Nintendo Europe managed to sell as many as several hundred thousands of its new-generation Wii console in just two days after the launch on the 8^th of December, 2006. In the EU the commercial release of the third next-generation game console was, apparently, as successful as in the U.S. several weeks ago.

“Wii has become an overnight success in Europe with people of all ages rushing out to get their hands on the console. Even at this early stage it is clear that Wii is delivering on its promise to expand the gaming market, with a uniquely diverse audience all keen to experience the sensation for themselves,” said Laurent Fischer, Marketing Director for Nintendo Europe.

Wii mania in Europe follows the phenomenal success of Nintendo’s console in the Americas and Japan, where over a million units have been sold in just three weeks. In the Americas, where the console launched on the 19^th of November, 600 thousand consoles were sold in the first 8 days from launch. The Japanese launch saw similar success with around 400 thousand units being shipped to stores for launch day and selling out during the first morning on sale, Nintendo said.

Microsoft also shipped about 300 thousand Xbox 360 units into the EU back year ago, according to some analysts, however, while the demand for the company’s console exceeded the supply in Europe and the USA, in Japan the software giant did not experience similar success. Moreover, as both Microsoft and Sony struggled to deliver enough consoles onto the market, Nintendo promises widespread supply of the Wii at launch.

“For those who were unable to buy Wii during the launch weekend, rest assured more stock is already on its way and we are doing everything possible to ensure that a steady supply of Wii units is shipped to stores across Europe throughout December and into 2007,” Mr. Fischer said.

Nintendo Wii console features IBM’s custom PowerPC architecture-based microprocessor named Broadway clocked at 729MHz and code-named Hollywood chip with built-in graphics core, DSP and I/O features from ATI that operates at 243MHz, earlier reports suggested. Nintendo Wii uses 91MB of memory in total: 23MB of “main” 1T-SRAM, 64MB of “external” 1T-SRAM and 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. Nintendo’s Wii does not feature a hard disk drive, instead, it boasts with 512MB of flash memory, but the console will also have a card reader, which will allow installing more memory. Nintendo Wii has estimated retail price of £179 (€249), bundled with Wii Sports.