omg rite said:
Why are people having such a problem with this? NOA claimed they'd sell
two million Wii units between November (not even a full month) and December. And they ordered the units from Japan to back up their claims. And NCL even delivered!
But then it turns out that NOA can only turnaround a maximum of about 500,000 units a month, and they had almost zero preparation time for the launch.
And if they just stopped repackaging the units NCL was sending them, and sent a box of "not for resale" Wiisports discs to the retailers to give away with purchases,
they could probably do it. But apparently pressing a million copies of a hot game takes a >four month waiting period in Nintendoland. And that 900,000 units for January would just cover NOA's unsold Nov/Dec product. It doesn't even factor in anything NCL might've sent them for January. And it's not as if twice the Wii units for January would've broken the retailers backs.
February is almost up. Probably another ~500k units registering with NPD. Sellout still appears to be holding. So what would've been wrong with letting those units get out a month earlier (oh noes, a packaging variant), and then having whatever they can actually produce be available for this month?
JoshuaJSlone said:
PS2
Launched in the US 7 months after Japanese launch.
Sold between 1.0 and 1.1 million in the US in the first 3 months
GameCube
Launched in the US 2 months after Japanese launch
Sold between 1.2 and 1.3 million in the US in the first 3 months
Wii
Launched in the US a half month before Japanese launch
Sold between 1.5 and 1.6 million in the US in the first 3 months
Ah yes. I was looking at how the Cube supposedly sold 600,000 units in it's first American month (compared to 500,000 for Wii), and how Nintendo shipped/sold 4 million units for the Cube worldwide by the end of the calendar year 2002, two months after the American launch (and how they missed that same mark with the Wii, only getting 3.1 million, because of what I seem to be alone in calling an NOA screwup).
But still. The American GameCube launch being "better" wasn't my real point. My real point was that the Wii can and should be doing a lot better. We shouldn't have to add a third or even a fourth month to the Wii's numbers to make it look good (although the third month for the PS2 is a gimme, since technically it launched in October). It was supposed to get the job done (cancel your preorders, you won't need them, it's gonna be the biggest thing since the VCR!) in two.
for $370....
