Hundreds queue up for Wii U debut in Japan
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Customers display their purchases after buying Japanese electronics titan Nintendo's new videogame console Wii U at a shop in Tokyo on Dec 8, 2012. Nintendo released the new console in Japan on Dec 8 and is hoping for a repeat of the runaway success it had with original Wii consoles, which lured legions of "casual gamers" into the videogame world with the introduction of motion-sensing controls. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A customer walks past a console display after purchasing Nintendo's new videogame console Wii U at a shop in Tokyo on Dec 8, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Customers wait in a line for the opening of a shop to purchase Japanese electronics titan Nintendo's new videogame console Wii U in Tokyo on Dec 8, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Customers display their purchases after buying Japanese electronics titan Nintendo's new videogame console Wii U at a shop in Tokyo on Dec 8, 2012. Nintendo released the new console in Japan on Dec 8 and is hoping for a repeat of the runaway success it had with original Wii consoles, which lured legions of "casual gamers" into the videogame world with the introduction of motion-sensing controls. -- PHOTO: AFP
A customer walks past a console display after purchasing Nintendo's new videogame console Wii U at a shop in Tokyo on Dec 8, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Customers wait in a line for the opening of a shop to purchase Japanese electronics titan Nintendo's new videogame console Wii U in Tokyo on Dec 8, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO (AFP) - Hundreds of people queued up at electronics shops across Japan on Saturday as Nintendo released its new Wii U game console, hoping to reposition itself in a gaming market invaded by online social games.
About 100 people were waiting outside Bic Camera's flagship store in Tokyo's Ikebukuro commercial district before it opened at 8am, with the number quickly swelling to several hundred.
"I have already ordered one. But I lined up to catch this carnival atmosphere," a 24-year-old graduate student, who waited overnight to become the first Wii U buyer at the Tokyo shop, told local media.
"I want to go home quickly to play the game."
