Nintendo President warns of Wii shortages

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has again warned that they may struggle to meet the huge demand for the Nintendo Wii this holiday. "I don?t know if we?ll be able to, but were we to get in a car right now and go to 100 retail locations in the San Francisco area, we would not be able to find a Wii in at least 60 of those stores. Our hope is that by next week, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and on Dec. 23, you?ll be able to find a Wii." Reggie told CNN.

Source: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=32364

Better make more then Reggie,:unsure:nsure:

[neufuse Veteran]

Source: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=32364

Better make more then Reggie, no? :unsure:

We STILL have no Wii's here at any of our stores... the second the come in they are gone!... thought after its been out for HOW long now this would be gone, but its still impossible to get one around here

[Cormier6083]

But this has never happened before!

:rolleyes:

[Sethos]

And we all know they are doing it on purpose.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yeah I don't like spinning wild speculation, but at this point it's probably partly Nintendo spinning the shortages to create hype and grab headlines.

Not saying places aren't genuinely sold out, they will be, but Nintendo are probably "deliberately" being reserved in their stocking/production lines and/or distribution. Over-stocking will cost you a buck in your company budget, but cmon Reggie, you know how fast the device sells - It's literally impossible to overstock the Wii, especially in the run up to xmas!

The console has been out for almost 2 years now, if you get consistent sales trends, you ramp up production to meet!

[sn00pie]

I've seen a few Wii's in stock... its just Wii Fit that is sold 98% of the time. Somehow customers are able to find out that it will be in stock in the morning, and we usually have lines of people waiting for the few copies of it.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I wonder what's going to happen to all these millions of Wii fit boards in 5-10 years.

Let alone the amount of ****ing plastic instruments sold through GH/RB that will be kicking about.

:laugh:

[Corris Veteran]

And we all know they are doing it on purpose.

Indeed, unless that was sarcasm. :p

Maybe their first Christmas it would of been true that they didn't have the stock and couldn't manufacture enough, But now, after 2 years of demand, its absolute bull poo that they can't make enough now.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Indeed, unless that was sarcasm. :p

Maybe their first Christmas it would of been true that they didn't have the stock and couldn't manufacture enough, But now, after 2 years of demand, its absolute bull poo that they can't make enough now.

I mean, at least what they should be doing is genuinely creating enough stock so people can buy, then just BS'ing on stocking issues for the hype.... like Sony do :laugh:

It's BS PR, but at least your customers can get a PS3! :p

[Sethos]

Indeed, unless that was sarcasm. :p

Maybe their first Christmas it would of been true that they didn't have the stock and couldn't manufacture enough, But now, after 2 years of demand, its absolute bull poo that they can't make enough now.

No, wasn't sarcasm.

As mentioned, they know how popular it is now and 2 years after launch they still can't keep it in stock. It's also obvious they have a lot to gain by holding back supply, creating a buzz and a few headlines plus they can hold peoples interest in the product.

Let's face it, can't really be that difficult to manufacture that cheap piece of plastic, they had years of experience with that.

[Matrix XII]

There's always Wii's around here..

[Mathachew Veteran]

Gee... why am I not surprised? Still happy that I traded mine away for a 360, which has been easily used 100 times more.

[Matrix XII]

Yeah I sold my Wii, which was a great choice, because I actually hated playing it. The only thing I used it for was VC and Mario Galaxy lol

[Corris Veteran]

No, wasn't sarcasm.

As mentioned, they know how popular it is now and 2 years after launch they still can't keep it in stock. It's also obvious they have a lot to gain by holding back supply, creating a buzz and a few headlines plus they can hold peoples interest in the product.

Let's face it, can't really be that difficult to manufacture that cheap piece of plastic, they had years of experience with that.

:yes:

Gee... why am I not surprised? Still happy that I traded mine away for a 360, which has been easily used 100 times more.

My friend in Uni who was really excited to get a Wii either just before or just after Christmas (one of the two, I can't remember), told us the other day that after a few weeks he stopped playing it completely and generally either plays Pc games or on his Xbox360.

[gunnerhkjp]

Let's face it, can't really be that difficult to manufacture that cheap piece of plastic, they had years of experience with that.

Cheap piece of plastic?

It's probably the best constructed console out now, with quality components.

As a consumer product, the electrical design decisions made by Nintendo for the Wii is impressive.

The same cannot be said for the 360.

They have problems keeping up with the demand as is, so it's not so hard to imagine what will happen come Christmas. The Wii sales figure has always been very high, and people still think there is some short supply conspiracy going on :rolleyes:

[DELTETHISACCOUNT]

Cheap piece of plastic?

It's probably the best constructed console out now, with quality components.

As a consumer product, the electrical design decisions made by Nintendo for the Wii is impressive.

Lol. Material-wise, the Wii is the cheapest of them all. You can take that thing apart in no more than ten minutes with regular household tools. The Nintendo GameCube is more sturdier than that thing.

I remember the SmashMyXbox/PS3/Wii videos. The Wii broke the most easily. It disintegrated into thousands of tiny pieces. Manufacturing issues... pfft.

[Sethos]

It's probably the best constructed console out now, with quality components.

I think that would be the PS3.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

The Wii sales figure has always been very high, and people still think there is some short supply conspiracy going on :rolleyes:

Do you realise you just answered the problem with that statement and don't seem to realise?

Trends, especially consistent ones, push companies to realise demand, then in return companies ramp up production to meet demand. If a demand is consistent, there is little risk involved in ramping up production. Where as if it's clear ONE game has pushed your sales in a month, it's unlikely you're going to ramp up production 2x for the next month, seeing as games pushing hardware tends to taper downwards after the first month.

That's not the case for Nintendo, they've been hitting 500-650k consistently for quite a while.

If you're getting shortages throughout a normal year (prior to a big event like christmas) a good year/two after release, someone/some people in your company aren't doing their jobs properly, and they're effectively losing your COMPANY money by not meeting demands.

Companies wanting to maximise profits will strive to meet demands ASAP, not complain about meeting demands throughout a normal year 2 years after release :whistle:

It's not like the technology used in the Wii either is globally restricted or parts are difficult to obtain.

No one but Nintendo know exactly what's going on, but you certainly can't shoot people down for poking the old conspiracy chat with the amount of times we've heard Nintendo churn "we can't meet demand".

[Commodore Max]

They've been having "shortage" issues ever since it came out. That's kinda suspicious for a multinational company that doesn't outsell it's competitors.

[HawkMan]

Sony need to learn from nintendo.

sony tried to spin the whole "We're all out of stock and it'll be impossible to get our ultra super leet console for xmas or at least the first 5 months of the year" when the console launched. wich of course didn't work so well with every store stacked to the roof with PS3's noone bought :)

Non nintendo has been dragging out their supposed shortage for 2 years, and it's still working :) that is peopel are still buying it, in more ways than one.

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

At our morrisons we have 10+ and in main warehouse another 40 for our store ready for xmas season.

I think this year i will be buying/selling wii's/wii fits/etc on ebay ;) (Buy from work with staff discount then sell on ebay) Good little profit earner

[Joel]

Yup, they're so short of Wiis that they're holding them back while continuing to be the market leader in sales. Sure. They've only sold twice as many Wiis as Sony did the PS3; imagine if they'd sold all of those overstocked Wiis? :rolleyes:

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Yup, they're so short of Wiis that they're holding them back while continuing to be the market leader in sales. Sure. They've only sold twice as many Wiis as Sony did the PS3; imagine if they'd sold all of those overstocked Wiis? :rolleyes:

You gotta keep the public thinking "wow this thing is so popular", but I see it the same way you do, they are holding back on supplies to keep demand high.

The console has been out for nearly a year, yet they don't add production facilities to produce these things? Give me a break

[Sean B. Veteran]

Exactly Lyle, and that's the smart thing to do :). We've got 6 in stock right now at the WalMart I work for.

[Joel]

but I see it the same way you do

I'm being completely sarcastic. ;)