Nintendo’s Wii U has managed to outperform the launch of its original Wii, at least in terms of revenue, but only because it costs more.
In the U.S., Nintendo sold 460,000 Wii U devices in December and more than 890,000 since it launched in mid-November, according to NPD, which tracks monthly sales figures for the videogame industry.
Nintendo Co.'s Wii U, the company’s first new home videogame machine in six years, will finally reach the hands of consumers on Sunday when the new console goes on sale in the U.S.
The three-year development process of the Wii U offers a glimpse into how the Japanese videogame manufacturer comes up with its new consoles.
Around 2009, the company’s top brass started looking into the idea of creating a game machine that offered a “second screen” controller. The managers saw it as a smart solution to overcome some of what it felt were the shortcomings of the Wii — mainly that the Wii was a secondary accessory to the television and not a primary device on its own.
The Nintendo Wii U launches on November 18 with the support of 23 games. Nintendo stated previously that there would be 50 available before March 31, so, relatively so, the Wii U is launching with a strong amount of games including New Super Mario Bros U, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and, yes, Nintendo Land, the game Nintendo hopes will be the Wii Sports of its new console (it won’t).
Nintendo will finally make its Wii U available to customers this November, after having previewed the next-gen console for over a year now, the company announced at a press event today. The Wii U will come in a $299.99 Basic version in white with 8GB of onboard storage, and a 32GB Deluxe model in black for $349.99. It’ll hit the U.S. on November 18 and Europe on November 30.
Although we managed to get our mitts on the Wii U and updated GamePad here at E3 following Nintendo's keynote, the recently unveiled Pro Controller turned out to be harder to find. We were thankfully able to visit the company's amusement park massive booth on the show floor where we discovered the wireless peripheral, along with a GamePad, tethered to a demo of the upcoming title, Rayman Legends. Join us past the break for our initial impressions in text and on camera.
It was just yesterday that Nintendo unveiled the Wii U Gamepad, but today is the big announcement. Everybody welcome the Wii U.
The new console, coupled with the Gamepad, will change gaming entirely, according to Nintendo: “at its core, Wii U changes gaming, how you interact with your gaming friends, and it changes the way you enjoy your TV.”
That means Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Video and YouTube, along with the brand new form of gaming brought about by the marriage of the Wii U and the Gamepad.
The Gamepad sports a pressure-sensitive touchscreen along with traditional buttons and directional pad. Nintendo also packed an NFC reader/writer and a gyroscope/accelerometer.
The Wii U will support two different Gamepads.
