14 DAY TRIAL // The Xbox 360 and even the PlayStation 3 benefitted from the shortage of Wii U consoles on Black Friday, as quite a few analysts believe that at least some potential customers decided to buy from Nintendo's rivals.
Nintendo confirmed earlier this week that it sold over 400,000 Wii U units since its launch on November 18. Microsoft quickly countered and revealed that over 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles were sold on Black Friday in the U.S. alone.
While Sony didn't reveal any concrete figures, it's a safe bet that plenty of PlayStation 3 bundles were sold last week.
These great sales figures for Microsoft and Sony are owed, at least partly, to the shortage of Wii U units, according to EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, who talked with GamesIndustry.
"If we had to estimate, about 400k units of the 750k Xbox 360 units were from new consumers who did not own an Xbox 360 prior vs. the Wii U where 400k consumers did not have a Wii U prior. So in terms of who picked up the most new consumers, it's probably a dead heat," he said.
"And of course there were about 200k to 300k consumers who couldn't even purchase a Wii U due to shortages, so I do have to wonder if the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 picked up some users due to the Wii U shortage."
As of yet, however, Divnich emphasizes that it's still a bit early to say just how successful the Wii U is going to be.
"It's a little too early for us to make any declarations on the Wii U's long-term potential. They are off to a fair start and it will probably take another month to gauge where demand may be long-term for the Wii U."
Inside Network's Billy Pidgeon highlighted that the lower price of the PS3 or Xbox 360 bundles also made a lot of people decide to drop the Wii U.
"The economy is still a bit weak, and consumers are looking for value. PS3 and Xbox 360 bundles are priced for value and are more likely to be gift purchases," he said.
Now that prices are coming back to normal and we're getting closer to the winter holiday rush, it's going to be interesting to see just how the Wii U fares against the PS3 or Xbox 360.