Wii Surges in the US as Britons Await PS3

Even though PS3s are starting to pile up, the Wii was still the runaway winner in January. But that's not dissuading gonna-be owners in the UK.

The battle over who will take the lead in the console race is far from decided in the US, but new figures from analyst firm NPD Group do give an idea of which way things are going now.

The latest numbers for January have the Wii thrashing both the incoming PlayStation 3 and the incumbent Xbox 360. The Wii sold 436,000 units last month in the US, compared to 294,000 for Xbox 360 and 244,000 for Sony's console, according to a Bloomberg report.

Anecdotal reports suggest the gap could have been wider still, as the Wii is still hard to find in North America, even as PS3 stock begins to pile up.

But what of Europe? Here wanna-be PS3 owners have had to wait nearly an extra half a year. Far from quelling demand, the wait seems to have spurred things on - at least according to what some retailers are saying.

Woolworths spokesperson Gerry Berkley told GamesIndustry.biz that the PS3 pre-order campaign is the most successful online campaign the company has run yet, and he warned that those who don't pre-order would be disappointed.

The question of how widespread the supposed hysteria for the PS3 is is more difficult to answer.

A spokesperson for Amazon.co.uk told GamesIndustry.biz that pre-orders for the system were being outpaced only by those for J.K. Rowling's final Harry Potter book. The spokesperson said that Amazon.co.uk would be taking pre-orders as long as there was stock.

As of Wednesday, nearly a week after Amazon.co.uk started taking pre-orders, there are still pre-orders to be had. In comparison, pre-orders on the site for the Wii last November were gone in minutes.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo