Wii Reaches 50,000 Sold In UK Launch

Officials from the UK branch of Nintendo have said that sales of the company's just-launched Wii have reached 50,000 in the 12 hours since the console first became available. By Nintendo's reckoning, that rate equals a sale of a Nintendo Wii across the UK every second since the midnight launch. As recently reported, Nintendo held its official midnight launch at the Oxford Street, London HMV, where the BBC reported that gamers began lining up at the location as early as Tuesday to procure the console. Signs of the impressive amount of anticipation amongst gamers for the console also came recently from the UK local offices of online retailer Amazon, where pre-orders for the console sold out Amazon's allocations in just seven minutes. Sales of the Wii seem generally consistent with those in America, where Nintendo has said that the console reached sales of nearly half a million in the first week past its November 19th launch, at a rate of over 70,000 per day. Said Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton, “We are delighted with the amazing response to Wii and that people of all ages and gaming experience are embracing the way that we are turning the industry on its head. With so many units sold it is great to see that people will be enjoying Wii with their families this Christmas. We are doing everything we can do to meet demand throughout Christmas and the New Year period.”