Wii can't meet demand for holiday season, says Reggie

by Scott Jon Siegel on Oct 1st 2007 9:30AM

Faster than we could say "Nintendo," the Wii has once again slipped back into questionable supply for this holiday season. Where previously Reggie Fils-Aimé appeared confident in the "unprecedented" number of Wiis in stock this Winter, now the Nintendo of America President seems convinced that demand will still far exceed supply, with shortages through the end of 2007 meaning crummy Christmases and half-baked Hannukahs two years in a row for some gamers.

In an interview with Mercury News, Fils-Aimé goes "on the record" to state that the Wii can't possibly meet demand by the end of the year. He strongly emphasizes that this is not a production issue, and has to do merely with the incredible demand for the product, which production has been unable to keep up with (though that does sound like a production issue to us).

Still, Reggie promises that the Wii will be appearing in retail locations at an almost constant flow, and urges potential buyers to call stores persistently to ask when future shipments are arriving, and to get to stores early.

[Via GamesIndustry]

Source

Tags: holidayseason, nintendo, reggie-fils-aime, reggiefilsaime, wii

Reader Comments (125)

You haven't been looking very hard if you haven't seen them. I've seen them at:

Best Buy (2 stores)
Future Shop (3 stores)
Wal-Mart (4 stores)
EB Games (2 stores, not on display, had to ask if they had stock)
Zellers

Out of those, the best place to get them would be Wal-Mart. I see them there all the time. They might sell out, but are always back when they get their next stock in (less than a week).

But maybe Nintendo just loves Canada and sends them all to my city.

Unfortunately their strategy works. I bought a Wii about 4 months ago due to the "OMFG the store has one!!!!!" effect. As I already had a 360, this turned out to be a seriousy waste of money, I use it to make Mii's of friend and family for my 3 year old. The games and features are truly sad compared to the competition. My only hope is Mario Galaxy, otherwise I pray there is a shortage so I can unload this thing over the holiday season.

"You got me this round Nintendo......."

Go play MP3, the 1st in the trinity of Nintendo. It really is a great game, and a dream to play.

I second the vote for Metroid Prime 3, but also for Zelda: Twilight Princess and the new version of Resident Evil 4. And, yes, Mario Galaxy is coming, as is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. There's even a new Godzilla game coming, but I realize that's a niche that few people enjoy.

Plus you have all of the Gamecube games to pull from: Pikmin and Pikmin 2, Zelda: Wind Waker, Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2, Ikaruga, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0, Paper Mario... the list goes on and on. Then add the virtual console games from the NES, SNES, N64, Neo Geo, TurboGrafx...

Imn y opinion it's a solid console that has already proven its worth.

Off topic, but LOL @ Granted

Wow this is kinda BS in my opinion. But hey, I already have a Wii, and it's only a matter of time till Brawl comes out now. That and that WW2 shooter and NiGHTS2.

I don't think it's a "fake" shortage, but I think Ninty has failed to react to these shortages correctly, with vastly increased production.

Also I highly recommend DDR Hottest Party for Wii!

Life in a Game!
Episode 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TyXUVd2c83c
Episode 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=J9nTx0nLX8U

Isn't this the same guy that said Halo 3 isn't a system seller? I think they are just playing into the hype now so people will buy because they think they won't be able to pick one up later.

its possible its a marketing ploy, its also possible that in some places the wii sells out faster than other places for one reason or another though if you go online you can more than likely find one

Since Black Friday of last year when I got mine, I haven't seen a single Wii on the shelves of any retail outlet here. And I check at least once a week, too.

Personally I still think the shortage is a marketing ploy. I just find it hard to believe that they can't keep up with the demand.

the best barometer wether an item is scarce or not is just look on ebay for what they are selling for, ... just looked , the wii are selling for retail price. so obviously the shortage is over.

Actually, if they are selling at market price or slightly higher, I would wager that means supply is about to meet or has recently met demand. Meaning, that the number sent to retail is approximately equal to the number of people buying over the same period of time.

When e-bay prices fall to less than market value (as in the case of the 360 and PS3), then you know that supply has outstripped demand, and consoles are freely available on the shelf.

This Christmas, I see e-bay prices for wii skyrocketing again, since Christmas is the time of greatest demand.

Lesson: If you have a store with wii all over the place, pick up one or 2 or 3 now, and then sell them in december when the market price goes back up.

You know when you're in Gamestop or EB or whatev, and you're trying to carry on at best a conv. with the sales guy/gal and the damn phone rings 12 times? Well, at least 8 ringydings are for the Wii. To cover Kamall's point; I've seen peeps leaving with a Wii not 10 min. after opening time [I'm sure they sleep in the air ducts] They do not grow cold on the shelves-Reggies right-more shortages are forthcoming.

Anyone else think he is a dead ringer for Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff?

Count me in as one of the people who have never actually seen a Wii sitting on a shelf in any store (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, take your pick of others), except for the demo one set up at the local GameStop.

It makes me wonder what it would have been like back in the good old days of the SNES or even the NES if there had been "shortages" like this for as long a time. Seriously, what the hell has happened since those days to now where certain consoles are scarce? When I was growing up, everyone I knew had an Atari 2600, then a Commodore 64, then an NES, then an SNES or a Genesis, and so forth. Not until the PS2 came along did this whole phenomenon of "shortages" come about, and if I recall correctly the PS2's was about legitimate manufacturing problems and nothing else, so the ones that were out there got snapped up fast and resold for ridiculous amounts.

NES/SNES were never supply-constrained because both Famicom and Super Famicom had 1-2 years ahead of the US and European versions. N64 sold well, but didn't quite outperform as the other systems did. Nintendo made too many GCs and had to shut production down due to overstock. Wii is the first Nintendo system to have a worldwide launch and thus Nintendo has to satisfy each region on a fairly consistent basis.

I have not seen any Wii's at retail yet. But for the record, I have not seen many PSP's or PS3's either. Both were sold out the last time I was at Target, Best Buy, and ToysrUs.

I do think that the Must have gimmick factor is wearing off, and that the Wii craze will be a thing of the past after the holidays.

Sure graphics arent everything but they are a big part of it. Not to mention the barebones features compared to the PS3 or 360.

You are right, if the Wii was just a 360 with bad graphics (and no RRoD), but had all the modern features that the 360 had, I wouldn't have sold mine.

*sob* why must you hurt me so Reggie? Why?

Also to anyone calling Bs, last time I checked your store doesn't represent North America, or anywhere else.

Also keep in mind that if you have seen a couple Wiis at a store, they are gone in the next 30 min.

Not here... as I stated before, I've seen Wiis at my local BB for the past three weeks straight. They actually had enough of them to build one of those pyramide floor displays. They could be gone by now since they pyrmaid was down to it's bottom level last week... I'm headed to BB in an hour or so and I'll check while I'm there.

Hmm... apparently I was incapable of typing "pyramid" correctly in that last post.

Pardon me, but what store is stupid enough to stock expensive computer hardware in pyramids? Don't they have empty boxes on display and most of the real units locked up behind glass?

Oh, wait. Empty display boxes... in a pyramid. Haha.

Nintendo has done everything in their power to make the Wii the "cool thing" to have. Your neighbor has it and you don't? And he is bragging about it constantly, saying he had to call a hundred places to get one? Of course you'll want it too.

I'll say it now: It.prints.money. lol
In other news:I'm the proud owner of a Wii now,playing Resident Evil 4 Wii is one heck of an experience. Heck this is a great platform,IMO to revive the light-gun genre. My only complaint about the Wii is the sensor bar ,the long cable looks ugly on my TV.

I got it at EB Games,and I got lucky since they had 10 of them,so no doubt that It'll be hard to find on Xmas,due to the AAA games coming out.

Ahg,stupid reply bug

I live in the Midwest, US, and there are not Nintendo Wiis in our Bestbuys, Walmarts, Circuit Cities or any other retailer in my town.

For those who say that they have seen many unsold Wiis, where do you live? I may need to go there to buy a Wii and get away from the farm life. Since your area may have lots of unsold Wiis, Reggie needs to forward those Wiis over here!!!

There is this little thing called online shopping

problem with that is that alot of sites try to force you to buy bundles.

You're looking for Tampa Bay, Florida my friend! There are consistently stacks of Wii's in the Best Buys and Walmarts. And beachs/Busch Gardens as well! It's your perfect Wii filled, non Mid-West wonderland!

I was online thinking about getting one to get ready for Mario. I looked at several online shops, and not a single one of them had just the WII for sale, they were all bundles. Even WalMart.com wants people to pay $530 for a Wii, extra controller, choice of accessory, and choice of 3 games. This is ridiculous, why can't I just buy the system?

because they make a ton of money on the accessories

Ah, the thin line between PR and advertising... call merchants, visit stores early, do whatever you can... to maintain the mindset that this is still an impossible to find product. Nothing sells during the holidays like the "it" product that people buy just because they apparently "can't" buy one.
Hell, I've thought about buying one (or two) the three times I've seen them on shelves; but the ebay wii-market just isn't as strong as it used to be.

Yeah, thanks Reggie... Look-- I lost interest in the Wii when I couldn't find SIX MONTHS after the last XMas season. You lost me as a potential customer when you decided to pull this "oh, we're so unable to keep up with demand" garbage. If Apple can crank out iPods fast enough for everybody to have one, then you should be able to crank out Wii consoles... Because I KNOW there are more iPod owners than Wii owners.

You're faking. You've been faking this "shortage due to demand" for a fricking year now, and I got sick of it ages ago. You can take the Wii and shove it where the sun don't shine.

good choice, just wait until the games come out and the hype is over. the wii is like ps3 right now, only half the price. 99% hype

Well lets see they hit 10 million sold in 8 months which no console has ever done before, so it must be an artivicial shortage?

Your saying they should have already had 10 million stashed in a warehouse at launch just in case it was a hit?

No game machine has ever sold this fast before... or to put it another way if the PS3 had similar demand over the course of 8 months the shortage would be the same for them.

Take my name, Reggie you ugly fookin ghoul! I will be the one that will not buy a Wii until you lot get off your arses and give us Earthbound you thick fucks.

LOLZ...the sony fanboys are still in denial.

I for one believe him. This Holiday season will probably be insane Nintendo.

That being said howeevr he is one freaky looking dude...

Arrogant, sarcastic or just boasting? Looks of a cult follower. Hare Krishna or Reverend Moon? Or just maybe a big time con man?

I am sorry but Nintendo is full of shit. I am taking a consumer psychology class and business do this shit all the time. They purposely do not make enough systems to raise demand. People want things if it is hard for them to get it. Nintendo can def. ramp up production and meet demand, they just do not want to because the demand is through the roof

That works for many consumer products, but not for impulse products.

The real reason why they aren't making demand is because ramping up production increased the price per unit, which means a lower profit per unit. If the increase of sales doesn't offset the extra manufacturing cost, it's a no-go. If the profit does offset the cost, they can take a chance, squander their brand name, and hope that people will buy it anyway in the long run.

Nintendo has never been about sales. They are all about margin. Volume production will only reduce costs to a point, and then costs will go up, since the factories want their piece of the pie.

Apparently Wii sales are slacking in Japan, and units there are on shelves. It has been this way for 2-3 weeks.

If true, the only way Nintendo will be able to ensure you can't find a Wii in stores over Xmas is by constricting supply further.

And I'm sure they'll do it.

Because they don't want to sell their product to you? That just doesn't make sense. They have gotten their hype, any further shortages just stop them from capitalizing on it.

Wii and its controls are overrated, I think I will be one of the few who do not purchase it.

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing.

Just because you see a stack of wii boxes does not mean there are systems in them. Places like best buy love to have stacks o f empty wii boxes to tease you.

Also with all the people compalining about shortages being faked. The processor and gpu still have to be manufactured. PPlus its still out of stock in many areas.

Add the fact that super smash bros,and super mario galaxy are coming out and it being christmas then you have an even bigger shortage.

Plus nintendo knows full well that in prob 3 years the wii will die out so why try to open more factories when that would mean wiis sitting on the shelves in about 2 years?

> Plus nintendo knows full well that in prob 3 years the wii will die out [...]

Probably it is not tragic as that.

The shortages (or perceived shortages - there is no such thing in EU/Japan) might hint that Nintendo really started working on next-gen system. And already preparing production capacities for it.

After all, they have hefty profits right now. While money are flowing in they have to invest into future. Or even more so - diversify their product line. I do NOT think that it took N's whole R&D to come up with the Zapper...

> Plus nintendo knows full well that in prob 3 years the wii will die out.

Like Madonna, the Wii just needs an occasional repackaging or a new gimmick and it will be just fine.

The gimmick potential is endless. Just look at all the plastic crap you can attach to the Wiimote. Laugh all you like, but it still sells.

Hell, you already have to buy the Virtual Console controller to play half the games on the system, and look at people wet their pants when Sin and Punishment is released... at an inflated price.

It's all image and marketing. Add more image and marketing, and the runaway consumerism continues.

Hmmm -- it uses totally standard components, none of which are cutting edge or which should have any production difficulties. They know the volume of sales they can do. They have decades of hardware manufacturing experience. Anyone else smell a carefully managed "shortage" to ensure hype levels stay high?

Both the CPU and GPU are custom made parts. The accelerometers in the wiimote are also proprietary parts. While you are technically maybe 90% correct that it uses standard resistors and capacitors and all that jazz, the same can be said for the PS3 and 360.

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Wii can't meet demand for holiday season, says Reggie

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