When Nintendo first revealed the Wii U price and release date, video game analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities predicted, within minutes, that the console would sell about 7 million until April 2013. He estimates Nintendo will manufacture 1 million Wii U consoles per month, and they will all sell out well into the next year. Yesterday, we reported that the Wii U pre-orders had sold out at several retailers, including GameStop and Best Buy.
Now another analyst takes a swing at predicting Wii U sales. Michael Olson of Piper Jaffray said in a research note sent out to Wall Street clients (which was obtained by Wii U Daily) that Nintendo could sell 10 million Wii U consoles in the first 14 months, which would be from launch on November 18, until the end of 2013. Olson said that this would be only half of what Nintendo sold for the same period with the original Wii.
But Olson didn’t seem that impressed with the Wii U. He said the company bases its rather low estimate on what they see as a “disappointing clunky form factor, user interface and operating system”. That statement is quite odd — we haven’t seen much of the user interface nor the operating system. And the “clunky form factor” claim has been pretty much dismissed by anyone who has held the Wii U GamePad (including us — read our Wii U preview).
We’re bound to hear from more analysts for many months in the future. It’s their job to predict how successful the Wii U will be, and whether or not their clients should by Nintendo stock.
The Wii U launches on November 18th in North America, at $299 for a Basic model, and $349 for a Deluxe model. You can find the full model breakdown here.
