Wii still flyin' out the door - Wii

Well, the Wii is finally avaliable worldwide, and we have the first statistics from the Europe launch for you.

Nintendo UK has reported that the Wii sold over 50,000 units in the first 12 hours of its launch (1 sale per second in other words).

"With so many units sold it is great to see that people will be enjoying Wii with their families this Christmas" said David Yarnton, the Nintendo UK head honcho. Methinks he could've chosen his words a little better...

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Yarton said that "the demand has just been unprecedented. From the reaction we've had from the crowd and everyone else, it is going to be a huge success."

"I won't say it's taken us by surprise - we've been very confident about it, and obviously we've had launches in the US and Japan where sales have been phenomenal."

"We're well on track to ship four million consoles by the end of the year, and by the end of our financial year in March we'll be on track for six million."

HMV, GAME and Gamestation all held midnight launches in their store, all of which were met with huge queues and excitement. Unfortunately for some, Nintendo haven't yet confirmed when the next shipment of the console is due, but we can assume it'll be soon.

Unfortunately, statistics from the Australian launch don't seem to be floating around too prominently. We can only hope we'll see them soon.