This past week has been a rather eventful one for Nintendo fans. The company finally revealed that their Wii U console will launch on November 18th for a suggested price of either $299 or $349, depending on which bundle consumers pick. Some gamers feel that this is way too expensive for tech that will be overshadowed by the competition, whenever they get around to launching their next-gen hardware, but that apparently hasn’t slowed the demand for the console at all.
GameStop has announced that it has completely blown through its pre-order stock for the Wii U Deluxe Set, and Best Buy’s online store has done the same. They aren’t the only retailers to do so either.
Despite analysts calling for Nintendo to drop the Wii U’s price before the holiday season in 2013, the current sales trend is on the up. It was recently revealed that GameStop has maxed out their pre-orders for the popular Deluxe Bundle all across the United States. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on who you ask, the infamous brick-and-mortar game retailer still has the Basic Wii U set in stock, so anyone desperate to secure the new console the same day it hits retailers will be able to do so for the time being.
Online sales for Nintendo’s successor to the Wii seem to have reached a climax as well, with Toys R Us, Kmart, Target, Sears, and Best Buy all maxing out their online stock. Similar to GameStop, Target still has the Basic set in stock.
Toys R Us, Sears, and Kmart, on the other hand, have yet to even open up pre-orders for the Basic set, but that should change relatively soon. Canadian gamers can still throw down their money for the Deluxe and Basic Wii U bundles at EB Games though, so any of our readers from the Great White North may want to take that into consideration.
Prior to this apparent shortage of Wii U bundles, president and CEO of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime, said that the initial response from consumers has been very strong. If that’s the case, then the dwindling supply of remaining pre-sales shouldn’t come as a big surprise to him, and may even be expected depending on how much stock each retail chain has been promised by the gaming giant.
“We’ve announced the price and we have a number of retailers taking pre-orders and the feedback that I’m getting from retailers is extremely strong in terms of pre-sales and consumer excitement at the store.”
Individual locations may still have a handful of Deluxe Sets available, but they won’t be in stock too much longer if the current trend keeps up. It’s easy to imagine that Nintendo may be limiting the initial supply of pre-orders to create a brief shortage, but it could also be retailers just playing it safe because they don’t know how many units the Big N will be shipping to them yet.
Whatever the reason is for the disappearing supply of pre-sales, gamers looking to secure the Wii U on November 18th should act quickly.
Have you pre-ordered a Wii U? If so, was it the Deluxe Set or Basic Set?
-
Follow me on Twitter @TheRileyLittle.
Sources: Games Industry & GenGame (via GoNintendo)
Electronic Arts Discontinues Online Pass Program 
Lionhead Job Listings Hint at ‘Fable 4′ ‘Reimagining’ the Franchise 
‘Deadpool’ Box Art Answers the Question: What Does ‘Awesome’ Look Like? 
‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ Teaser Spotlights Deathstroke 
Loading ...
Nintendo should not be making such a big deal about the wii u pre orders selling out fast when in reality, production is still slow on the system and each store who has them listed for pre order most likely have a super small amount quantity wise(i know they dont actually have physical units right now). obviously the closer to the release date more units will be available but any company can start selling pre orders quickly when they dont even have units available to ship to retailers.
weak marketing for an already obsolete console. nintendo is way behind the curve, sad.
Give us real numbers – “strong preorders” and sellouts of unknown quantities means nothing.
Nintendo is infamous for driving popularity by limiting supply.
I feel the same about Apple…
Both Apple and Nintendo use limited supply to drive consumer interest. Not a bad marketing strategy, but a bit underhanded.
There is no doubt it’s effective…underhanded as well,
One other thing I would love to know – how many of these preorders are going to end up on Ebay for $750 to take advantage of all of those parents?
I know I’ve done it, I sold six PS3s on Ebay when they launched for a combined profit of almost $2000. I had to pay some folks to stand in lines but the profit margin was still HUGE. Gotta love those last minute X-Mas parents.
Nintendo ftw
Considering that the cost of the Delux Wii U is only $100 more than the Wii orginally was when it first came out, an about as expensive as decent quality xbox 360 from a few months ago, The price is fine on the Wii U. However, What is going on is not surprising. While it may be that Nintendo use product limitation to drive prices, It isn’t surprising that even if it was say 500 pre-orders per store or online, that’s still every store across the nation being out of pre-orders. That’s still several tens of thousands of pre-orders. And even if the Wii U is (outclassed) the Family gaming industry is still where nintendo has its foothold. And as long as sony and Microsoft are focused ont their hardcore gaming (Read CoD clones every november) then Nintendo will continue to exist with a strong presense in the casual gaming industry.
I was just checking Ebay and there are 70 up for auction – most starting at $699.99 – let the gouging begin.
See if it was me – I’d wait till I had one in hand, there is no way to get one at stores any more, and X-Mas is rapidly approaching – Buy It Now – $1000 with Free Shipping (LOL)
I pre ordered my deluxe edition just in time at ToysRus. They really are going fast Cause people are buying them to sell them at a jacked up price during the holiday season.
hello edoes, when did you ordered your deluxe edition at toysrus??, i did it today (09-19-12) but it was supossed to be out for preorder, i was surprised they took my preorder for the deluxe edition, they have a little paper with both versions on it and they just scan the deluxe edition barcode, i give them 20 bucks, and thats was all, im feel very insecure about if i will get my wii u on release date, are toysrus selling more wii us they can??
No matter what Nintendo does someone always complains. When is Microsoft ever going to be in this position cause I really hate them.