Wii sells out at Japanese launch

Nintendo's Wii has reportedly sold out at launch in Japan, where eager consumers were met with controlled queues and raffle ticket allocations at major electrical retailers.

Customers who had pre-ordered early enough needed to only wait politely in line, while some stores had held units back to allocate on the day with a raffle ticket system.

Popular outlets such as Bic Camera managed to draw steady queues the day before the December 2 launch, which eventually grew to over a thousand by early the following morning. Store employees were on hand to pass out tickets and eventually hold up signs saying the Wii had sold out before the doors even opened.

For those that hadn't arrived the night before or pre-ordered their consoles, some smaller stores were selling units on a first come, first served basis - along with titles such as the highly-anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The sell-out success at bricks and mortar retailers echoed that of online stores such as Amazon Japan, which had closed pre-orders within minutes of opening registration in November.

Although Nintendo of Japan has yet to announce official figures, the company had promised 400,000 units for launch day, with a further 600,000 for the region by the end of the year.