Wii shortages still, why?

[Swallow]

the local entertainment is tipping cows and trying to get your sister drunk on a Friday night.

Awesome! Plane ride GET!

[Concrete donkey]

Does anyone know if its quite easy to buy a wii at standard retail shops in america? Reason I ask is because my brother lives there and he'll be comin home at christmas so if they are available to pick up there i'd maybe ask him to get me one.

Last month I was in the Toys R Us in Time square. They had a bunch of Wii's in, and I was the only person in a very long queue who didn't have a wii in hand. So I guess they go pretty quickly

[capcom_suicide]

I don't understand this. All the shops here have them.

I just took a drive to the local electronics shop, usually slow on games, but cheap, and they had this lot.

The brown boxes are full of Wii's too. Literally hundreds of Wiis....

Odd.

[elkatas]

I don't understand this. All the shops here have them..

Guess what? You are in the land of fjords, expensive food and wooly sweaters. Not exactly Nintendo's strongest market in the Europe (in fact, I think that it is third worst after Finland and Sweden).

[PhilG]

Amazon.de have them in stock now here. They take about 2-3 working days to arrive from Germany via DHL, and cost approx £176. There's no import duty and Amazon.de include German VAT at the checkout (included in the above price) so there's no customs unpleasantness whatsoever.

It's the same as the UK PAL model other than requiring a two-pin adapter - couple of quid from Wilkos/B&Q. AFAIK Nintendo UK honour the warranty and you set the console to English during the initial set-up

If youre confused by the checkout, it's the same as the UK one, so run a purchase of anything on Amazon.co.uk (without confirming to pay) in another browser window alongside the German one to help you through. Your UK account works on the German store too, so no faffing around with registering.

[capcom_suicide]

Guess what? You are in the land of fjords, expensive food and wooly sweaters. Not exactly Nintendo's strongest market in the Europe (in fact, I think that it is third worst after Finland and Sweden).

Oh yeah that's a point. Nintendo seems to be DS only here.

[Silvergun X]

I've started work again at GAME. And i'll tell you one thing, it's certainly not a stock shortage. We've had a couple of deliveries in a week of about 10, sometimes as many as 21 a day.

All of them are getting reserved within the first 10 minutes of opening.

It's not the supply that's the problem. It's the absolutely insane demand.

[ascender]

So what's the software take-up like with the Wii now? I'm fascinated to see just what people are buying with it as everyone I speak to only has eyes for Wii Sports.

[smouty]

So what's the software take-up like with the Wii now? I'm fascinated to see just what people are buying with it as everyone I speak to only has eyes for Wii Sports.

Wow - That is what you call a killer app!
If Mario galaxy is as good as expected and the reviews then I can't see the situation changing anytime soon.

[elkatas]

So what's the software take-up like with the Wii now? I'm fascinated to see just what people are buying with it as everyone I speak to only has eyes for Wii Sports.

In Japan, new people purchase mostly Wii Play or Mario Party 8, which actually worries Nintendo too. Super Mario Galaxy is selling relatively well too, but it looks currently that it will be more like Mario 64* or Sunshine** type success, than NSMB like megasuccess.

In USA, situation is little odd. Current TOP-10 sellers are Wii Play, Guitar Hero III and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Mario Party 8 pulls decent numbers too, and Carnival Games has already sold over 300 000 copies. Unfortunately we won't get new sales numbers anymore, because NPD doesn't want their customers to leak them into the public. From rumours that I have heard, we can thank Sony for this move.

In UK, four main sellers are MySims, Wii Play, Mario Party 8 and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I don't know real sales numbers for these. But in general Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is performing better than Echoes did, and it should sell at least 1.4 million copies before end of this generation (outside first Metroid Prime, no Metroid game has ever sold more than 1.2 million copies).

* Mario 64 sold 1.2 million copies in Japan
** Sunshine sold 750 000 copies in Japan

[gizmo1990]

what the hecks the deal with Wii play!? Why is it constantly unavailable here?

I've had a quick look on ebay and it going for ?50 with the controller!!??

Anyone know of any places that are stocking them?

[Dazzyman]

Woolys stores seem to be a very good place to get Wii Play

[elkatas]

what the hecks the deal with Wii play!? Why is it constantly unavailable here?

Nintendo can't manufacture enough controllers. Even Nintendo's printing facilities are currently overtaxed, which means that there will be less copies circulating for some titles.

[JU!]

I don't understand how Nintendo could not forsee this demand, judging by how well it's been selling. They must be stupid

[fishbowlhead]

I don't understand how Nintendo could not forsee this demand, judging by how well it's been selling. They must be stupid

clearly theres a lack of brains in some departments in all the console manufactures at the moment, nintendo dont make enough, sony havent got any games, microsoft cant make a console that doesent sount like a small plane taking off, take your pick .

But you still should not have the situation where your product is basicly impossible to get hold of (especially after an entire year after launch), customers can, and do get sick of it and will simply buy something else.