The Wii U sold 400K units in its first week in the US

The first sales figures for the Wii U have been revealed stating that Nintendo sold 400,000 units of its new console in its debut week in the US.

"Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock," Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said in an interview with CNET. "Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves. But as soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately."

[Editor's note: For what it's worth, this was not my experience. I picked one up launch day without a pre-order and there were still a few units left. Granted this was at a super market with a small electronics department and not necessarily where one would think to purchase new hardware.]

Despite the supposed shortages, Fils-Aime doesn't expect the Wii U to see the same sort of drought the Wii had. "You couldn't walk into a retailer and buy a Wii until spring of 2009. We've certainly learned many lessons from that and we are replenishing retailers more quickly this time around. We are looking to have as much product into retail as possible. It's driven by consumer response."

So how does this fare to other Nintendo consoles? Well, the Wii sold 300,000 during the same week, while the 3DS sold 250,000, and the DS 275,000. That's right, the eight year handheld outsold its successor from last year.

Fils-Aime attributed this to "significant" deal on Black Friday - the most ridiculous shopping day of the year. He also noted that the 3DS "continues on record-setting pace," and has sold upwards of six million units in a 21 month period - one million sales greater than the DS during the same time frame.

Now, how many of these Black Friday shoppers do you think are after Nintendo products?