In its first week on the U.S. market, Nintendo Co.'s new Wii U game console sold out at retail stores, indicating strong demand for the company's next generation of videogame devices.

Nintendo said Monday that it sold more than 400,000 Wii U consoles after its Nov. 18 release, according to internal metrics.

Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Nintendo's operations in America, said the company is shipping more devices to its retail partners but that demand is outstripping supply. 'As soon as Wii U hits the shelf, it's selling out,' he said.

Nintendo said the sales were comparable to the original Wii when it was first released six years ago.

Analysts and industry executives have expressed concerns about whether the new device, whose marquee feature is a controller with an integrated touch-screen tablet, can reignite interest among consumers that the originally Wii console created.

The videogame industry has been suffering from falling device and game sales at retail stores in the U.S. for nearly a year, according to market researcher NPD Group. The lack of new games and compelling new hardware to play them, economic worries and consumers' increasing interest in playing games on smartphones and tablets have prompted the slump.

Nintendo is the first of the major game makers to release a new console in this environment, attempting to reverse its own trends of contracting sales for its Wii console. That device has sold nearly 100 million units world-wide, Nintendo said, and has averaged about eight games sold per device.

But competitors Sony Corp. 6758.TO -1.22% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT -1.14% aren't far behind. They have already integrated motion controls, a top-selling point of the Wii, into their offerings, and are expected to unveil new devices themselves sometime next year.

Nintendo said it was pleased with the Wii U's sales so far, as well as interest in the roughly 30 game titles that were available during the device's launch, such as its own 'New Super Mario Bros. U' and Ubisoft Entertainment SA's UBI.FR +0.08% 'ZombiU' post-apocalyptic shooting survival game.

Sales of videogames are particularly important for Nintendo. The company has acknowledged that the Wii U device is being sold at a loss, despite its starting price of $299.

Industry watchers are following the company carefully as it comes off its first annual loss in more than three decades.

'It is critical that we get consumers to purchase software to engage with the system,' Mr. Fils-Aime said, adding that the company's goal is to increase sales of all games made for its devices. 'That's the fundamental of the business model.'