Nintendo is owning up to 50,000 Wiis sold in just under 12 hours. That's 50,000 'sold out' by the way which goes to explain the shortages.

See here, Japan gets 400,000 for its opening weekend. America they got 600,000. We're not sure yet what the total European figure is gonna be, but 50,000 isn't a lot of Wiis to go around for the UK. Hence all the problems you're having trying to bring one home for Christmas, Mums and Dads.

Wii went on sale at 12am this morning and by 12 noon they'd all gone. Nintendo has worked this out to be one Wii sold in the UK every second, which sounds fast and impressive.

“We are doing everything we can do to meet demand throughout Christmas and the New Year period,” says David Yarnton, General Manager of Nintendo UK. We sure hope so David, because seconds we've got, Wiis we don't.

Enjoy your weekend, Wii or no.