Wii U sells 400,000 units in first week [Joystiq]

[WCP]

Yeah the WiiU sold 400,000 units, and probably at least 200,000 of those were bought solely for the intention of flipping

I'm sure there was a pretty high rate of buyers that had no intention of keeping Wii U's, but 50 percent of all buyers ? I seriously doubt that. I would guess it's much closer to 20 percent (if that). Let's just pretend for a moment that it actually is 20 percent, that would mean that 80,000 of those 400,000 were bought with the idea of selling for profit. Not all of those 80,000 are going back to the stores though. People are indeed selling them on Ebay and Craigslist, but not anywhere near the profits they were hoping for. Instead, many of these profiteers are getting measly returns on their investment and the whole time/hassle that comes along with it. I really don't think that a gigantic tidal wave of returns is going to hit the stores anytime in the near term. Of that 80,000 , I'm guessing that maybe 30,000 are being returned. It's not going to be enough to move the needle. The only thing that is really going to happen though, is that flippers are going to stop buying Wii U's, and instead move onto something else. This will mean mroe supply in stores, and Nintendo's sales numbers for December will probably be a bit disappointing, and I think the post Xmas sales are really going to fall off the cliff, unless Nintendo has some amazing Zelda or Metroid trailer or something that comes out and shocks the internet and creates a huge buzz.

I think by mid to late January, demand for Wii U will be amazingly low. Of course, I could be 100 percent off the mark.

[Tanooki]

I think you're closer than farther off the mark. The people trying to clown consumers aren't winning this battle. Nintendo put out a lot of product and it's not handheld cheap, so it's there if you're patient and look or reserve, especially the basic system. There will be returns, but they'll get scooped up. We're talking a console here and at $300-350 it's more than fair, and it's not old 360 or ps3 insanity of 400-600.

[G-Boobie]

You've got to be shitting me.

I am not shitting you. Maybe they can do something about that via firmware update, but right now its powered USB drive or GTFO. The card slot is Wii emulation only.

[The 1 2 P]

The deluxe version says "Backordered" at the link you provided.

And now the 8 gb version does too.

And now they are back in stock. Between being able to order on Gamestop.com and finding stock just by walking into stores Nintendo has done a much better job of restocking their stores this time around. And because of that resellers will make very little money, if anything at all. Hopefully both Microsoft and Sony do a similiar decent job of getting stores well supplied and restocked when each respective system launches in the next two years.

[Greg2600]

Visited Game Stop yesterday, and took a look at the kiosk they had. For some foolish reason, the only game that can be played is Rayman Legends, which is not even available for purchase. Stupid. Otherwise I thought the graphics were really nice and the Wii U Pad was very high quality.

[The 1 2 P]

For some foolish reason, the only game that can be played is Rayman Legends, which is not even available for purchase. Stupid.

Same thing for Best Buy. 19 games are displayed and the only one you can actually demo is Rayman Legends. Toys R Us is worst since you can't demo any of the games displayed.

[kupomogli]

Actually, $350 plus tax really isn't a lot of money to a lot of people, especially when games are $60 new on release or more for a collector's edition. Dinner for four at a chain restaurant can run $70-$80. It costs $50 to fill up my car twice a week. I mean maybe if you're making minimum wage and have little disposable income, but if that's the case, gaming is probably too expensive anyway and a new console is the last thing you should be thinking about regardless of who makes it.

This. People have bad spending habits where they don't spend their money wisely.

[Gamevet]

Actually, $350 plus tax really isn't a lot of money to a lot of people, especially when games are $60 new on release or more for a collector's edition. Dinner for four at a chain restaurant can run $70-$80. It costs $50 to fill up my car twice a week. I mean maybe if you're making minimum wage and have little disposable income, but if that's the case, gaming is probably too expensive anyway and a new console is the last thing you should be thinking about regardless of who makes it. I think the WiiU is a good system and I have really enjoyed ZombiU and Sonic All Stars Racing and being able to play Scribblenauts on an actual console on a big TV is awesome. NSMB is per formula, but it's a great formula and a lot of fun. Nintendoland is a mini-game fest, but the minigames are mostly pretty great and make good use of the familiar Nintendo characters. Are there "must have" games right now? Not really, but frankly, there haven't been must have games on any console at launch I can remember since Halo on the first Xbox. Before that it was Super Mario 64 on the N64. Must have games are like catching lightning in a bottle and while I am hopeful that the next Xbox and PS4 will have them at launch, I am pretty skeptical.

I could afford it, along with the Wii, but I'd rather spend my money on PC hardware, PC games and games for the current consoles.

I picture the WiiU as more of the same, like we saw with the Wii. It'll have solid 1st party support, but the 3rd party support will be ports from older hardware, once the next Xbox and Playstation arrive. Yeah, there will be a handful of unique 3rd party titles that will be worth playing, but there will be too many titles that just don't cut it. I'll pass, unless I see something available on the hardware that convinces me it is worth my expendable income.

[Greg2600]

I picture the WiiU as more of the same, like we saw with the Wii. It'll have solid 1st party support, but the 3rd party support will be ports from older hardware, once the next Xbox and Playstation arrive. Yeah, there will be a handful of unique 3rd party titles that will be worth playing, but there will be too many titles that just don't cut it. I'll pass, unless I see something available on the hardware that convinces me it is worth my expendable income.

How much more advanced do you think the 720 or PS4 will be? 1080P is the maximum you're going to get, and like I've said many times, more detailed graphics means more money spent in development. Frankly I think the 720 at least is aiming at a full media product that competes on all levels of entertainment rather than just games.

Same thing for Best Buy. 19 games are displayed and the only one you can actually demo is Rayman Legends. Toys R Us is worst since you can't demo any of the games displayed.

I'm sure Nintendo sent the same demo disc to everyone, but the stores should just stick an actual game in there instead. Dumb.

[G-Boobie]

How much more advanced do you think the 720 or PS4 will be? 1080P is the maximum you're going to get, and like I've said many times, more detailed graphics means more money spent in development. Frankly I think the 720 at least is aiming at a full media product that competes on all levels of entertainment rather than just games.

Beefier hardware does more than just push a higher resolution, Greg. The more RAM you have, the less often you need to load and the better that applications run in parallel. The more power your CPU and GPU provide, the more you can do with AI, crowds, texture quality, environmental interactivity, level volume, installation speed, physics, and on and on. Better networking hardware results in faster downloading and better online play.

The Wii was quite simply far, far, behind the 360 and PS3 in terms of these things; this is why no Unreal Engine 3 game was ever ported. The hardware couldn't handle it. And before someone huffs and whines and declares that UE3 games are all frat boy nonsense and who needs them and so on, well, Nintendo did. Third party support degraded so badly by the third year of the Wii that it might as well have not existed, and what little there was existed largely because developing for the Wii was comparatively cheap. Those few were clearly not money makers, because they dried up fast: other than sports games, there hasn't been much outside of Nintendo first party games for the Wii in a long time.

Shockingly, Nintendo has done that very thing again, though time will tell whether or not it was a good idea. It's possible that the next Xbox and Playstation won't stray too far from their current specifications in order to keep costs down. It's possible that the next Xbox and/or Playstation will fail to find the kind of success they've had this generation. If these things happen, then Nintendo has a shot, but in all likeliness, they've put themselves in the same technological ghetto that killed them with the hardcore market last time.

\

[Trumpman]

Not getting burned again this time. Bought the Wii early on last gen and was very disappointed (as we all were, I think). I'm going to wait till there are several good games out -- Pikmin 3 does interest me, but honestly I think I'll wait till we've seen Durango and Orbis next year. Thinking of finally picking up a PS3 though, if they had a $200 bundle...

[Gamevet]

How much more advanced do you think the 720 or PS4 will be? 1080P is the maximum you're going to get, and like I've said many times, more detailed graphics means more money spent in development. Frankly I think the 720 at least is aiming at a full media product that competes on all levels of entertainment rather than just games.

.

The current gen consoles are way outclassed by what a PC from a couple of years ago could do. DX11 tensellation, MSAA, FXAA and 60fps in most games for starters.

Black-Ops 2 might look pretty good to a console only gamer, but I cringe when I see a tree with horrible physics, as it has a very lifeless swing. But, I still play the 360 version over my gaming PC, because I have friends I play online with.

[The 1 2 P]

Thinking of finally picking up a PS3 though, if they had a $200 bundle...

They had several $200 PS3 bundles over the Black Friday weekend and you didn't even need to leave your home to pick one up.

[BetaWolf47]

Only powered external drives? That really is unfortunate. I'm going to need the 32GB version for sure then.

[Rob2600]

How about a simple USB flash drive stick?

EDIT: I just searched Google and USB flash drives do in fact work on the Wii U.

[Tanooki]

Ive been made aware from family (who work for a third party of all 3 systems) MS and Sony are looking in another 1-2 years to bring out another run of higher cost hardware yet again with higher development costs for games. Mind you WiiU won't be in the toilet as far as Wii vs HD was, but I imagine a couple years into the other guys lives the WiiU will start getting denied ports just because it won't have the computational power to handle all the extra added details, complex AI routines, and the rest. Think of like one of those Koei Warriors games where you get like an army of 100 on screen at one time, the other guys each dude will have free flowing garments head to toe and have the ability to think on their own to certain levels, then the WiiU will have less flow and only key players won't follow patterned AI clusters and routines.

I have no idea really how far the mark will be off from WiiU to them, but it won't be Wii bad by any means, and by then that $300-350 system which even now is profitable once just 1 game is purchased will likely price itself $50+ lower so against some $400-500+ hardware it'll be damn tempting and the tablet will be a draw.

[G-Boobie]

How about a simple USB flash drive stick?

I don't know; we didn't try. If I had to bet, I'd say no, but someone should try it and post results.

[G-Boobie]

Ive been made aware from family (who work for a third party of all 3 systems) MS and Sony are looking in another 1-2 years to bring out another run of higher cost hardware yet again with higher development costs for games. Mind you WiiU won't be in the toilet as far as Wii vs HD was, but I imagine a couple years into the other guys lives the WiiU will start getting denied ports just because it won't have the computational power to handle all the extra added details, complex AI routines, and the rest. Think of like one of those Koei Warriors games where you get like an army of 100 on screen at one time, the other guys each dude will have free flowing garments head to toe and have the ability to think on their own to certain levels, then the WiiU will have less flow and only key players won't follow patterned AI clusters and routines.

I have no idea really how far the mark will be off from WiiU to them, but it won't be Wii bad by any means, and by then that $300-350 system which even now is profitable once just 1 game is purchased will likely price itself $50+ lower so against some $400-500+ hardware it'll be damn tempting and the tablet will be a draw.

I'll make a bet with you, Tanooki.

The next XBox comes out at the same cost as the 360, or cheaper. It will be a gaming console, but will also focus more on the streaming entertainment stuff. It might even be $99 or free, available from your ISP.

In order to get your free Xbox, you'll sign up for three or four years of XBL Gold at $15 monthly. At the end of that time, the console will be yours to keep; it's the same subsidy system that people are used to upgrading their cell phones with. If you cancel XBL early, you pay the full, not-contract cost for the console. If you were to tell the average guy that they could have a powerful next-gen console as an upgrade to their normal Internet service for the same monthly cost as HBO, I'd imagine that it would be pretty tempting.

If Sony were smart, they'd go the same route, but they demonstrate time and time again that they don't get it. Which is too bad, because they make and publish some excellent stuff.

[Rob2600]

How about a simple USB flash drive stick?

I don't know; we didn't try. If I had to bet, I'd say no, but someone should try it and post results.

I just searched Google. USB flash drives (a.k.a. thumb drives) do in fact work on the Wii U.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/631516-wii-u/64676309

http://reviews.cnet.com/consoles/nin...-35452979.html

etc.

[BetaWolf47]

I don't know; we didn't try. If I had to bet, I'd say no, but someone should try it and post results.

There's a pretty big difference between a USB hard drive and a flash drive. USB hard drives need a USB port that outputs at least an amp of current. Smart TVs usually have a dedicated one amp USB port for USB-powered hard drives. Solid-state flash memory doesn't take nearly that much.

Relieved now that I know. Thanks, Rob2600.