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Splatoon was released in Japan on May 28th, and while we don’t know how many units it moved, it appears that the game sold out at launch.
On May 29th, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took to Twitter to address the shortages, stating that Nintendo would send out a new shipment of units this week. In the meantime, Iwata said, the game can be downloaded off the Nintendo eShop for those that aren’t willing to wait for a restock.
Iwata also added that the Splatoon Amiibo figurines have been in short supply, too, and requested the patience of customers while that situation is addressed as well.
Meanwhile, Japanese retail chain Tsutaya recently expressed surprise at the buzz around Splatoon as well, revealing that pre-orders have been strong ever since Nintendo began rolling out TV ads for the game.
Keep in mind this doesn’t necessarily mean that Splatoon has done exceedingly well in Japan or anything of the sort—it just means that the game sold more units than Nintendo and retailers expected it to. As per usual, we’ll get to see actual sales numbers this Wednesday when Media Create releases its sales report.
