Incidentally, I saw four of them on the shelf at a local Wal-Mart last week. I then immediately made some phone calls to people I knew were still searching for one and stood by the case to wait for my Wii-less friends to arrive and claim their purchases. As soon as passers-by saw me on the phone talking about Wii, they noticed the systems and they started to sell. My friend arrived just in time to get the last one; they had sold four Wii systems in a matter of minutes.

I still can’t believe the demand is outweighing supply…after all this time, and after tens of millions of sales. It is insane.

I guess I should have clarified: that method works fine near the launch of a system. But being so far along, as you said, it really doesn’t have the same effect. So I agree with you. I think the shortage actually might have been a bit of a hype ploy at first.

not all of those units will come here, but alot will. china and korea are getting a wii market soon. thats where some of the supply is going, as well as some redistribution around europe. then theres the need for the holidays, where i am sure they have some big guns they hope will be system sellers.

plus the needs of non gaming places like medical facilities, health facilities, hotels and retirement homes. they probably have a few thousand orders to fill just in non gaming places.
like the military clinics that asked for 250 units, but were only spared 5, i am sure they will get some of that new batch. seems small amount, but with all they have been talking about the companies asking for systems, i am sure its adding up.

As for the shortages: It’s simple. If you try to sell something to a much larger piece of the population (those who think videogames are a waste of time) and succeed in being in touch with their values and sell it at a pace that is in between the amount that the hardcore systems are shipping and the demand of the larger public (which is where Nintendo’s shipping rates are) then of course you are going to get shortages. It’s not surprising in the very least and why the hardcore doesn’t get that simple idea is beyond me.

All the stores I go to have at least 3-4 Wii’s in stock, there is much more in stores now then a year ago. But they still sell fast. They stick around on shelves for a few days longer then a year ago.

The bottoms line is that this subject has been analyzed to hell and the bottom line is I belive Nintendo.

A: Because they HAVE put out more product then the competitor and their product has sold faster then the competitor.

B: I HIGHLY doubt Nintendo would ever withhold product when getting that product out is what makes money!

Nintendo loves money and marketing. With all the millions of items Nintendo has put out besides video games a few including toys, stuffed animals, action figures, pins, and clothing why the hell would Nintendo withhold product which will generate income and profit? It makes no sense! The demand is already so high that there is no need to. There is also no logical reason to. You might argue that “people want a Wii and are not going to go buy a 360 because the Wii is sold out which give Nintendo an upper hand. So Nintendo might as well put out more.”

BINGO! Since the demand is already there and is so high, there is no logical reason to withhold product!!! Nintendo has put out more Wii’s then 360’s and PS3’s have been put out. If Nintendo were producing less then Sony or Microsoft then yea we would tell Nintendo to step it up. Just be patience, everybody wants wants wants. Well sometimes a video game is out of stock everywhere so I just wait till next week, its not that big a deal.

Overflowing the market with tons of Wii wouldn’t give them any tangible advantage. The important thing is that every Wii produced is sold to customers, and not retailer! So if the Wii suddenly stop selling they won’t have an enormous amount of a product unsold.

A product that is kept in stock for too much time cost a ton of money!
Take the cars spare parts as an example: do you know why they cost twice as much as the original parts? because automakers have to stock those product away for as little as ten years after that model is dismissed, so customers of that car would be able to find a replacement!

Same thing, with some adjustments (Consoles aren’t stocked for that long), can be said for this market.
Think about Microsoft: they overflooded the market with the 360 (sold to retailers), but that didn’t spurs sales to customers!

I really don’t think is Nintendo’s fault or trick for Wii shortages, it’s just enormously popular that outpaces demand!!!