Friday, December 08, 2006

Nintendo Retracts 1M Wiis in U.S. Statement

Nintendo Retracts 1M Wiis in U.S. Statement Is Nintendo doubtful that it can ship/sell 1 million Wii consoles in the U.S. before the year ends? It's starting to look that way, as the company has retracted a statement proclaiming its 1 million sales goal for the U.S. More within...
Yesterday Nintendo of America issued a release trumpeting the success of their portables, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, which sold 641K and 918K units respectively according to the latest NPD figures. All told, when combining Wii sales, DS sales, GBA sales and GameCube sales, Nintendo sold 2.1 million of the 3.9 million video game systems sold in the U.S. during November, capturing 55 percent of the market.
Interestingly, if a recent press release correction is any indication, Nintendo may not be as sure that they will sell one million Wiis in the U.S. in 2006 as previously thought. The Wii sold at a rate of more than 70,000 a day for the seven days represented in NPD's November data, and Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has said that Nintendo would have one million Wiis in the U.S. in early December, with two million shipped by mid-January.
Today, however, Nintendo of America alerted the media that its statement from yesterday which read, "Despite spot shortages in some locations, well more than a million Wii systems will be available in the United States by the end of the year," has been retracted and should be ignored.
So what does this mean? Nintendo did not say why that statement should be disregarded, but one can only assume that either they are having more difficulty with manufacturing than they let on, or perhaps more likely, they are sufficiently satisfied with the U.S. launch numbers and want to divert some of the shipments to Japan and Europe, which haven't been allocated quite as many systems (especially Europe).
GameDaily BIZ has contacted Nintendo for further comment and will update accordingly.

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