Messages

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:What's the FRIGGIN' hold up!?

« on: December 27, 2006, 10:51:15 AM »

Quote

Wii had a WOLDWIDE FREAKING LAUNCH.  This wasn't like GameCube's tiny 1million units between Japan and USA in 2001 (with NOTHING everywhere else for several months, not to mention slooooow restocks in the USA).

NORTH AMERICA - BOOM
JAPAN - BOOM
EURO/AUSTRALIA - BOOM

IT'S OUT IN ALL THE MAJOR TERRITORIES, WITHIN A 30 DAY LAUNCH WINDOW.  AND IT'S STILL IN DEMAND.

THAT IS UNHEARD OF.  GameCube was never fortunate to have so many willing customers in such a short time.

It's not "what's the hold up?", it's "DAMN, you people are NUTS for waiting in line all the time!"

No, it's why did we believe Nintendo when they said they'd have four million units worldwide, and two million in the US.  The shortages are ENTIRELY the result of Nintendo failing miserably to deliver on THEIR PROMISE.

It has nothing to do with people being crazy for the system.  It has barely outsold the GameCube in the US.  It has everything to do with Nintendo lying about how many would be available.  It's a purely artificial shortage.  THEY ARE THE ONES WHO SAID IT WOULD BE PLENTIFUL.  And it should be easy to manufacture, it doesn't have half the parts of a PS3 or 360.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:The biggest disaster in Nintendo history?

« on: December 18, 2006, 11:03:47 PM »

Finally, somebody else sees it.  

The Two Worst Console Launches Ever?

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7711063&publicUserId=5519593

He says:

"What is Nintendo's excuse? A console that uses outdated old technology and sold through every unit during the month of November only ended up selling 476k units? Because it's just a GameCube+Waggle, I thought this console was going to be available. Even now, consumers are still suffering from Nintendo's inability to keep up supply.

While Sony certainly can't be accused of shortchanging supply to increase perceived demand, Nintendo certainly can be. If it's not hard to make -- why aren't there more? I'm unwilling to sit out in the cold for a Zelda-playing machine, and the simple truth is: I shouldn't have to and neither should you."


Exactly.  So when this year ends and shows Nintendo shipped 2.2 million of their promised 4 million consoles, will it be a news story?  Because they made it a news story every single time Reggie said they were on target for the four million.  So is someone going to call them on it?

3

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The biggest disaster in Nintendo history?

« on: December 10, 2006, 04:06:48 AM »

So I see Nintendo was actually forced to retract a press release due to the Wii production shortfall.

To back up, remember that Reggie Fils-Aime said there would be TWO MILLION Wiis available in the US by the end of 2006:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162151.html

So a few days ago Nintendo releases a press release promising "well over ONE MILLION" in the US by the end of the year.  They then had to issue a correction asking to remove the reference completely:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25212387&sid=6162916

Those of you who went out this weekend know that there were NO Wii shipments to any of the major chains.  Systems show up at GameStop locations two and three at a time in sporadic shipments, but nothing approaching the 200,000 to 250,000 systems a week Nintendo promised.  And shipments dried up completely this weekend, as Nintendo sent inventory to Japan and Europe.

Japan has been promised one million systems by years' end, just like the USA.  Europe doesn't get enough inventory to make a major dent.  And yet, Reggie stands by the "four million worldwide by the end of 2006" statement.  So where are the other two million systems going?  The bottom of the ocean?  

The actual sales of the Wii in the US are going to be just slightly BELOW that of the GameCube.  All because of this mysterious supply shortage that nobody anywhere is reporting on as being an issue.

[in fewer numbers than the PS3]

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Nintendo Gaming / The biggest disaster in Nintendo history?

« on: November 26, 2006, 03:26:34 AM »

So what's gone wrong?

Nintendo said for MONTHS they'd have one million systems available for the U.S. launch, with two million by the end of 2006 in North America alone.  Four million worldwide.

The million systems at launch turned out to be 450,000.

They claimed they'd would be able to ship 200,000 systems every week after launch.  After one week, retailers have received ZERO systems.

Nintendo missed Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.  The only retailers with systems available on Black Friday were those who held over systems from the initial launch.

There are now almost 700,000 Wiis missing from Nintendo's promised shipments.  If Nintendo comes up empty next weekend, we'll be getting close to a million.

What happened?  

What disaster destroyed Nintendo's ability to manufacture this machine?  Their entire hype campaign leading up to launch was based on the premise they'd have plentiful supplies (the "four million systems worldwide" number was quoted in EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE).  Some reports even claimed they were far ahead in production.  The ease of manufacturing this system was one of its strong suits, far fewer internal parts than the PS3.

But when launch came, the supplies have been disastrously short instead.  Now Sony is following through on their promise to deliver one million systems to the US by year's end, and the Wii is looking to be produced in fewer numbers than the PS3.

This is the big story of the industry right now, trying to figure out what has gone so badly wrong on Nintendo's end.  Typically it winds up being a single component or chip that has come up in short supply or high in defect rates.  Whatever it is, it's going to slash two million systems off Nintendo's 2006 projections, and nearly a billion dollars off Nintendo's hardware and software sales for 2006.

In other words, it's the biggest disaster in Nintendo history.  Their console division, gasping on life support with 15% market share, was depending on this system to expand that user base, to draw in third parties.  Now, the launch is going to wind up with fewer systems in users' hands than the Gamecube.  Whatever has gone wrong with the Wii, whatever has destroyed their ability to manufacture it, may be a nail in the coffin for Nintendo as a manufacturer of consoles.