Nintenventory Shortages To Persist
There are many reasons to expect the world to end soon: global warming, the slowdown of the North Atlantic Deep Water conveyor belt, impending influenza epidemics, wars in every country ending with "-istan" and some that don't, and of course, above them all, the Great Wii Shortage. The latter has turned brother against brother (and not in the sexy way) in what has become a worldwide breakdown of the social order, as gamers everywhere disgrace themselves in a fevered frenzy of Wii-lust.
Well, the desert inches northward, the plague bears down on us with its inevitable doom, and the Wii shall continue to be scarce, says Nintendo VP Perrin Kaplan:
“We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can”, said Kaplan. “The number of units that we have been able to produce has far exceeded our hardware production in the past and the production levels of a lot of our competitors but demand continues to be really high.”
“There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see the situation last for some time”, she added.
“People are being really diligent about working with retailers to locate one but we are cognizant of the fact that a lot of fans are not able to get their hands on one yet”, admitted Kaplan. “We are asking them to be patient and to know that we are working on this as fast as we can.”
Isn't it nice, at the very least, to hear from a company that admits a situation, is polite but direct about it, and honors the respect they've earned from their fan base? While the Wii is still all but sold out in North America, Europe and Japan, and a recent boost in hardware delivery not seeming to be terribly effective, Nintendo's Kaplan has the ovaries to fess up and admit it may be a while until every customer who wants a Wii gets one. That's classy!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go play Super Paper Mario. Suckers.
Game Theory Episode 3 - It's Nintendo [GameTheory]
[via Gamasutra]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 11 April 2007
· Comments (10)
Other stuff like this: nintendo, shortages, wii
A nice problem to have - the continued demand for your console. Amazing that it's continuing to sell at this rate.
I want one for my upcoming birthday but I don't think I'm gonna get it. Having said that I think I'll have the money for the console whenever the stores have them so no huge drama on my end.
Oh God, is it ok if I feel turned on by Marcia Cross in that picture. she looks so dangerous with that shotgun... oh yeah and I want a Wii too :D
T_T damn it...
not only i can't buy it here in south america because its, well twice the price..
but i can't order it to the U.S.A because there is't any f***** wii left...
...god hates me...
I'm loving the final statement! And also Tiny, is Super Paper Mario as good as everybody is saying it is? Because I have been kind of skeptical of it. I really loved the turn-based fighting style in the GC version, and this game is not that at all! Basically what I'm asking is, "Should I pick up this game?"
I for one think that they're just pushing back the mass release of consoles for the start of their fiscal year.
Sorry, bull
They've done it before, they're doing it again Gamespot's pres said it publically that that's what they're doing and that's all the confirmation I need after the NES days fiascos.
They're milking the "demand" for all the press they can. When it starts to die off (or Septemberish) all of asudden they'll flood the shelves with consoles just in time to counter the 360 and PS3 pricedrops.
No one can tell me that after 6 years of making GameCubes they don't have the research or the capacity to crank them out faster. They're not that different
Wii shortages = Nintendo marketing dpt.
8 year old technology, and they have production issues?
Sure.
Meanwhile... 6 months past and STILL only one game for the ages (Wii Sports)
There isn't a whole lot there to play, for most its still a Zelda/Wii Sports machine. And nintendo is definitely milking this, by not producing as many as they could. There is no reason nintendo should be having difficulty producing a system thats is essentially a slimmed down gamecube. There is no reason that Playstation 3's are being churned out faster than something with a fraction of the tech.
I assume it's the accelerometers-on-a-chip that's holding back production (if you notice, Wiimotes and nunchucks are still not exactly common) and not the "sped-up Gamecube" part of the Wii.
The truth is that no one expected it to be as popular as it is, not even Nintendo. (Certainly not me; I thought the 360 would still outsell it this winter.) Spin it as marketing all you want, but it's outselling the other two.