At a minimum of $300 a pop, hitting sales of 400,000 units is nothing to sneeze at. That means that in the first week Nintendo was able to earn a MINIMUM of $120,000,000 in sales off the newly launched Wii U. Factor in that some percentage of these consoles sold were the $350 Deluxe Edition means they the number may be actually be closer to $130,000,000. But how does that compare to console launches in the past?

Back in 2006, the original Wii clocked in sales of 600,000 units in its first week on shelves. That’s a 200,000 unit differential. The Wii U’s launch was more in line with the PlayStation 3’s launch which was also in the 400,000 range that same year showing that the Wii U may be more of a core gamer system as opposed to the mass appeal that the Wii had to non-gamers.

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Black Friday, the biggest shopping bonanza of the year. Virtually everyone has the day off and with retail stores doing sales on top of sales, going out to the store can be a mad house, especially if rumors are to be believed.

Go Nintendo has it from GameStop sources that the console will be launching the week of Black Friday. Based on Nintendo’s release pattern, that should put the Wii U in stores Sunday the 18th of November. Which gives Nintendo almost a full week and a half of mad house sales for their new console.

This release schedule makes sense both in Nintendo’s historical context, as well as in relation to third-party rumors that have been cropping up since E3. The major question that needs to be answered now is how well will the new system do, can the Wii U match the hysteria created by the original Wii?

It is had to guess with out the price point information just yet, but it is a safe bet to assume that the Wii U will sell out of its first shipment pretty quickly. What made the Wii such a phenomenon was that it couldn’t stay in stock for months. In January it was still hard to get a Wii, which was due in large part to a pretty genius strategy by Nintendo. Most stores would only get shipments of three or four systems, perpetually keeping shelves bare.

To recreate that Nintendo had better hope they can keep the Wii U price point low, and the demand high.

Stay connected to The Flickcast for any new updates on the launch of the Wii U.

If you’re a fan of Apple and its products you know that they are not really on the inexpensive side. Sure, they are well made, well designed and work pretty flawlessly. Of course, all that comes with a price.

Fortunately, Apple too must realize consumers need a deal once in awhile and what better time to offer it than the end of this week during the madness known as “Black Friday.” So, to make this a reality Apple will be offering deals on its website and online store according to a teaser up at the company’s website.

Except for the cryptic text touting “dozens of great iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list” we’ve really got no clue what these deals may actually be. Still, its just nice to see that even Apple understands the economics of today’s world. People don’t have the money they used to have but they still want to get their hands on Apple’s latest shiny devices. With this sale on Friday, let’s hope they can.

This all starts on Friday, November 26th. If you do plan on taking advantage of these deals, start early as they probably won’t last.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are joined by John Carle and they launch into a whole new batch of topics including “Black Friday” sales success, recently released and upcoming video games like Assassins Creed 2, Left for Dead 2, Dragon Age and the massive success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The guys also discuss the infamous “French Airport” level in COD: MW2, video game movie tie-ins, the Rocky and Rambo franchises, Christmas action movies, comics related movies like Batman Forever, the greatness of Rob Marshall’s Nine, Deadpool movie possibilities and more.

The guys also made some great picks this week including John’s pick of the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Matt’s pick of Rocky on Blu-ray and Chris’ pick of 1971′s martial arts action film with a conscience Billy Jack, co-written, directed by and starring Tom Laughlin.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

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While most folks like to sleep in after consuming mass quantities of tryptophan and sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving day, some crazies (myself included) are up at the crack of dawn the next day, waiting in line at the local electronics and DVD store to fight the masses and get the best deals.

Luckily, with the invention of the Internet comes some sly dogs who have posted most of the great Black Friday deals online, mere days before the epic sales. Thanks to sites like BlackFriday.info and GottaDeal.com, we can now sit back in the luxury of our homes to check out some of the great deals we plan on taking advantage of this Friday.

Of the many, many deals going on that day, we’ve decided to break down a few of our favorite picks for the holiday sale, just for you, our loyal readers. One of the best picks, by far, is Best Buy’s Samsung Blu-Ray Player with Netflix and Pandora support for $149.99. If you’re looking to finally upgrade to Blu-ray, that would be the machine to start with.

Once you’ve got the Blu-ray player out of the way, why not grab some good Blu-ray discs? If you don’t want to leave the house, Amazon has got some great deals including Chuck: The Complete First Season for $20.99, the Batman Anthology for $51.99, and even Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve for $9.99.

Switching over to video games, Best Buy seems to have some of the better deals (even the “best”), but only if you’re able to get to the store before noon on Friday. You can pick up Brutal Legend, Left 4 Dead 2, and Dragon Age for the Next Gen systems for only $34.99.

These are just some of the great deals going on Friday, and we hope you’re able to get out to the stores (or not) and take advantage of some of these great sales. Happy Thanksgiving!

Apple rarely, if every, discounts its products so this latest “leaked” brochure, which seems to showcase the consumer electronics giant doing just that should be taken with one of those ginormous grains of salt. Still, if true, these deals do look pretty sweet and seem far more reasonable than other reported “deals’ being shown around the Internets.

If its a little difficult to see the fine print, we’ll give you a hand and highlight some of the deals. They are available only at Apple’s online store, and include iMacs starting at $1098, iPod nanos starting at $138, iPod touch starting at $178, MacBook Pros starting at $1098, Apple TVs starting at $208, Airport Express starting at $88, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard going for $64 each, and a whole lot more.

We realize that the deals are pretty hard to read over there on the right, so be sure and click through to see a much larger version. Good luck on Friday and be safe out there.

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Whenever you think about video games, the first place you think of picking them up is Old Navy, right? Probably wrong. But this Black Friday will change everything.

Kotaku reports that your favorite Performance Fleece retailer will be giving away free copies of LEGO Rock Band with every $20 purchase this November 27th. In addition, Old Navy will give out free guitar controllers with every purchase of Rock Band 2.

This deal is only available on Black Friday, while supplies last. Stores opens at the ungodly hour of 3 AM, so you’ll have to be up pretty early to be sure to get your chance at this rockin’ sale.

Old Navy won’t be the only retailer trying new things to get customers in the door on Black Friday, so keep your eyes peeled for more interesting combinations.

Check back with The Flickcast, as we’re just as anxious for awesome deals as you are this holiday season.