Wii Wii Wii

[Hateboy]

Tryng to get a Wii for my son for Xmas is like extracting your own teeth. whats the deal its been out for a year and still the demand is really high Finally made the choice to order it from BTshop.com with a 2 week waiting list. everywhere else was sold out with no arrival date. supply and demand are pushing the prices way up to.

[Kash]

Yea, it's really crazy that the thing is still out of stock despite being available for several months. You would think that it would be easier to mass produce a console that was easier to produce than the competition. It took me months before I could get my hands on the thing.

[Tirian-64]

heh, i waited, outside.... 18F. was sick the next day.

but being No.2 in line... priceless!

[kingdingeling]

lol tirian

 

When Super Mario comes out for it, I have to see if I get one

[NotForNothing]

I ended up calling local retailers until I found one. Forget driving around town.

[cdoggown]

I can help you, friend.

 

 

Steps to success:

 

 

1. Buy Gamecube

2. Spray-paint white

3. "If you dont wave the controller around while you play, your mum and I wont pay to fix your crooked brit teeth, son!"

 

Problem sovled. You can thank me later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really though, actually finding that console isnt that hard, finding one for retail is insane. The Best Buy Im working at P/T gets them in occassionally. Any idea what it would cost you to have me ship you one?

[exeter_acres]

Yea, it's really crazy that the thing is still out of stock despite being available for several months.

 

 

 

There are reports that they are doing this entirely on purpose.....

 

Lack of product raises hype, raises demand (artificially because shoppers just follow the latest Fade...because we HAVE to have it..)

then Nintendo can keep the prices higher than if they flooded the market....

 

Think about it.... if the market was flooded... everyone who wants one (uncluding us!) would have it... there woudl be no hype...no demand... prices would lower... Nintendo profits would fall, etc. etc. etc

[Verran]

There are reports that they are doing this entirely on purpose.....

Of course they are! And anyone here who says they'd do differently is either crazy or lying.

 

They've been doing an excellent job of walking the "just enough production" line. Ship too much and it loses that "hard to find" feel that causes people to snatch them up on impulse alone. Ship too few and frustrate your market too much to the point they give up. It's a delicate balance and Nintendo's raking cash hand-over-fist because they understand it.

 

People act bitter towards Nintendo because of this, but it's just smart business. They're not cheating anyone. The other console makers would kill to be able to do the same.

 

But there's a lot of misconceptions too. They're not doing it to raise the price. The price is the same since launch, at least from Nintendo. Retailers may be bumping the price, but that's got nothing to do with Nintendo. And also, I'm sure they could produce more if they really wanted too, but their production hasn't exactly been slacking either. They've produced about 12 million consoles in a year. That's more than either of its competitors.

[htaed]

the current lack of wii's where from nintendo deciding to "relaunch" the system because they now include free controller sleezes with the system and if u have one but want free sleeves nintendo is handing them out for free up to 4 off of there website somewhere. i work at a gamestop. wiis have slowly been coming in more and more, just call ur local gamestops around liek 2 or 3ish in the afternoon ill let u know if i get any leads.

[Psydotek]

Of course they are! And anyone here who says they'd do differently is either crazy or lying.

 

They've been doing an excellent job of walking the "just enough production" line. Ship too much and it loses that "hard to find" feel that causes people to snatch them up on impulse alone. Ship too few and frustrate your market too much to the point they give up. It's a delicate balance and Nintendo's raking cash hand-over-fist because they understand it.

 

People act bitter towards Nintendo because of this, but it's just smart business. They're not cheating anyone. The other console makers would kill to be able to do the same.

 

But there's a lot of misconceptions too. They're not doing it to raise the price. The price is the same since launch, at least from Nintendo. Retailers may be bumping the price, but that's got nothing to do with Nintendo. And also, I'm sure they could produce more if they really wanted too, but their production hasn't exactly been slacking either. They've produced about 12 million consoles in a year. That's more than either of its competitors.

+1

 

Nintendo is doing it just right. They make profilt on EVERY console being sold and doing it with a system that costs significnatly less than the other two. Microsoft and Sony were taking losses on the XBox360 and PS3 after launch (they might still be, haven't checked their news in a while).

 

The other thing Nintendo is avoiding by not flooding the market is price cutting. If/when console demand drops off, Nintendo would have been stuck with an excess of consoles and they'd be forced to cut prices to get them sold.

 

[full disclosure: i'm a nintendo fanboy with an objective as possible analysis of the videogame industry]

Edited October 24, 2007 by Psydotek

[cchalogamer]

Of course they are! And anyone here who says they'd do differently is either crazy or lying.

 

They've been doing an excellent job of walking the "just enough production" line. Ship too much and it loses that "hard to find" feel that causes people to snatch them up on impulse alone. Ship too few and frustrate your market too much to the point they give up. It's a delicate balance and Nintendo's raking cash hand-over-fist because they understand it.

Yes, but no. While with most products in the market your statement is entirely true, for game consoles...not so much. Take for example Microsoft and the XBOX 360, at launch microsoft was loosing piles of cash for each console sold. How can a company do this? It defies all econmoic logic with one exception. If i sell you my console, it stands to reason that you will buy games for my console so you can play. Microsoft gets percentage of the price for every game sold for their console therfore it is in their best intrest to get as many consoles to the market and as many peopel buying games for thier consoles as possible.

 

Now nintendo's situation is a little different. They were turning a hardware profit from the start. Therefore if all they sold were Wii consoles the company in theory still wouldnt go under (though idk if they calculate their "profit" as the cost of the pieces + putting them to gether cost > cost to retail or if it's all the R&D marketing etc plus the more obvious costs > cost to retail. Chances are it's more like the first). For the big N it's win win win loose to have as many consoles out there as they can. 1. They win by pure hardware sales 2. They win by the additional software sales that more consoles bring 3. They have more publishers funding games for thier system because of the large market, and lastly the they loose by Verran's example if they produce huge quantities of the system.

 

So while it may or may not be the best strategy for the hear and now or for the long run chances are the lower production is based on the expected Wii performance when compared to the Gamecube and Nintendo having far more demand than they had expected. Then they have a decision to make, increase production (build more facilites, hire new workers) and possibly cut too deeply into the current profits to then have demand die down and have too much invested in facilites you don't need. Or they can just keep going like they are and ride this wave of console love until it fades away.

 

The bad thing is we'll never know which is the right decision, we'll get to see the outcome of Nintendo's current choice, however there's no way of knowing the market reaction to the other options they had during the process. None of that was to say "Verran, you're wrong, and a stupid head! " it was more of a "Yes...but what if..." kind of thing that turned into a crapload more than I had planned to type.

 

Oh on a side note, the local Walmart has had Wiis in stock about 90% of the time when I look...will ship to the highest bidder

[Hateboy]

Wow thanks for the replies fellas, didnt realise so many had so many views on why lol. I'm not that worried yet though, the online shop i ordered from is quite reputable and it says a 2 week waiting list which means i get it for my son in the 2nd week of november which is plenty of time as its a xmas pressie.

 

if on the other hand they delay until 2weeks before xmas i will be wondering what to do next.