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Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Nintendo Says Americans Snap Up 600,000 Wii Consoles
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Nintendo has said that it had sold more than 600,000 new Wii video game consoles in just eight days in North America in a boost to its efforts to wrest back market dominance from industry leader Sony.
Sony made 400,000 of its PlayStation 3 machines available for the November
17 launch in the United States, two days before the Wii hit the shelves,
and stocks of both rival consoles quickly sold out at launch.
"Even with sales already in excess of 600,000 units, demand continues to
exceed supply, as it's clear this is one of the 'gotta-have' products for
the holiday season," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
"We've shipped retailers several times the amount of hardware the other
company was able to deliver for its launch around the same time -- and we
still sold out," he added, in a thinly veiled dig at Sony.
Nintendo, which brought to the world the pudgy Italian plumber Mario, is
on a quest for industry dominance again with the Wii which launches in
Japan on Saturday.
At 249.99 dollars in the US and 25,000 yen (212 dollars) in Japan, the Wii
is about half the price of the PS3.
Nintendo created a big buzz last year when it unveiled an innovative new
controller for the Wii shaped like a television remote control and
engineered with motion sensors and speakers.
By waving or swinging the controller, it can serve as a sword, tennis
racket or car steering wheel, with a built-in speaker and rumble feature.
There is also a "Nunchuku" controller which when connected to the main
controller resembles the martial arts weapon.
Nintendo has said 400,000 Wii consoles would be available on launch in
Japan -- about four times the number of PlayStation 3s Sony managed to
ship here.
The Wii's predecessor, the GameCube, failed to recapture the market share
once enjoyed by Nintendo's earlier consoles, despite being cheaper than
the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's original Xbox.
Nintendo aims to ship one million Wiis in Japan and four million worldwide
by the end of the year, rising to six million globally by March 2007. |
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