GameStop pre-orders point to great Wii U software tie ratio

You can sell all the consoles you want, but unless you can convince the people that own them to buy software you’re still screwed.

So Nintendo will take great heart from the fact that it isn’t just the Wii U hardware that’s showing huge signs of popularity – the software’s selling great too.

Gamasutra reports that retailer GameStop says it has around 1.2m Wii U games pre-orders. The chain has already sold-out of its 500,000 unit Wii U console allocation, too.

There are two important things to note about this number. One, it represents a tie-in ratio of 2.4, which is very solid indeed. And two, it’s almost double the tie-in ratio commanded by the Wii when it launched.

The company name-drops Ubisoft’s Zombie U and Assassin’s Creed 3, Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Warner’s Scribblenauts Unlimited and New Super Mario Bros U as strong performers.

Wii U’s launch line-up is decent, and MCV should imagine that most consumers will find at least two essential purchases in the launch day line-up. Expect the New Super Mario Bros U and ZombieU combo to perform strongly.