Topic: Wii Shortage May 'Last for Some Time'

[WindyMan]

Still can't find a Wii?  You may be looking for a while longer.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13308

 Talking on the Game Theory Podcast, Nintendo of America's VP of marketing and corporate affairs let it be known that because of how wildly successful the Wii console has been lately, those that are still looking to find one may need to keep looking a while longer.  Referring to the Wii, Kaplan said, "the product is so very popular that we may see a supply-demand situation last for some time."    

"We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can," continued Kaplan. "The number of units that we have been able to produce has far exceeded our hardware production in the past and the production levels of a lot of our competitors but demand continues to be really high. People are being really diligent about working with retailers to locate one but we are cognizant of the fact that a lot of fans are not able to get their hands on one yet.    

"We are asking them to be patient and to know that we are working on this as fast as we can."    

For the record, approximately 2.5 million Wii consoles have found owners in North America, around 2 million Europeans have found Wiis, and a little over 1 million Japanese Wiis are out and about.  Nintendo's worldwide Wii shipment target was 6 million by the end of March, and once the exact figures come in it seems likely the company will have met that number.    

But if they're still so hard to find, even with that many consoles sold in such a short time, what does that say about the demand for it?

[NWR_pap64]

I honestly don't trust Kaplan that much (since she's been known to exaggerate and take things out of context), but if this is true then SB wasn't so farfetched when he said to expect the Wii shortages to last till the end of summer O_O .

[WindyMan]

I think they'll stay in short supply through next year, and I've thought that before Kaplan's comments.

[Ian Sane]

While I suppose it's good for Nintendo to be selling out of Wiis I hope the shortage doesn't last beyond this Christmas.  At the very least it's a waste for Nintendo to release their big games and have it have no effect on sales because the amount of consoles is too low for sales to go beyond what they would have anyway.

Plus I figure eventually people are going to get pissed off that they can't find a Wii.  A supposedly mass market machine needs to be available to the mass market.  If it remains so obscure it'll become more of a luxury item that requires luck or good connections to get ahold of.  Nintendo needs to have a situation where anyone can walk into a store and buy a Wii with no hassle.  If it requires a hardcore smash_brother level of effort to snag one how many non-gamers are actually going to have one?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
While I suppose it's good for Nintendo to be selling out of Wiis I hope the shortage doesn't last beyond this Christmas.  At the very least it's a waste for Nintendo to release their big games and have it have no effect on sales because the amount of consoles is too low for sales to go beyond what they would have anyway.

Plus I figure eventually people are going to get pissed off that they can't find a Wii.  A supposedly mass market machine needs to be available to the mass market.  If it remains so obscure it'll become more of a luxury item that requires luck or good connections to get ahold of.  Nintendo needs to have a situation where anyone can walk into a store and buy a Wii with no hassle.  If it requires a hardcore smash_brother level of effort to snag one how many non-gamers are actually going to have one?

Um, that is pretty flawed logic. If the Wii is outpacing even production numbers, and will hopefully be revealed to have hit 6 million during March (I would not be surprised if it surpasses 360 by Christmas), that is more then enough systems out on the market, and definately is not an "Obscure" system. Regardless that is alot of owners of the Wii, and it would make no sense NOT to release big games, because you have the installed user base to BUY those games. When you have a userbase gaining rapidly on the 360, it would make no sense whatsoever to avoid releasing big games.  

[Karl Castaneda #2]

Well, Nintendo is adding more partners to their list of manufacturing plants, so hopefully they'll be able to increase the amount of units produced. One of their biggest problems, however, isn't actually making Wiis - it's the fact that they're being a bit lazy in distributing them, opting for boat transport instead of air (based on what I've heard, at least). That sort of slows things down.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: ViewtifulGamer
Well, Nintendo is adding more partners to their list of manufacturing plants, so hopefully they'll be able to increase the amount of units produced. One of their biggest problems, however, isn't actually making Wiis - it's the fact that they're being a bit lazy in distributing them, opting for boat transport instead of air (based on what I've heard, at least). That sort of slows things down.

That may be true, but if they are close to hitting 6 million units (or have hit it), that is impressive shortage or not! I think some people are grasping onto the "shortage" part more so than the demand for the system itself and the overall sales. Wii is outpacing all its competition even with shortages, and will most likely overtake 360 before Christmas.  

[UltimatePartyBear]

Ships aren't that slow.  I did a little googling, and it seems like the average time to cross the Pacific on a container ship is less than two weeks.

[Karl Castaneda #2]

Oh,  I'm not implying that they're coming in at a snail's pace, I'm just saying that shipping units via air is faster (and is apparently what Sony is doing, although the fact that they're not really flying off shelves might mean that the expense for doing so isn't too nasty).

[that Baby guy]

After the initial shipment takes off, and normal restocking takes off, the shipment method shouldn't matter.  For instance, if Nintendo were to switch to shipping by air, we'd see one short period of time of overlap, where the boat and plan shipments reach at the same time, but after that, we'd end up seeing the same amount of units as before.  So basically, if Nintendo were troubling themselves with where to ship units, going by air would result in better numbers, but if they are periodically sending similar numbers, then by going by sea offers very little disadvantage.

[MaryJane]

Quote
Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix

Um, that is pretty flawed logic. If the Wii is outpacing even production numbers, and will hit 6 million by March (I would not be surprised if it surpasses 360 by Christmas), that is more then enough systems out on the market, and definately is not an "Obscure" system. Regardless that is alot of owners of the Wii, and it would make no sense NOT to release big games, because you have the installed user base to BUY those games. When you have a userbase gaining rapidly on the 360, it would make no sense whatsoever to avoid releasing big games.

Quote
Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix

That may be true, but if they are close to hitting 6 million units, that is impressive shortage or not! I think some people are grasping onto the "shortage" part more so than the demand for the system itself and the overall sales. Wii is outpacing all its competition even with shortages, and will most likely overtake 360 before Christmas.

Why do you keep referring to March as if it hasn't come yet? Isn't today Aprill 11, 2007?

The number of Wii consoles shipped between launch and March have yet to be released. That's all we're waiting for, the numbers, March has come and gone.

Looking at the article:

Quote
For the record, approximately 2.5 million Wii consoles have found owners in North America, around 2 million Europeans have found Wiis, and a little over 1 million Japanese Wiis are out and about. Nintendo's worldwide Wii shipment target was 6 million by the end of March, and once the exact figures come in it seems likely the company will have met that number.

2.5+2+1 = 5.5 which means two things. 1. They likely have hit their goal of 6million units shipped. 2. They have sold every one they have shipped, that in itself is incredible when you consider the system is going to be 5 months old in 8 days.

Anyway, I still can't find one .  

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: ViewtifulGamer
Oh,  I'm not implying that they're coming in at a snail's pace, I'm just saying that shipping units via air is faster (and is apparently what Sony is doing, although the fact that they're not really flying off shelves might mean that the expense for doing so isn't too nasty).

I think you are most likely right, at least when it comes to taking that chance. At the moment NIntendo is releasing a ton of units each month, and they may feel they are selling more than enough to justify shipping via sea. Now if they were only getting out a few hundred thousand in each territory, I'd definately be hounding them for the slower transportation. As it stands, they are selling systems at an unbelievable pace, so I'm going to cut them some slack. Could they be opening up more factories? I suppose, but that is a big risk in that if supply starts to outpace demand they may have alot of excess capacity unused, not to mention that once again it isn't like they are slacking off on supplying systems!  Also if they decide to expand production, that could take time as well.

[couchmonkey]

thatguy is right...the bottleneck is at the manufacturing level, not shipping.  If Nintendo could produce 10 million Wiis tomorrow, then shipping by plane would be great, but it's producing the systems as fast as possible and they still aren't enough.

I'll agree with Windy on this one, the shortages may just last all year unless Nintendo really beefs up production.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: MaryJane


Why do you keep referring to March as if it hasn't come yet? Isn't today Aprill 11, 2007?

The number of Wii consoles shipped between launch and March have yet to be released. That's all we're waiting for, the numbers, March has come and gone.

I clarifyed what meant in the posts. Thanks for bringing that up, I worded it poorly.

[Luigi Dude]

The Wii has sold around 2 million systems in Japan, which puts the Wii's total at 6.5 million worldwide.  Accourding to Media Create by the end of March the Wii had sold 1,960,000 units in Japan.  BlackNMild2k1 even posted the data in the Offical Wii Sales Data Topic earlier today.  Now VG Charts has the Wii selling 2.12 million systems in Japan to date and when you compare it to Media Creates Data, the facts point to the Wii selling over 2 million systems in Japan.

This means Nintendo has sold 6.5 million Wii's in only 5 months, which is really amazing.  And when you consider that according to most sales data, the X-Box 360 is only between 9.5 - 11 million wordwide, the Wii will easily surpass it's worldwide sales by the end of this summer.  

[Ian Sane]

"Regardless that is alot of owners of the Wii, and it would make no sense NOT to release big games, because you have the installed user base to BUY those games."

Oh they should definitely release those big games.  They'll sell and the userbase deserves big games.  It's just that it won't cause a boost in sales because the situation is such that it can't.  So it's kind of unfortunate that a system seller isn't able to be used to it's full potential.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"Regardless that is alot of owners of the Wii, and it would make no sense NOT to release big games, because you have the installed user base to BUY those games."

Oh they should definitely release those big games.  They'll sell and the userbase deserves big games.  It's just that it won't cause a boost in sales because the situation is such that it can't.  So it's kind of unfortunate that a system seller isn't able to be used to it's full potential.

When you release a big game, you care more about the sales of that game, that will hopefully coincide with increased system sales. If anything a big game may have an impact still in system sales, mainly in keeping the demand so freaking high that it is still selling out. When it is all said and done, when it comes to games you care more about how many are in the hands of the consumer not how many systems it is selling (though both are definately related on some level).

[Kairon]

The funny thing is that despite a shortage, Nintendo is outselling AND outshipping its competitors in ALL three major territories!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
The funny thing is that despite a shortage, Nintendo is outselling AND outshipping its competitors in ALL three major territories!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

See, when a Sony fanboy admits that the Wii outshipping and outselling the competitors, you know Nintendo is doing something right. hehe

[Kairon]

STOP MAKING ME CHASE YOU AROUND THE FORUMS! AAAAAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane If it requires a hardcore smash_brother level of effort to snag one how many non-gamers are actually going to have one?

Look, ma! I'm an adjective!

I do still have one Wii left from the four I picked up. You want it, Ian?

[Jin-X]

I thought by now people would have understood that there is no shortage, demand is just freaking insane.

[Jome20]

I agree, I think it's hard to say there are shortages when Wii sales numbers average out to be over $1 million per month since it's release in November.

Demand is just insane.  That's all there is to it.

Regarding the transportation methods, shipping by boat makes perfect sense.  As another forum member mentioned, transportation is not the problem.  It's the amount of systems that Nintendo can manufacture and the incredible demand for the system.  It doesn't make any sense for Nintendo, as a business that wants to make as much profit as possible, would want to use a more expensive method of shipping (by plane) when there is literally no need for it.  It's like "Hey Nintendo, do you want to spend more money on shipping or reduce your expenses and make more profit by shipping via boat?" ... It's really a no-brainer.

Just to put the demand in perspective, I work in retail that sells electronics (games).  And day in and day out we get so many calls asking if we have any Wii's in.  When we do get them in, they sell immediately.  Recently we actually got a decently large shipment of 15.  It took us less than 24 hours to sell through all of them (and considering we were probably closed for at least 10 of those hours, that's pretty incredible.

To put that in perspective, we'll probably sell one to two PS3 / 360s in a week's time.

As far as how long it'll be before you can just casually walk into a store and buy one.  I have no idea.  When the system first came out, I figured it'd probably be around mid-to-late January before you'd be able to pick one up.  I figured it was all Christmas hype.  But meanwhile, while 360 and PS3 sales have slowed down after Christmas.  The Wii continues to sell at an incredible pace.  One might not be able to casually walk in and get a Wii until sometime during the summer.  If it doesn't happen then, then don't expect to be able to walk in and buy a Wii on any day until sometime in 2008.

If that does occur and the demand is this constant throughout all of 2007, then there's absolutely no question in my mind that Nintendo and the Wii will easily surpass the 360 in total sales numbers by the end of the year.

[Kairon]

Yeah, if demand doesn't die down by this summer, then Christmas and the Holidays will kick in and the fever won't die down until spring 2008...

That said, does this possibility remind anyone else of how out-of-stock the DS has been? In Japan, it's been permanently sold out ever since... holidays 2005?

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Djunknown]

15 at once? Damn, you're lucky.

But since you're going to Digipen (which is close to NOA's headquaters) I'm not surprised at those numbers. They'd be getting the lion's share logically.

Demand is still so high after so long? I just hope a large percentage of those aren't eBay scum, though I guess that's saying something if they're still in business, can't pull that off with the PS3 anymore...

If they're having problems keeping the iPod white model in stock, when will Nintendo start making them in different colors? Any educated guesses?