As much as I love Nintendo, it does make you wonder…having been out for about two years, how can there STILL be shortages of the Wii????????
Surely they'd have thought, “Oh, demand is pretty high for this product, maybe we should license more factories to produce it to meet the demand” or at least come close.
I can't believe Ninty are still deliberately drip-feeding it the world to make it seem like its more popular than it actually is :P
Its a good bit of kit, theres no need for them to do this or maybe I'm just mad :)
It's been out for 19 months in Japan, and less everywhere else - in fact, it hasn't yet been released in South Korea (the South Korean launch is the day after tomorrow).
Considering they estimated it takes six months to increase production, would you like to take a guess as to how many units the Wii will sell, in every territory, in October ‘08? :P Will it be MORE popular in each territory then, or less popular? Will sales of the Wii drop due to the GTA4 launch? Will they rise due to Wii Fit? By how much? Will the economy affect sales? Will everyone who wants one have one by September 2008?
Ninty themselves have said they were surprised by the success and popularity of the Wii. A lot of people in the first few months said that the popularity wouldn’t last - who's to say it will last another six months from now? The whole ‘deliberately keeping it scarce’ argument is… well, not believable, unless you think there's a ‘raise production’ button in a factory somewhere that takes immediate effect, instead of many businesses and factories being involved in producing more parts for the Wii once they've decided to take that risk. ;)
Anyways, the Wii is in stock in the UK at the moment. :) You can even pick it up for less than the RRP, finally.
Edit: As I'm talking about the Wii, I may as well say WHY ISN'T IT MULTI-REGION!?! :P Might even help balance stock worldwide if it were. Stupid Nintendo. :(
I can't really see why it is so popular. My wife won one at work last week and enjoys it, me on the other hand hate it. Give me a proper controller any day for games, I have tried adjusting the sensetivity of the bar, moved it from bottom to top of TV but still can't get to grips with it.
The whole interactive remote for games is novel but overall it doesn't feel right and a novelty. Novelty has worn off with me already and heading that way with my wife fast. Even the kids have commented on how hard it is to control games. I've been thinking on getting Res Evil 4 for it to give it another shot. Trouble is though the way I'm feeling about it thinking it might be a waste of money.
Overall like mentioned the UK is well stocked with Wii, and my wife got hers from the work competition within a week and a half after selecting it as a prize. It looks like the initial hit with the sales is dying down. At least till next christmas anyhow!
At least I have my 360 to rely on for the type of games I want to play.
PenguinJim
Considering they estimated it takes six months to increase production, would you like to take a guess as to how many units the Wii will sell, in every territory, in October ‘08? :P Will it be MORE popular in each territory then, or less popular? Will sales of the Wii drop due to the GTA4 launch? Will they rise due to Wii Fit? By how much? Will the economy affect sales? Will everyone who wants one have one by September 2008?
Edit: As I’m talking about the Wii, I may as well say WHY ISN'T IT MULTI-REGION!?! :P Might even help balance stock worldwide if it were. Stupid Nintendo. :(
I can well believe that it would take 6 months to increase production. 1.8M units a month is the current capacity, is it actually possible for their suppliers to increase their output at the drop of a hat? Probably not. Nintendo should have been thinking about this last year, seems very late in the day considering the hassle it was getting a Wii last christmas.
Multi-region would be a good way to supply different regions with units. It would save having different production runs for a specific area.
They have increased production twice already - both times during 2007, if memory serves. :)
