Wii Shortages Could Last For Months

Next Generation is reporting that, apparently, the Wii shortages could continue for some time yet. This is news from Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's VP of marketing and corporate affairs, speaking to the Game Theory Podcast. Says Kaplan, "There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but 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. 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."

Comments

Rly?

[pauloncall]

I went with my fiance to Costco on the release date where we each picked up the $340 ($357 w/tax) Costco Wii Bundle (Wii + Zelda + Excite Truck). One was for me and the other was for resale. I tried for 3 months to sell it on craigslist - first for $450 (on the release date), then $400, and then at $357. When I dropped it down to $357 I had one Indian (dot not feather) call me and tried to negotiate the price to $200. In the end I decided it wasn't worth it and returned it to Costco for a full refund. The guy behind me in the return line bought it the second I returned it. My guess is that there aren't any on the shelves because everyone is selling them for a quick $50 profit on craigslist. And I live in Northern Virginia, one of the most affluent areas in the country. I must not be a good salesman!

Artificial shortage

[billcopc]

This reminds me of the Xbox 360 release. One of the reasons why there's a Wii shortage is because of all the assholes hoarding them for big profits. Every day in the local bartering newsgroup/weblists, I see a half-dozen Wiis posted for ridiculous prices. The fact that these welfare cases crawl their asses off to Best Buy every morning with their mastercard is just one of the reasons why I want to strangle each and every one of these scalpers. Just in my city, there's probably a hundred Wiis being "held hostage", that's probably more than the actual demand would be so Best Buy isn't going to do anything to stop it, they're just moving more units.

While we're at it, anyone wanna pay $900 for a Duron 1.3ghz system with a massive 15" CRT ? Come to Ottawa, someone here will gladly take your money.