No Wii for You

I have a lot of anecdotal evidence that my friends are having trouble finding Wiis, but I didn't realize how widespread and global the problem was.

Is Nintendo really having such a tough time manufacturing units? Maybe they should raise the price - isn't that the law of supply and demand?

Comments

[Capn John]

That's odd, or maybe it's the Christmas rush. The wife found a website that claimed to list stores that had Wiis (Wii's?) in stock, one being our local Gamestop. I stopped by on the way home from work a month or two back and sure enough, they had one left. Score! :)

[Game Dame]

Dude, I saw these selling for $500 on Amazon. I don't think they planned to be short on supply but it's gotten more popular than they imagined. I'm glad they haven't raised the price of it, though. That's a huge advantage for them against PS3 and XB360. On the other hand, we were hoping to buy a Wii for Christmas this year. Ain't gonna happen. :(

[Aaron]

There's no reason Nintendo couldn't have arranged enough production and shipment of its console by now. They're trying to keep the demand up by ensuring the Wii remains scarce (rarity generates hype and increases perceived value).

What's really ridiculous is that all three consoles have been in short supply at some point. The publishers did just fine with previous console generations. If there's anything different about the market now, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo could have anticipated it.

[xtraman]

i think when they 1st launched the system they didn't think it was goin to sell as well as it did..
but a year later is gettin a lil silly..
they should know now that just manufacturing 1.8 million a month is not cutting it..
they should up it to at least 4-6 million for december..

[Dark Radiance]

Just this Sunday my local Toys R Us received 37 Wii's from Nintendo, and only 25 people were in line to get them.

[Tablesaw]

There are many complicated reasons why that doesn't apply. The short answer is that Nintendo is most concerned with distributing the Wii to a wider range of households, not with lowering demand, or even with selling its product for the maximum the market will sustain.

[Stray_Neutrino]

I live in the UK where Wii's are REALLY impossible to buy retail. I was told it was easier for me to order one through Amazon Germany or France and they were right. I can pick one up at the RRP instead of the bloated upcosting that every other major seller is doing lately.

[Melissa Gaul]

I read somewhere this week that N's supply planning is done 4-5 months in advance, and elsewhere a few months back that N's factories are creating Wii's as fast as they can.

I could see (based on N's past history), that they could have been conservative and not put a large investment in more factories. I am surprised that the demand has been consistently high for the Wii - even a year later. Standing in N's shoes, if I was balancing profits and future investment 6 months ago, I may have made exactly the same decision they seem to have made - there usually is a steeper drop in demand than they seem to have had.

[hglcky]

I don't get it. By chance I walked into a shop two days ago and saw a mountain of wiis on display, without searching through any other shops. There weren't any lines of eager customers either. I just simply picked one up and took it to the cash register. Is there really a shortage?