Nintendo UK confident they can match US launch success

The Wii U has had a fantastic launch in the United States, and Nintendo’s head of consumer marketing at Nintendo UK, James Honeywell, has said that he is confident that the UK can mirror that success.

When asked if the Wii U’s UK launch could hope to come as strong out of the gates as it did in the US, Honeywell replied, “Absolutely.”

“The US has been a fantastic launch. Obviously that’s a much bigger market, and so they’ve got more stock, but we’re hoping for the same standard of success here in the UK.

“We’ve got a fantastic launch line-up, and we think it’ll be sold out in the first few days, if not the first few hours. But after that we’ve got really strong deliveries of follow-up stock.

“We hope to live up to the same kind of success with the Wii,” Honeywell added at last night’s midnight launch. “As you can see, people are really excited about it. Time will tell.”

According to Nintendo, 400,000 Wii U units have been sold during its first week of availability in the US. This number is also limited by the fact that the Wii U is simply out of stock, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the console is “essentially sold out of retail”.

The Nintendo Wii was similarly hard to get hold of upon its release, and with it being the holiday season, it’s unlikely any of Nintendo’s “follow-up stock” is going to stay on shelves for long.