Heba Elgamal, who had been camping outside the store in an alley for two days, was first in line for a console at the HMV store, and it was presented to him by Ian Wright. Elgamal bought The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with his purchase, and Wright asked him if Zelda was a fighting game--which didn't go down well with the crowd.
Just spoke to Game at St Davids Centre, Cardiff who have about 20 Wiis left unordered. In 15 mins opening have sold 3/4 of their stock- pick mine up tomorrow
With tomorrow marking the official European release of Wii, the "Iwata Asks" series draws to a close. I'd like to express my gratitude to all of you who've been following our conversations through these interviews.
Over the last few years, we have endeavoured to produce an entirely new product like nothing that has come before it, aimed at greatly expanding the gaming population. This has been an unprecedented challenge for the company. But precisely because of all the efforts we have made, I wanted to impart to you all the details about how we developed Wii, and it's my wish that these interviews remain as a testament to all the work involved in this project. We were very fortunate to have been able to make the best use of all the opportunities we have been presented with, as well as having the support of everyone both inside and outside of Nintendo. As I look back over the entire project, I can safely say that if we were to do it all over again, I'm sure the results would be the same. I feel that producing this console is a wonderful achievement, and there are no regrets in my mind.
With the release of Wii, Nintendo has been able to realise its ambition of releasing a new console nearly simultaneously around the world for the first time in the company's history. This is something we were committed to achieving for our customers in Europe and North America, who often have to wait patiently for our products to be released in their home countries.
Regarding the initial amount of units that were made available to preorder, because of the huge amount of demand that our customers have shown around the world, there have been cases where not everyone who wanted to was able to successfully reserve a Wii console. This will warrant serious reflection, along with the fact that the Wii functions available on the console do not yet represent all of those in our original vision. But with Wii, the development and manufacturing of the product are by no means the end of the story: we will not feel we have arrived at our goal until Wii fully meets consumers' expectations and reaches everyone, regardless of their age, gender or whether they have gaming experience or not. What I mean to say is that the Wii project is far from complete. We plan to provide updates for Wii via the Internet, and step by step move closer to our goal: making a large and varied range of software and channels available, and eventually getting to the stage where every member of the family makes picking up the Wii Remote a part of their daily lives.
That's the challenge that still lies ahead of us. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all once again for taking the time to listen to our thoughts, feelings and hopes for Wii.
Hardware (Units)
NDS - 918,000
PS2 - 664,000
GBA - 641,000
360 - 511,000
Wii - 476,000
PSP - 412,000
PS3 - 197,000
GCN - 65,000 (Estimated)
XBX - 10,000 (Estimated)
Nintendo - 2.1 million
All Systems - 3.9 million
Top Software
1. 360 Gears of War - 1,000,000 / $61.5M
2. PS2 Final Fantasy XII - 896,000 / $49M
3. Wii Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess - 412,000 / $20.2M
4. PS2 Guitar Hero II - 356,000 / $28M
benedictw wrote:Slightly surprised the 360 is outselling the Wii. I had thought the wii sales would be 1.5->2x the 360 sales.
Probably cause there are not enough units out there? They are probably all that have been available... are they still selling out/sold out in the states?
Marius wrote:I still have a final exam coming up as well as a group project that needs finishing by next tuesday, so I really shouldn't even touch my Wii until wednesday.
How many here believe I'll be able to keep away from it four days?
...me neither
You owe it to those who dont have one!
Interesting fact, I told my friend If i dont manage to get a Wii, I'll go on holiday to Oslo in a few weeks time, but now i'm not sure... is Oslo a nice place to visit? or should i keep cheking the shops untill my Wii arrives...
benedictw wrote:Slightly surprised the 360 is outselling the Wii. I had thought the wii sales would be 1.5->2x the 360 sales.
Probably cause there are not enough units out there? They are probably all that have been available... are they still selling out/sold out in the states?
Wii sales figures do seem little low, given Nintendo claimed to have sold 600,000. Gamespot did say NPD are going to restate some of the numbers. It may also be that NPD's November window finished on an earlier date than Nintendo stated their figures
The Register Wii review wrote:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - a bizarre title that appears to be more about rounding up goats as battling fantasy beasts
Heba Elgamal, who had been camping outside the store in an alley for two days, was first in line for a console at the HMV store, and it was presented to him by Ian Wright. Elgamal bought The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with his purchase, and Wright asked him if Zelda was a fighting game--which didn't go down well with the crowd.
Celebrities
I was there.
The whole celebrity thing was absolute rubbish. Ian Wright (twat), Pat Cash (tit), Nell Mcandrew (munter), Ricky Hatton (2 foot tall).
Comedy moment (well it is now its over) was the big fuss about counting down the final 10 seconds til launch excitedly and then basically standing still in one of the aisles for OVER AN HOUR before we even started to move towards the tills.
The Caffeine Kid wrote:Probably cause there are not enough units out there? They are probably all that have been available... are they still selling out/sold out in the states?
Pretty much yes, it's very hard to find Wii in the US too. Plus the Wii was only on sale for 10 days (well 2 really if you count the actual days it's been in stock!) compared to the full month for the 360.
What is pretty interesting is that some US stores are reporting not selling out of PS3 even though they've got new stock in... you can walk into some shops over there and get one off the shelf without a problem.
How fucking good are MULTIPLAYER PINGIS, LASER HOCKEY and TANK in Wii Play!! Dong, we played them up to six in the morning today, "one more go"!
Oh, and Zelda, easily the best beginning I've ever seen in a game like this, 1.5 relaxing and beautiful hours in and it's a masterpiece so far, I don't want to spoil anything, just enjoy the ride.
Ugh. The Miis really are ugly little things, but also hilarious. The only valid way to create a Mii is for friends to do it and for them to make it as offensive as possible, then laugh at each other while bowling. Slightly below average height? Your Mii will be as short as possible. A tad overweight? Chubby cheeks for you. Not cut your hair for a few weeks? It's a mullet for you, boy. Wear glasses? You now look like Brains from Thunderbirds. Bushy eyebrows? Monobrow. Ace.
Was told an amusing story this morning, no idea how true it was.
Apparently, someone in a big Virgin Megastore lost their grip on a demo pod wiimote, the strap broke, and it went over the barrier and into the escalator well where it fell all the way into the basement and shattered.
