNES).

I am not saying Wii U will do the same, but that not unusual for a system to be slow out of the gate and really pick up 12 to 18 months after launch.  We shall see.

Wii U will reach the predicted sales,but just because of japan and monster hunter.

Nintendo wants to ship 5.5 million by March 31st.  Currently, at 2,207,828 as of Dec 22.  There are 15 unreported sales weeks left until March 31st.

To reach 5.5 million in sales, Wii U needs to sell 3,292,172 in 15 weeks, or 219,478 / week.

Take a look below at how the Wii fared during its launch period, during the same 15 weeks from the last week of Decemeber 2006 through end of March 2007.

See the bold.