Rumor: January’s Wii U sales weren’t quite as low as initially thought due to people returning the console
By 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.
