Topic: British Demand for Wii Unlikely to Be Met This Christmas

[Yoshidious]

Hordes of holiday Wii-seekers look abroad and prepare for heartbreak.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14835

 According to a report from the Telegraph amongst others, British retailers are conceding they will not be able to meet the "unprecedented" demand for Wii as their fresh stocks, consisting of thousands of units, are exhausted within hours and even minutes of being made available.    

Stock alert services have seen their websites inundated with over 100,000 visitors per day, presumably looking to avoid resorting to online auctions where one can expect to pay nearly double the £179 retail price in order to secure a system. Importing units from continental Europe, where demand for Wii appears significantly weaker than it is in the UK, is emerging as an attractive alternative to relying on eBay or retailer reservations.  This was acknowledged by Nintendo UK’s Rob Saunders last week while addressing consumers’ concerns in a Q&A with the BBC, also assuring the public that Nintendo is in no way artificially constricting the supply of the console and/or manipulating its price.    

This pronounced imbalance between demand and supply appears to be driven more by the UK’s extraordinary desire for Wii rather than lacklustre allocation of units, as retailers expect a "steady flow" of units and a "good level of sales" from now until Christmas. Regardless, prospective Wii purchasers may need to be much less casual about purchasing the console than they are about playing games if they are to be bowling come Boxing Day.

[Mario]

100,000 visitors per day. Good gravy.

[Morari]

CENSORED FOR YOUR PROTECTION

[IceCold]

And apparently Mario Galaxy has one of NOE's biggest advertising campaigns ever..

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Wii isn't all that big.  Just look at E3.  They'll be able to walk into stores during the holidays and pick one up, no problem.

[/sarcasm]

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold
And apparently Mario Galaxy has one of NOE's biggest advertising campaigns ever..

Nintendo needs to advertise less, moneyhat more!

[IceCold]

It's times like these that I remember this thread..

Oh Kairon..

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold
It's times like these that I remember this thread..

Oh Kairon..

And once again Smash_Brothers was the voice of reason!

[KDR_11k]

Quote
Originally posted by: Morari
Silly Europeans... I just bought my Wii yesterday (Sunday) after only two weeks of pinning down store shipments. I'd really hate to be trying to get one after Thanksgiving though. All of those poor, misguided people that just have to buy one in order to properly celebrate some charlatan's birthday in a fit of consumerism.

Silly American. There are huge piles of Wii in any store here in Germany. Pinning down shipments? Too much work, just walk in and buy one.

[UncleBob]

I'm getting tired of hearing about how Nintendo is creating false demand by creating a false shortage.

Seriously people, they've sold as many of these units in a year as Microsoft sold in two years - and twice what Sony has sold of the PS3.  Additionally, the system has been virtually sold out since it was released.  Some people complain that the local Wal*Mart only gets three in at a time - guess what!  We typically only get 2 PS3's or 360's in at a time, and we rarely get them (just about) every single week.  And we've never gotten huge shipments of 27 units (that sold out in less than 24 hours) about a year after they were released.

[BwrJim!]

You really had to stretch on the end there.   Good Job!