Nintendo Still Struggling To Meet Wii Demand
Even though nearly six million Nintendo Wiis have been sold since the console's November launch, Nintendo is still having trouble keeping up with consumer demands for the system. Seeing as how I still haven't been able to find a Wii at any of my local retailers, I'd say that's an understatement regarding the console's popularity:
"We are still struggling to deliver the right numbers of hardware to cope with demand," admitted Fischer."We're planning to increase the production capacity but it's not something that can be done in a couple of days. We have to be patient."
Well, maybe I'll be able to get a Wii before Christmas 2010. If not, I'll pick one up on eBay when Nintendo's next console hits store shelves.
Nintendo: We're still struggling to meet demand for Wii [Games Industry.biz]
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Miscellany on 15 March 2007
· Comments (12)
Other stuff like this: console, demand, nintendo, struggle, wii
Well, being an owner of this machine, I'll have to say...
... Only Wii Sports really shines. Zelda was a huge letdown, and all other games are average at best.
The major problem with Gamecube was not only its look, but its inability to garantee 3rd party support and build a library of software as big as Playstation 2's. Or even half as big. True, some good gems on it, but mostly first-party. And even so, overhyped and sometimes overrated as well (hello Super Mario Sunshine).
While it has been said that the Wii is, technically, a Gamecube 1.5 (and it shows, sadly, on any HD setup, how bad that is) - I come to realize, checking Nintendo's release shedule, that the same can be said about its games. Its Gamecube all over again.
As for these shortages, I have a feeling Nintendo's marketing is hiding something. Maybe the possibility of having enough consoles to ship to retailers: but purposely sending them out in small numbers, to create this idea of demand. You know what it is: its hard to get, so you want it even more.
Here where I live, it is up for sale everywhere, including the supermarket. Loads of Wiis everywhere. Noones buying. And why? Because Nintendo's marketing ploy did not reach these shores.
As it stands, my Wii, plus extra Wiimotes, plus 5 games, plus HD Component cables, is going for re-sell by the end of the month.
A big dissapointment. So my thoughts are.. non-gamers will find it interesting, but everyone else will move on, in 2 years time, to Sony or Microsoft.
Nintendo will never leave the hardware business: why should they? The DS is great and reigns supreme. But their home systems are dead and people have come to realize they are, indeed, toys, and better suited for children.
I predict that, when the novelty wears off (and Nintendo might be playing that with these "shortages"), people will tire, and drop it really, really fast.
T.
I know we can't keep them in stock at work. We'll get a shipment of 12 of them and that will last about 2 hours.
I'm happy with mine thus far, I've been enjoying Wii Sports and Marvel, and Sonic is very good too. Once Smash bros. brawl hits, my Wii is going to see near constant use for a few months, if not years.
We normally get anywhere from 50 to 60 in a shippment and they are gone by the end of the morning. Of course since we are the biggest Nintendo retailer I figure that we get more then other stores. Sunday mornings are your best bet since if we get them it's super late on Saturdays for our new ads that start on Sunday.
"I don't want to grow up, I'm a "...well according to our new policys at work I can't say ....but I'm sure you can guess.
Tufas, I'm curious where you're located
Nintendo is holding consoles back, just like they used to with NES games, creating artificial demand trying to relive the glory days when they could hold out on Super Mario/Zelda 2 till the cows come home to cause riots.
Eventually people will get sick of looking for one and forget about it, probably around the time of the 360 pricedrop. That combined with the gimmick and novelty wearing off for most people who were not already Nintendo fans, the Wii will be in third place by this time next year, once again leaving Nintendo mystified why things went so badly. (here's a hint "Mario Tennis/Golf/Party" and cartoony looking games do not appeal to the majority of non-hardcore adult gamers, no matter how good they are)
I don't even think they are holding back consoles. At least not when you see the numbers, which are way higher then... well... the PS3 production e.g. O.o
But I DO think that the Wii will sell a lot worse in the near future, when the novelty wears off (like WickyWoo said).
We will have to see if the sold consoles until this point are of a high enough number to interest third party produers.
I live in the Azores, some islands in the Atlantic.
Playstations here are usually hard to come by - specially when holidays are upon us - but I'd say, there are more Wii's for sale than PS2's.
Being an owner of all 3 Next-New-Now-Gen consoles, I have to say, Wii is a great party machine - but if, like me, you enjoy most of your games alone - or you prefer racing and action-RPG, the Wii is doomed from the start.
I've put my Wii for sale - and got requests to send it by mail abroad - go figure.
I don't believe in the artificial demand thing actually. Nintendo is shipping 6 millions consoles which is already more than what PS3 and X360 have shipped in the same three months...
And here in Europe, we don't even get the biggest share of the consoles shipping either (even though Europe is the biggest market). So I think the shortage is in no way intended, at least for now.
Some shippings have started to come lately so the situation is already starting to improve, at least in France.
PAPER MARIO
that's all i have to say about that...
gimme my wii
Another reason I believe Nintendo are hiding most of their marketing deploy for this:
Games that are ready, being delayed in different regions - as to not cluster the release day with many titles, leaving the following 12 months with only seldom games being released:
case in question: Excite Truck was only released in Europe in February
case in question: Wii Play is only released in North America in February
Which adds to the fact that Wii's are region-locked (contrary to their first statements - here's marketing again) - so that importing games would not bypass Nintendo's release shedules on different regions.
I mean, people, come on: make a list of all games that are to be released for SURE from now till Christmas. See how many are first-party and third-party. See how many are Triple-A titles.
As much as I hate Microsoft for pushing a faulty system so fast out on us (red circles of doom, not hurray at all - and the noise that beast makes, omg) and Sony for being major arseholes (and also big marketing liars), I have to say of all 3 console manufacturers, Nintendo is the one pulling the oax on people.
T
the "novelty" prediction/argument was pretty common in the early DS days as well. i'd like to hear why folks feel the outcome will be different for the wii, especially considering the amount of positive buzz around the system (which the DS had not nearly as much of).
i'm curious if nintendo looked at the response to how sony addressed their inability to keep pace with demand and decided to do the exact opposite.
>>>>>>>the "novelty" prediction/argument was pretty common in the early DS days as well. i'd like to hear why folks feel the outcome will be different for the wii, especially considering the amount of positive buzz around the system (which the DS had not nearly as much of).
Here's the difference
Nintendo owns the handheld market, always have and probably always will
The console market is where they've been getting crushed for 3 generations. They aren't the default
I think Nintendo's betting that (hardcore gamers + people who would have passed on games altogether if not for the Wii) is greater than (mainstream gamers + hardcore gamers who can't stand Nintendo). I sure know a lot more non-gamers who have bought or are trying to find Wiis than gamers (who are all buying 360's, except me.) I don't really count because Madden and shooting people in the face appeals to me about as much as a scat kitchen.
But I guess we'll see what happens.