Wii U to Sell 3.5 Million Units this Holiday Says Industry Analyst

[Shawn Zipay]

Research firm, IHS Screen Digest, says that the Wii U is poised to sell about 3.5 million units this holiday season. This figure, if accurate, will result in a 12% increase over the Wii's launch of 3.1 million units sold.

“Pent-up demand from Nintendo evangelists, many of which were introduced to the console market through the success of the Wii, is predicted to drive this explosive start.

“This time around, Wii U's pure innovation, coupled with a limited volume of high-quality Nintendo software, will not be enough to drive the ongoing sales momentum we witnessed with the Wii console, especially at a higher price point."

The firm feels that while it will have a better launch than the Wii, the Wii U will ultimately only reach about 70% of the total Wii sales in the four years following its release. They predict that the Wii U will sell around 53.2 million units, compared to the Wii's actual sales figures of 75.9 million units.

(via Forbes)

[CptainCrunch]

Pure innovation? Of course its not going to be enough to drive ongoing sales. There is no pure innovation. Miiverse is not innovating. A mini-tablet is not innovating. The DS, now that was innovating. Throwing its features into the Wii does not make it "pure".

[The_Eliminator]

They are dreaming if they expect those figures.

[Shawn Zipay]

The sad fact is, many retailers are already sold out of their pre-orders. Remember when the Wii was released? People couldn't get one so they were selling for huge amounts on eBay? That is expected to happen again with this.

For most people that aren't gamers and that don't visit gaming news sites like this magnificent website here at TGN, they just see a new "Nintendo" product and go out to get it.

[Infernalis]

Oh God, I hope it will fail so Nintendo goes back to good consoles again but the sad truth is they will sell quite a lot...