• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Gamestop Announces today Wii U Wait-Program "Demand off the charts"

In 2005, our GameStop had the most Xbox 360 preorders in the northwest--well over 100 and approaching 200 in total before the corporate cutoff. Launch comes along and there are maybe 2 dozen 360s that show up. That's it. Our manager was doing a song and dance to preserve every last preorder from every furious customer who got let down by GS and Microsoft. A few more 360s trickled in before Christmas, but you can bet GS lost a lot of customers w/that fiasco. Wii and PS3 in 2006 were MUCH more orderly. They didn't even take preorders for more than a day for either and both had seriously limited available quantities from day 1. And that's how it should have been!
 

Nibel

Member
io4SzzMBV9gO5.png

.
 

orioto

Good Art™
Haa this preorder thing...

GCSoldOut.jpg


I mean... It's nice and all but not related in any way to the way it will result at a big scale...
Not that it couldn't do well! But people being all "yeah see, it's wii all over again".. just not yet.
 
Haa this preorder thing...

Gamecube sold out.pic

I mean... It's nice and all but not related in any way to the way it will result at a big scale...
Not that it couldn't do well! But people being all "yeah see, it's wii all over again".. just not yet.

"The GameCube launched on Sept. 14 in Japan without the fanfare that followed other new console releases, leading some analysts and industry observers to question the strength of its reception in the U.S. market.

Nintendo plans to ship 700,000 units for its launch."

Let's see if that's the case with the WiiU. Somehow I doubt it.

Also...Amazon Gamecube 2001 sales>Amazon WiiU sales.
 

Madao

Member
console launches in the west are like the handhelds in japan it seems.

did the 3DS have any buzz like this?
 
Haa this preorder thing...

GCSoldOut.jpg


I mean... It's nice and all but not related in any way to the way it will result at a big scale...
Not that it couldn't do well! But people being all "yeah see, it's wii all over again".. just not yet.

this brings some good memories... I did not pre-order got mine from TRU times square
 

cajunator

Banned
This isnt really indicative of anything other than retailers have a much better plan in place for tbe console launch.
This same news will be repeated for MS and Sony.
 
Can I still line up for one? First come first serve? I really want the Deluxe set... but damn I don't have a pre order.

This sounds like we won't be able to do that. Will we?
 

trinest

Member
Haa this preorder thing...

GCSoldOut.jpg


I mean... It's nice and all but not related in any way to the way it will result at a big scale...
Not that it couldn't do well! But people being all "yeah see, it's wii all over again".. just not yet.

To be fair gamecubes would of been on a much smaller scale then the Wii or Wii U launch.
 

tkscz

Member
Manager at our Gamestop said pre-orders were cut off at 20 units (10 basic, 10 deluxe) because that's the absolute bare-ass minimum Nintendo told Gamestop they could count on having at every store on the 18th.

Says nothing about how many will actually be available on the 18 for Gamestop's supply chain though.

That must be a store by store thing. The Store on my campus (the one I pre-ordered at) says they got more than 20 pre-orders on deluxe (wouldn't doubt that about UC campus) and the one by my friends place hinted at about 15 deluxe pre-orders (they weren't allowed to actually tell us the number).

Plus, Gamestop doesn't account for Best Buy, Target, Toys R' us and Wal-mart running out (with Wal-mart still having their bundles). This isn't aimed at you though.

Haa this preorder thing...

GCSoldOut.jpg


I mean... It's nice and all but not related in any way to the way it will result at a big scale...
Not that it couldn't do well! But people being all "yeah see, it's wii all over again".. just not yet.


The GC didn't start off doing so badly, it was after all the broken promises and lack of 3rd party towards the middle of it's life that caused it to suddenly drop (make a ether net attachment but didn't support online pissed me off).
 
I still can't believe I couldn't preorder a deluxe on Saturday morning. TWO DAYS AFTER THE ANNOUNCEMENT. Two work days. Stupid.

I have come to peace with my basic set though (superior white), outside of the NiN Premium thing. :\
 
I highly doubt this, but it makes sense for them to say this so wed all go in their smelly shops to pre-order. They love it when we pre-order!
 

Gaborn

Member
Haa this preorder thing...

GCSoldOut.jpg


I mean... It's nice and all but not related in any way to the way it will result at a big scale...
Not that it couldn't do well! But people being all "yeah see, it's wii all over again".. just not yet.

The thing is... it doesn't NEED to be the Wii to strike a kiilling blow to MS and Sony out of the gate. Suppose that, conservatively Nintendo sells 10 million Wii Us from November to November 2013 and that's when one or both of the others launch. Do you see them catching the Wii U? Because I don't. Nintendo is ALWAYS going to have the price advantage this gen, they are ALWAYS going to have the head start, they are ALWAYS going to have their software. And they've already secured some exclusives that have caused quite a bit of angst on GAF.
 

Haunted

Member
With console retail sales absolutely tanking in the last couple months in NA, it's no wonder that brick and mortar retailers are jumping on this opportunity and try and push the WiiU like this.

New hardware always means rejuvenating sales, MS and Sony extending this generation well past its expiration date has hung out retailers to dry.
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
Our store got only about 10 preorders before they were closed. I obviously have no idea how many were done nation-wide, but I believe Gamestop has been more conservative with preordering the Wii U after the Wii debacle. I started working at Gamestop in 2008, and even then it was hard to fulfill Wii preorders. We had a lot of angry customers that felt they were promised something that couldn't be guaranteed. I suspect Gamestop had a much smaller pre-order threshold this time around.


my gamestop only took five preorders for wii, and 3 for ps3.
 

NateDrake

Member
Our store got only about 10 preorders before they were closed. I obviously have no idea how many were done nation-wide, but I believe Gamestop has been more conservative with preordering the Wii U after the Wii debacle. I started working at Gamestop in 2008, and even then it was hard to fulfill Wii preorders. We had a lot of angry customers that felt they were promised something that couldn't be guaranteed. I suspect Gamestop had a much smaller pre-order threshold this time around.

You had Wii preorders in 2008?

I worked at GameStop from 2004-2009 and after the Wii launch we didn't have any other Wii preorders. We took 9 Wii preorders in September prior to launch and that was it -- this figure was given by corporate as the limit for our store. We received 9 for launch day and a small batch later in the week. Given we sold out of them before we even opened the box because people would follow the UPS truck to the store and even offer "help" to unload the truck.....
 

pramath

Banned
You had Wii preorders in 2008?

I worked at GameStop from 2004-2009 and after the Wii launch we didn't have any other Wii preorders. We took 9 Wii preorders in September prior to launch and that was it. We received 9 for launch day and a small batch later in the week. Given we sold out of them before we even opened the box because people would follow the UPS truck to the store and even offer "help" to unload the truck.....

Yeah that sounds kind of weird... but he seems like a nice guy I want to trust him. I'll ask him!
 
Will be with EB/GS for 10 years next month and the worst by far was the 360 launch. Wii was just annoying. Preorders were meet, but the demand was so insanely high. To get one, people hung out in the mall from 10 AM - 1 PM tailing UPS. Anyone looking for a wii after 2PM or on weekends were greeted by echoes of Iwata's laughs send from the future. For 360 people were just angry. They still had money tied up in preorders and were afraid to remove the preorder for a chance of picking one up else where; with a likelyhood of not getting one and losing there preorder at EB. Though it was recommened we suggest other items instead of 360s, like PSPs (yeah that shit went over really well). Given that cluster fuck I can understand the way they are managing WiiU (though I fucking hate wait list)
 

NateDrake

Member
Will be with EB/GS for 10 years next month and the worst by far was the 360 launch. Wii was just annoying. Preorders were meet, but the demand was so insanely high. To get one, people hung out in the mall from 10 AM - 1 PM tailing UPS. Anyone looking for a wii after 2PM or on weekends were greeted by echoes of Iwata's laughs send from the future. For 360 people were just angry. They still had money tied up in preorders and were afraid to remove the preorder for a chance of picking one up else where; with a likelyhood of not getting one and losing there preorder at EB. Though it was recommened we suggest other items instead of 360s, like PSPs (yeah that shit went over really well). Given that cluster fuck I can understand the way they are managing WiiU (though I fucking hate wait list)

At my store during the 360 launch, my manager did odd things. When looking at the pre-order list, if a person cancelled or didn't show up within the hold time, he would call the person who had the most games/accessories ordered along with the Xbox 360. It was hell and we didn't fill all orders until early 2006.

Wii was just hectic because you'd have dozens of people asking for a system and you'd sell out in minutes of getting shipment of a handful of systems. It was a daily occurrence of phone calls and people showing up asking from open to close. I felt bad for some of the people because I'd see them so often.
 
The thing is... it doesn't NEED to be the Wii to strike a kiilling blow to MS and Sony out of the gate. Suppose that, conservatively Nintendo sells 10 million Wii Us from November to November 2013 and that's when one or both of the others launch. Do you see them catching the Wii U? Because I don't. Nintendo is ALWAYS going to have the price advantage this gen, they are ALWAYS going to have the head start, they are ALWAYS going to have their software. And they've already secured some exclusives that have caused quite a bit of angst on GAF.
First to ten million wins.

always
 
First new console in 6 years might do that. There is no doubt that the holidays will be a blood bath for the Wii U, they will sell every system they manage to put on shelves. Hopefully sales will continue to be good for 2013 though.

Well...technically this is the 7th year. The 360 came out in 2005 - a full year ahead of the Wii and PS3. This has been the longest generation....runningon 7 years. Sigh.
 

RagnarokX

Member
Well...technically this is the 7th year. The 360 came out in 2005 - a full year ahead of the Wii and PS3. This has been the longest generation....runningon 7 years. Sigh.

Yes... and PS3 and Wii came out after 360 in 2006, so this is the first new console in 6 years...
 
Retail market revenue has been dropping YoY at an alarming rate since 2010.

And Wii U is the life boat for at least another year, so they'll wave at it as hard as they can to save them, even it is only a boat and not a cruiser
Odd, I don't remember all this flag waving and Gamestop PR trying to spur sales for 3DS or Vita.
 

Daschysta

Member
Wii-U is going to be pretty huge.

Nintendoland is a high quality effort, and though it doesn't have the mass appeal of Wii-Sports, other things included with the system such as Nintendo TVii, which looks incredibly useful and is available out of the box, and could be a casual system seller, as it does more than any other similar application i've seen, the "moment" feature or whatever it is that automatically breaks a show down into the biggest moments and allows online social commentary, the sports features that allow you to see stats in real time, shot diagrams etc.. of every game on at once, HULUplus and Netflix/ DVR integration... It is going to sell alot of casuals on the system, especially since the Wii is the system most used to watch Netflix on in the US, casuals are going to see their friends using it and want one, plus it will be able to play the games that are huge hits with that crowd as well. The portability feature will be huge with them too, if only because they can watch live TV, netflix or whatever in their bedrooms off of the controller if they don't have a TV in their rooms.

Tablet form factor, Mario, Wii-Fit, and T-Vii will sell it to casual gamers, Nintendo gamers are obviously going to buy it, and it should feed the needs of the COD crowd much better than the Wii did as well.

Wii-U is going to have something for everyone, enthusiast, nintendo fans and casual gamers alike.

Don't underestimate the huge advantages to releasing almost a year early too, especially with games that have the appeal that Nintendo's games do. It could have an insurmountable lead by the time that MS and Sony release their consoles, not to mention that it will have it's second generation of software releasing then too.
 
I'd like to thank everyone who are not planning to buy Wii U or are going to wait until later to jump in. It means I have a much better chance at finding one late November.
 

pramath

Banned
would following UPS at the Mall work this time?



Wii U will come out in 3rd place in sales because of lack of supplies so trolling / meltdowns are going to be amazing

That's what happened with the Wii.

There was not much trolling though because everyone knew it was sold out.

Edit: It came second
 
Top Bottom