Wii shortages still, why?

[Concrete donkey]

Our indie store have all but given up on UK stock and importing them from Europe. We've sold alot on ebay around the ?270 mark, and selling instore for ?220 and still sold out fast.

I thought the supply problems were due to the manufacturing of the remotes themselves more than the actual machine. The other thing to note is demand seems much higher for the wii and if ps3 had similar demand levels we'd probably see shortages on those aswell.

[Swallow]

Yeah, VG+ all the way, or Japanese ones can be had for mere pocket change.

[reektan]

amazon.de and .fr have had a lot of them. My brother ordered one on Monday - got it on wednesday. £172 all in or something.

[Swallow]

I'm not militant about importing, but I guess if you have more than a passing interest in games, getting them without unreasonable delays or prices, you would come to regret buying a PAL console pretty soon.

[Dirty Sanchez]

I'm not militant about importing, but I guess if you have more than a passing interest in games, getting them without unreasonable delays or prices, you would come to regret buying a PAL console pretty soon.

If the console was for me then I'd have gone for the US version. It's not though, it's for my daughter who no doubt will want to take her disks to her friends and likewise for them to come to ours with theirs.

We'll not be downloading any of the older games, nor buying any GC games. The control system is what she wants to use, simple gameplay and fun.

[ascender]

How can there possibly be a shortage after this length of time given the hardware in question?

[Ian(not Ian)]

10+ in stock and a snip at 270 British Pounds. Dear me.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CO-000-NI

[Brats]

How can there possibly be a shortage after this length of time given the hardware in question?

Coz it's still selling ****loads.

To put it in perspective, in the US in September the 360 had it's second best selling month ever due to Halo 3, a game that sold 3.3 million copies in a week and has been subject to one of the largest advertising campaigns in the history of videogames.

But the Wii was only just behind it with no new games and no big advertising push. Had it actually been easily available, it would probably have sold more than the 360.

The thing is just a phenomenon. Even with all the big games coming out this Christmas, I expect the biggest selling game to be Wii Sports at ?180.

[Resonance]

Well if you cant get your kids a Wii for Christmas, get them a Vii ! http://cn.engadget.com/2007/11/04/vi...ox-video-shot/
I am sure they will love you for it!

[huxley]

Global warming is to blame for the shortage of the magic blue smoke and rainbow sparkles that go into each Wii.

Its true a mouse told me...... down the pub........ he was drinking babysham.

[fishbowlhead]

Global warming is to blame for the shortage of the magic blue smoke and rainbow sparkles that go into each Wii.

Its true a mouse told me...... down the pub........ he was drinking babysham.

mstery solved! we can close the case on this one

[ascender]

Coz it's still selling ****loads.

Yeah, but its been selling like that from the start. Unless Nintendo haven't noticed of course? You'd think someone would realise that if they made more, then they'd sell more.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Have there any stories about Nintendo increasing production ie extra 100,000 console a month than 12 months ago for example.

I mean if I want a PS3 or XBOX 360 I can buy one in five minutes.

[elkatas]

What i would like to know is this, how can nintendo not make enough of a console that is basicly a gamecube with some flash memory and add ons attached?

Currently Nintendo manufactures 1.6 million Wiis per month (Iwata said said so in latest Japanese Q/A), which means 0.6 Wiis per second. Units are manufactured via two key suppliers, meaning that Nintendo is pretty much hitting physical limitation for output. And Nintendo's own subcontractors are hitting physical ceiling too. For example, let's take company that makes accelometers for Wiimotes. You are barely coping with current demand, and suddenly, general demand for accelometres literally explodes. Why? Because Nintendo needs at least two accelometres per each wiimote.

Before you ask why they can't just contract more suppliers, they are doing it, but it does take time. First you need to find suitable supplier, negotiate deal, finalize contracts, do changes to assembly lines, order more components (meaning more deals and negotations), optimize assembly line, do general Q/A testing and so on. This can literally take months. Furthermore, doing too much units can result in unsold stock, and price per manufactured unit does creep up after certain point. It doesn't help either that Nintendo is rather conservative company, and they still fear situation where they are forced to shut down assembly lines for few months thanks to unsold stock (this happened with Gamecube).

Nintendo is holding little amount of monthly stock (around 150 000 is current estimation), but this stock is meant for holidays, when demand will literary boom. After all, it is far worse PR to not have enough Wiis during Christmas, than not having enough units during June. But so far Nintendo has manufactured roughly 2.5 times more consoles than its competitor has ever manufactured units during the first year.

[Swallow]

not having enough christmas during june.

There's never enough Christmas in June.