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gkarris

macrumors G3
Original poster
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
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"No escape from Reality...”
Hey, the Touch owners are doing it, why can't us console freaks?

The holidays are nearing, and I've seen people at the stores for the past few weeks already scooping them up as holiday gifts.

If anyone is interested in getting one, you can post if you want them and reply if you've seen them...
 
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/01/wii-cant-meet-demand-for-holiday-season-says-reggie/

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).

Good luck for those searching for one.

...and I still struggle and scratch my head as to why this is an issue 1 yr after launch. :confused: but I'm not gonna go there - been there done that ;)
 
The major problem is that it's not a trivial investment in time/equipment to bring up another Wii assembly line/factory if all the current lines are running at maximum output.

What happens if you commit to putting together another 10 assembly lines for the Wii and the demand drops off as soon as they are ready? Now you've sunk a bunch of money into equipment/facilities that might never be used. Since no one can predict the future it's a constant struggle in the business offices to determine whether or not it makes sense to bring up the lines.

Will they be up in time to supply current demand or will demand fall just as these lines are ready? Who knows? The time to start more lines was a few months ago but the same questions existed then. How do you know when the demand is going to drop? What kind of production capacity do you need to meet long term demand? Idle assembly lines/equipment cost the company money to and aren't producing anything to increase profits so most companies are not going to build up a lot of short term production capacity without being sure that the demand will support it.

They've sold more Wiis than 360s in less than a year (at last report, Halo 3 might have put the 360 back on top for awhile). It's not like they aren't producing them, they just don't want to be stuck with a bunch of idle equipment once this initial demand dies down.
 
They've been readily available here in Thailand since launch. The price swings a bit if stock gets low but they always have one somewhere. So if anyone gets desperate for a WiiKey modded Wii let me know :)

Paul
 
It's not so bad in the UK. There are still morning queues and from time to time the Wiimote will go out of stock in the big shops. If you want one you can pretty much be guaranteed one if you think ahead.

I recommend Argos for Brits. Booking and online availability checkers are pretty useful.
 
Game Stop Aliso Viejo, CA has had them almost every Thursday but they're gone by Friday night.
 
Last Monday Toys-R-Us had a few on the shelf, and Wal*Mart always seems to have one or two units.

It's going to be difficult to find one this holiday season, for sure, but I don't expect it to be quite as bad as last year. If nothing else because millions of people already have them! ;)
 
What the hell? I can't believe the Wii is still nearly impossible to come by. Oh well, I guess I'll go back to playing Breath of Fire 2 on Virtual Console....oooh sorry, didn't mean to rub it in. :)
 
Seems to depend where you are.

There would be no problem getting on here, nearly all the stores in my town which carry them, have plenty of stock.
 
supply is quite steady around here too (mostly they have everything in stock with spikes here and there in demand ... like for classic controllers currently o for controllers and consoles when mario party was launched) but i guess the coming season might produce some shortages around here

but i hope nothing of the scale of the holiday season 2005/2006 when it was impossible to get a DS after the mario kart launch for 2-3 months .. something which i never experienced around here before
 
We had a similar supply issue last year too. At first I thought shops were mixing up the Wii and DS, but the DS really was sold out too.

Wonder if it will be as bad this year? Consoles don't normally sell out after the launch has died down.

For what it's worth I don't know how many more people can buy a Wii. Virtually everyone, even the non-gamers, around here had them. Even the pubs!
 
^ We can say the same for PS2, yet look at each year they still sell bucket loads at christmas ?

So I imagine the wii WILL sell out again over xmas, but I imagine the 360 and PS3 will struggle to meet demand too.

Xmas is always a 'falicy' in regards to consoles success. AS inevitably - must have gadgets will always do well that time of year.

Summer is the true 'test' of any console. If it's selling in the drought period, then bloody hell it's got to be doing somthing right :)
 
Here in the UK supply has been pretty steady since about May, until recently. No shops seems to of had it in for 2-3 weeks. Maybe these remote jackets are adding to the delay. Nunchucks are like gold dust at the moment. I think remote supply with Wii play is ok.
 
Up Manchester way it's was getting easier to buy them a few months back. Doesn't seem too bad now but with Xmas coming up I've seen a few shops putting "sold out" stickers over the boxes again.
Other places seem fine. My local towns game shops have low stock, but you can still walk up and buy them.

I'm still curious to see if the DS gets sold out this year again. There have been some monster games out this year after all.
 
FYE by me in River Forest, IL, had a long line in the morning (Black Friday), but only had 3 Wii's.

I scammed the last Wii Zapper - will probably be scarce as well as all new and previous Wii buyers will be looking for it.

No one is having a sale on them (like extra stuff) - no need to...
 
WOW this thread was certainly dug up from the past :eek::)

Well I was told yesterday that the Wii is unavailable in Ireland. Every store has sold out and doesn't expect stock or at least will guarantee anything for xmas this year 2007.
 
Here's the Latest...

Happy Holidays and stay safe running all over the place to get one...

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9833947-7.html?tag=nefd.top

The Nintendo Wii launched more than a year ago, and the system is still incredibly hard to find. This long after the system started shipping, people are still camping in front of stores as soon as they hear about new shipments.

Friday morning, Nintendo of America's president and CEO, Reggie Fils-Aime, held a telephone press conference to address the continuing shortage of the Wii.

Fils-Aime said Nintendo hadn't expected as much demand for the Wii as they're getting. Since the launch, he claimed, Nintendo has almost doubled its global production from 1 million to 1.8 million Wiis per month, and tripled its workforce at Nintendo of America's North Bend, Wash., distribution center. The Nintendo president wouldn't say whether Nintendo would further increase its Wii production, but he denied any claims that Nintendo is stockpiling Wiis.

"There was no ability for us to stockpile systems in the summer for the holiday rush," Fils-Aime said. "Enough systems would make everyone, including me, much happier."

According to Fils-Aime, Wiis will be available next week at all major retailers. If past patterns are any indication, however, that "availability" will be limited to shoppers willing to camp out before stores open on Sunday or Monday morning. Since Christmas is just two weeks away, you're probably still going to have some difficulty finding a Wii.

While that seems to be the biggest hope for Christmas Wiis, Reggie also announced a raincheck program in conjunction with GamesStop to get more Wiis out to shoppers in January. Even if Wiis are out of stock, on December 20 and 21, consumers will be able to purchase them for January.

On those two days, if you put down the full retail price of the Wii at a GameStop, you'll receive a raincheck guaranteeing you a Wii in January. The rainchecks will be available only as supplies last, but Fils-Aime said GameStop has "many tens of thousands" of rainchecks available across its 3,000+ stores. Perhaps the Wii-hungry will be camping out next week to get a raincheck for a Wii next month. We'll find out by next Friday.

"We went into the launch with very high expectations," Fils-Aime said. "What we didn't expect was to throw out the whole playbook and essentially create a whole new level of sell-through for this industry. You can't plan for that."

Originally posted at Crave.
 
WHY DON'T I GET INVITED TO THESE THINGS?

Bah. Oh well, I just got some new phone numbers for people at Nintendo, maybe I can convince them to tell me next time.
 
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