Is Nintendo creating artificial shortages for the Wii??

[Danoz]

I've decided I want a Wii. Imagine my surprised when I go to Best Buy and they tell they're sold out, and they're usually sold out. Meanwhile there's a full shelf of X-BOX 360s. There's no way, this far after its release, they can't create enough to stock every Best Buy in America with at least 10 Wiis at any given time.

 

[Neeka Keet]

Was this recently because there are post Christmas shortages to contend with.

 

[Crazy_Uncle]

Ya, this time of year is hard to find many consoles. I work retail and we had a lot more Wii's on hand during the holiday this past season than the year prior. I don't think it's Nintendo doing anything other than having very popular game console. The big trick I have learned to check Sunday ads and going into the stores then. They seem to do their best to have them in stock on the first day of the sale.

 

[CommodoreKong]

In November Nintendo sold 2 million Wiis in the US (vs 800,000 360s and almost 400,000 PS3s). The December data isn't out until next week, but it's expected they sold just as many, if not more.

Yes Nintendo is producing as many Wiis as they can. They're making them at an unprecedented rate (I wouldn't be surprised if they've surpassed the PS2 manufacturing capacity when it was at it's peak).

I would imagine Nintendo has all of their factories working at 100% capacity. They can't just snap their fingers and make more Wiis. Opening a new factory is a huge risk with the current economy.

Really it's not that hard to find a Wii, stores like Best Buy always hold them back for the Sunday ads, and it's easy to find those several days in advanced online so you can plan out when to get a Wii.

 

[shivkala]

Not that it's any consolation to you, but I have heard from a few people that got Wii's for Christmas. In fact, my wife found one for her aunt at Gamestop.

 

[Mike Farley]

Around Christmas there were at least a couple dozen Wii's at any given time at my local Best Buy. Haven't noticed either way in the last few weeks though.

 

[Aragorn]

I got one when it first came out, so I haven't been looking. But a lot of stores are good at stocking them on Sundays to coincide with the ads. So if you go to any of those web sites that list ads in advance (like Cheap Ass Gamer), you can see which stores will have Wii ads ahead of time.

 

[Ward Fowler]

They're selling pretty fast, so perhaps the shortage isn't artificial. My wife wanted one for her birthday back in August and I called at least 10 different places before I found one. I believe its the highest selling game system right now.

 

[John Clark]

I got one for christmas too, but if you go looking to buy one, they can be hard to find.

The same seems to go for the Wii Fit and one or two of the games.

 

[Bloodwhiner]

Think outside the Big Box store. I went into a Gamestop asked when the shipment usually arrived, took a card and called around that time. They told me the units had arrived and I wet and got one.

At the same time the local Circuit City had lines forming every Sunday for the few units it got.

If Nintendo is causing an artificial shortage, then it is good marketing on their part. By now the buzz should be over and they should have had to do some upgrade to make it a hot item - that hasn't happened.

 

[trekkerguy]

I seriously doubt they are creating a shortage. You look at the numbers
and they are selling like hotcakes. If anything they're trying to keep up.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Well, I work in retail and I can tell you without question that they ARE. They're going to screw around until no one cares any more. COUGHplaystion3COUGH. We'll get a shipment in and Nintendo will make us hold them until a certain date to drum up anticipation.

 

[Warp Coil]

I have never - NEVER - seen a Nintendo Wii in stock at a Best Buy. There was a time last year where I was in search of a Wii and no one had them. Not Best Buy. Not Target. Not even the half dozen GameStops I called in the area. I ended up getting an XBox360, which is fun but I'm a casual gamer so I don't even really play it that often.

From time to time, when I walk into an electronics store, I look to see if they have the Wii in stock. Most of the time, they don't. But I would try GameStop because they seem more likely to have them.

 

[Smiley]

Nintendo is selling an amazing amount of Wii systems worldwide every month, and they are making money on each one. Since they are reaching previously untapped markets, they do not know exactly how much demand there is for the console. If I remember the interview comments correctly, a Nintendo rep said that they had already ramped up production four times since the initial launch.

The Wii is popular, plain and simple. I feel for those who are looking for one and cannot find it, but there have been plenty of opportunities available to purchase one in the last two years. There may be a shortage, but I have seen no convincing evidence that it is artificial.

Nerdius, my guess is that Nintendo asks stores to hold them until certain dates because it is easier for retailers to sell 20 Wiis one day a month than five Wiis four days a month (or whatever the numbers may be). It's also easier on the shoppers. They know what day to visit the store, and they stand a better chance of getting one without throwing elbows around.

 

[Trippy]

I got my son's Wii two weeks before Christmas by calling Best Buy for their shipment dates, then having my dad stand in line for an hour at the store's opening that day

And out of 60 Wii's shipped that day, my dad got us #58

I had a happy kid at Christmas this year!

 

[Tomato]

Nope. It is what 2 years out of the market now. They are killing the market right now with the sales of Wiis. Nintendo is trying to crank them out as fast as they can but can't really seem to get enough out there.

 

[Scout101]

in a shitty economy, it seems pretty unlikely that Nintendo is holding back and not selling as many units as they can. When companies are hurting, and have a source of income to exploit, how often do they decide to just make less money and hope for the best?

 

[Arrqh]

Nerdius, my guess is that Nintendo asks stores to hold them until certain dates because it is easier for retailers to sell 20 Wiis one day a month than five Wiis four days a month (or whatever the numbers may be). It's also easier on the shoppers. They know what day to visit the store, and they stand a better chance of getting one without throwing elbows around.

Yeah, having a store hold a shipment for a few days does not create a shortage... it just means that they sell in bursts instead of a slow trickle. The overall number sold isn't changed.

Danoz, check out this sales graph... in November they were selling 500k consoles a week. So yes, the high demand is still there. It actually wasn't all that hard to find a Wii if you did so before the holiday shopping season... but even then, they don't stay on shelves for very long.