I wanted to see the crowds of console launch people today. So I drove around to a: gamestop, walmart, kmart, and best buy and didn't see anyone. Each place had stacks upon stacks of Wii-Us, I had low expecations but not this low. Is the Wii-U sold out in your area? I'm swimming in Wii-Us over here.
Wii U
Platform »
The Nintendo Wii U, the follow-up to the monstrously popular Nintendo Wii console, launched in North America on November 18th 2012.
The wii-u seems like a flop in my area.
It is sold out in my area, although if you went into a couple stores within 10 minutes or so of them opening you could get a basic model one.
Pre-orders seem to be the majority of the volume (best buy had them stacked in their pickup area when I had went in this morning, and there had been a midnight launch event). Although it is difficult to say how well this console will do overall. At the least I think it will do okay, even if it ends up running 3rd string. At this point I'm actually happy with mine; although I am still wondering why they limited the basic one to 8gb of all things.
Anecdotal evidence. Let's wait for the NPDs next month to see if it met expectations. Of course, the real proof will be how it performs 6 months from now.
@TooWalrus said:
I'm not ready to call the WiiU a flop, but I am glad I didn't go out of my way to pick one up just to flip on eBay. When the PS3 launched at $600, some of my classmates were re-selling them for like $1000. Course I was 16 and didn't have a bunch of extra cash to spend...
don't be that guy
@Darkstalker said:
@TooWalrus said:
I'm not ready to call the WiiU a flop, but I am glad I didn't go out of my way to pick one up just to flip on eBay. When the PS3 launched at $600, some of my classmates were re-selling them for like $1000. Course I was 16 and didn't have a bunch of extra cash to spend...
don't be that guy
If being that guy involves me having some petty cash to fix the busted seat in my car and that weird belt noise, I'm willing to stand in the cold for a few hours to do it.
@Castiel said:
You gotta love the internet: It's been out for like to seconds and it's already a flop.
Yep!
@yoshimitz707 said:
Man, it's sold out everywhere I called today.
Odd I've never heard of anyone driving around to see lines before. It's completely sold out around here but things are always sold out around here.
Weird seeing them be sold out everywhere, well that is expected i guess, but like the OP there is a whole stack of them in my local store...
I don't know a single person IRL who is buying one. And I'm friends with quite a few gamers. Anecdotal, but I think that's all the evidence I need.
@Zor said:
Why would you drive around to see lines?...I know you are trying to troll, but this is just sad.
@SpudBug said:
well all it means is that people in your area didn't show up at launch day to buy them. not really thread-worthy.
I love how defensive everyone with a red name is to the IDEA that the Wii U isn't lighting the fucking world on fire.
@Fearbeard said:
I stopped by my walmart after work at about 12:30am and they had 2 standard units left. It's a college town though and all the students left for Thanksgiving or else it would have been long gone. I bought one but can't decide if I really want it or not
Not worth it your losing out on an extra game (Nitendoland) and about 24 gb of internal memory for about 50 dollars savings. From what I've seen online the Deluxes are pretty much sold out while the regular ones are still in stock. Think those people who don't follow games as much aren't going out in droves for the Wii U while those who do purchased the deluxe.
@project343 said:
I don't know a single person IRL who is buying one. And I'm friends with quite a few gamers. Anecdotal, but I think that's all the evidence I need.
I don't either come to think of it.
I have no intention of buying a Wii U at this time, but I'm not really the target audience for this thing anyway.
Wii U sold out, at the store I work at, in the first hour. To be fair there were only 10 units available.
Maybe you could be a little more specific about where your area is? I'd be curious to know where the WiiU's are plentiful. The norm seems to be that they are in short supply or sold out, which I expected anyway. Nintendo tends to ship low quantities so they can get the free publicity of being one of the "Hot New Hard-to-Find Xmas Items" in the news.
The memory doesn't mean anything to me since I'll be using an external drive I have. The game also doesn't matter to me, and is something I'd never buy so I'd rather have the savings anyways. My issue isn't with the skew of console I got but if I need the console at all.@Fearbeard said:
I stopped by my walmart after work at about 12:30am and they had 2 standard units left. It's a college town though and all the students left for Thanksgiving or else it would have been long gone. I bought one but can't decide if I really want it or notNot worth it your losing out on an extra game (Nitendoland) and about 24 gb of internal memory for about 50 dollars savings. From what I've seen online the Deluxes are pretty much sold out while the regular ones are still in stock. Think those people who don't follow games as much aren't going out in droves for the Wii U while those who do purchased the deluxe.
After watching the ZombiU quick look and reading some reviews I'm really interested in that game now.
It was sold out 3/4 places I went today that could have had one so I wouldn't say it flopped. It's still early and most of the sales are probably from Nintendo die-hards so it's kind of hard to judge what the perception of the general public. From what I saw today a number of people had no idea what it was or that it was coming, on the flip side while I was purchasing my not WiiU I would ask the cashier how they felt about it and many of them usually had a story along the lines of "oh my son/daughter/nephew/neice/etc. has been really wanting one. Being able to play while someone else uses the TV is really cool.". Make of it what you will but it looked like they were doing fine.
Both the Best Buy and Wal-Mart (where I pre-ordered) were turning people away when I turned up around 8 am this morning, but both were well stocked on games. I went out again 7pm and dropped in on another Wal-Mart and their Wii U section was ravaged. A few copies of ME3 and Batman were all they had left.
@algertman: Sounds like a sound marketing strategy; if it is true then its most definitely not only Nintendo that does it though.
All consoles will sell at the beginning right? Everyone wants the new thing so im surprised its not sold out everywhere, plus you add in the nintendo fans who want it and i think it will do pretty well at first - the problem is a few months after christmas. The other two consoles coming out and games primarily, im a pretty big nintendo fan myself but even so i am getting frustrated with shovelware and first party games - or games that i have not played, granted i know they sell well so it will continue, but can it be successful again with the same formulae after that minor miracle?
Sold out everywhere around me. I really want one. I keep checking online at various retailers, but still no dice. Anybody know of anyone that's getting them in stock online soon?
I'm not sure yet. I haven't seen too much excitement for it, but I think people should give it a few weeks before saying its a flop or not. At lest until the holiday are over.
Please Log In to post.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment