Rumor: January’s Wii U sales weren’t quite as low as initially thought due to people returning the console
March 4th, 2013 Posted in News, Podcast Stories, Posted by Austin, Rumors, Wii UBy NPD’s count, the Wii U had an absolutely abysmal January, selling somewhere between 49K and 59K units throughout the whole month. According to a source at Gamasutra, however, they may have been a little closer to 100K in actuality.
The source claims that about 100,000 units went off store shelves during the first month of the year, but nearly 40% of that was eventually returned by people who were planning on re-selling the system for a profit on eBat, Craigslist, and the like. Because demand is so low for the system, they were unable to re-sell. This is what caused the 50K-60K readout by NPD, despite the fact that 100K units had been sold in total without considering returns. Another source at Gamasutra helps confirm this, saying that for every 100 Wii U units sold in any given store this past January, roughly 40-50 of them were returned.
The only problem? If this is true, it arguably bodes worse for Wii U than if it’s not true. Having a 40% return rate on your console– regardless of why– is definitely not a good thing.
3 Responses to “Rumor: January’s Wii U sales weren’t quite as low as initially thought due to people returning the console”
By Extreme-Brah on Mar 4, 2013
just when I was thinking of getting one of these myself..
By SquareSide on Mar 5, 2013
It’s a good console. No games… Lego City this month tho baby!
By Bigbadwolfe911 on Mar 5, 2013
Honestly I think stores should have stricter purchase/return policies on new consoles that prevent this kind of situation. It is ridiculous that in our current market a small group of people buy up all the inventory so they can scalp it off to those who were unable to get one because these resellers bought them all, at ridiculous prices. Not only does it hurt the buyers who are left paying inflated prices, but it effects the manufacturer as Nintendo had to readjust their sales expectations which I am sure were at least partially based on all of the mass preorders. And then in the third month which lines up with most stores 60-90 day return period their numbers are again skewed as all this scalpers are returning the units, because they were unable to sale them for profit. Apple has limitations when it comes to purchasing their new iPhone’s and I think a similar process could help prevent these problems.