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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."
... it's only going to be a bit Wii late. :P
I asked about the Wii and PS3 at my local gamestore not too terirbly long ago. The Wii's waiting list had been hovering around 100 people ever since it came out. The PS3 had 18 units in back waiting to be sold. Maybe fun really is more important than pretty?
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I've seen them on TV and on the Internet. I've seen empty boxes with price tags on them in stores. I've seen demo systems behind glass running a demo.
I'VE NEVER SEEN THE WII
Does anyone actually own one and play it in their home? These things have supposedly been out since Christmas, I live in a major metropolitan area, I know lots of people, and I don't know anyone that has one or heard anyone talking about playing one. Did they only make a few dozen that were snapped up by Best Buy employees?
I don't believe the demand is there anymore - I only here people buying XBOX 360 because that't the only thing to buy.
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It's quite simple actually... the Wii is not made for "normal" games. If you want to play "normal" games, get a PS2 or a PC.
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Use the nunchuck as a movement joystick, and the remote has 2 easy access buttons (1,2) and the nunchuck has 2 (c,z), along with 4 menu buttons (up,left,right,down arrows) and two option buttons (plus,minus).
Not terribly many games use more than 4 quick access buttons, and 6 menu buttons. A few, yes, but not really that many.
Most games do use just one joystick, unless its a FPS game, which traditionally use two, and you can see why the Wii won't need two joysticks.
Thats funny, I haven't used the 360 for anything other than a means of watching HD movies since I got the Wii.
I see Zelda, Paper Mario, Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Elebits - and even "crappy" wii games like Rampage are fun on the Wii. And I see nothing really worth owning on the 360 (I guess Gears of War is alright, I'll pick it up when its cheaper though..)
To me, the 360 and PS3 don't offer anything that I haven't played before - they're the exact same games I've played since the PSX era, with the exact same controller. The games are just shinier. But, the Wii offers something new.
I've played Far Cry for both, both are supposedly "crappy" titles, relative to what's out there. But the wii-mote actually works, and I found the Wii version engaging because of it.
What does that prove? Nothing. Just that different people have different tastes.
But the numbers seem to show there's more of me than you.
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I get the idea that Nintendo is going to drop the ball on this. Having a hot system is one thing, but not being able to match demand for a console that your business is going to revolve around (outside of the DS) for the next couple of years while games sit on the shelves untouched because nobody can play them is sheer incompetence. If it's a game, then Nintendo is betting a lot. If they lose and people get sick of waiting, then they're going to sink. Seriously, what is the problem? They're not amateurs at this, this is their bread and butter.
Hate for MS? Are you joking? The average consumer vaguely knows MS is a cool technology company and might know they make Windows. The reason the Wii is in such demand is a series of well planned moves from Nintendo. They aimed at the casual gamer market instead of the traditional game console market. They continued their support for the younger children market. Maybe you are not understanding the demand because you are not the average buyer. The average buyer has an old console and is looking for one from this generation. They do not have two xbox 360's. The average buyer cares about price and the Wii is killing MS on price. The average consumer has seen the TV ads and the occasional article or news program commentary and what they took away from it is that the Wii is new and different with different controls and new types of games, while the Sony and MS systems are the same thing with slightly better graphics and a big price tag.
Nintendo took a big gamble in abandoning the traditional controller and focusing on a new type of gameplay. They took a big gamble in aiming at a nontraditional market. Those gambles paid off. Most of the big game developers expected them to fail and ignored the Wii as being too different from the others, figuring it likely either Sony or MS would win and they could make a quick port if they backed the wrong player. Those developers are all trying to reverse course and announcing Wii titles in the works.
I think you're right for the most part that the Wii only has a few good titles right now. That doesn't much matter to the average buyer though, because the average buyer only buys two games a year. I also think the strategic buyer on a budget, looking to the future will probably conclude that the Wii's popularity will result in it getting many of the best games a year from now. The only people it does matter to are people like you, who are going to buy several consoles and pick up a Wii anyway. You did buy one, right?
In summary, if you're looking to think hatred for MS is the cause, I only wish people were that conscious of MS's actions and that ethical and meticulous in their purchasing decisions. The Wii is winning on its merits, which are merits that don't apply to unusual buyers and hardcore gamers like yourself. Note, I am not a fanboy for any game console. I have a PS2 and an old dreamcast somewhere. I probably will not buy any current console for a year or more, or not at all. Right now, If someone gave me $600 on the condition I bought one, I'd get a Wii and a couple games and pocket the rest of the cash.
Clearly you're a gamer, so you don't understand how real people game. You've got a game maintenance cycle. If you can't buy a new game every month, you don't care about the console.
Real people are not buying the Wii to play a game every month. They're spending $300 to play WiiSports. That's it! If the console never does anything else, they still got to play WiiSports for a couple of months. The entertainment cost is comparable to going to the movies once a week.
Keep in mind that first, real people don't sit down and game for hours every day. Bringing the Wii out on Saturday afternoon is a treat. It's like Monopoly or Scrabble. This keeps it fun longer.
Real people also don't have a whole set of consoles. When they're playing the Wii, they're getting the full enjoyment of "I'm playing a videogame!" on top of "I'm playing WiiSports." You no longer have fun just because you're playing a videogame. For you it has to be either a GREAT videogame or a NEW videogame.
So all these real people are going out and buying the Wii, and guess what? There are about four times as many of them as there are people like you. The whole videogame hardware production pipeline was geared towards the forty million people who buy videogames regularly, divided among three console brands and the PC. When the wider population taps in the pipeline hits capacity fast. I guess you don't remember Pac-man. Same thing happened.
Each Wii owned by a real person will probably only run four to eight games in the next five years. Shocking, isn't it? Nintendo isn't scared of this because that's where they already were... I know I only played about eight games on my Cube, and only six on my N64. They were all great, and I haven't had time for more than that. A game or two a year is my console limit as an adult, even though I work in the field.
So think Scrabble, not Halo, and you'll get it.
"Normal" in what sense? Keep in mind that the entire idea of a controller with a thumbpad on one side and buttons on the other didn't exist until Nintendo came along. I'm sure people then were also skeptical on how "normal" games would be played. ;)
The Wii-mote can be turned sideways, and in that respect can function a lot like a "normal" Nintendo controller. Super Paper Mario is one game I own that does this. Plus it also occasionally makes use of the pointing and motion abilities, too, in a very intuitive and easy to play by manner.
There's also the Wii Classic Controller, which is (as its name implies) a classically-shaped controller. While intended for the Virtual Console, I wouldn't be surprised if new games start requiring it, too. Plus, as you say, you can just use the Gamecube controllers.
While I'll admit that needing to buy a Wii-mote, and then also buy additional controller parts (classic controller and nun-chuk controller) is irritating, and rather expensive, in the end it's probably a smooth idea, as it increases the number of game styles the system can support. And it's not like consumers aren't already used to buying unique controllers, such as the Guitar Hero controller or DDR mats and the like.
From what I've seen, a surprisingly large portion of the demand is coming from people who normally wouldn't buy a game system, or at least wouldn't put much time into trying to find one that's selling out so quickly. I've watched people who "hate video games" get hooked on Wii Sports because they're so easy to pick up and learn. I've taught people to play and they're surprised by the controls; they have a very hard time believing, for example, that the tennis game doesn't require that you press any buttons.
"So what button do I press to swing?"
"No buttons, just swing."
"Really? No! Oh, wait... really. I see. Cool."
Big smiles all around. It's almost fun just to watch other people get worked up. People try really hard to make good Miis, people jumping around to play tennis, etc. It's even fun for parties-- when's the last time you heard of a bunch of non-geeks getting together and throwing a party to play video games?
According to that article yesterday, Nintendo is selling more than twice as many units as PS3 or Xbox360. So I doubt this is really a case of "artificial" shortage, although obviously the Nintendo marketing guys will spin it to their best advantage.
Because in the real world, which is made up mostly of people other than hardcore gamers, the Wii gets points for being "cute" and "simple" and "cheap". All of which I've heard said about the Wii, and none of which have I heard said about the 360 or the PS3.
Yeah, there are more games for the 360. Yeah, the 360 and the PS3 have better graphics. But you know what? To the average real-world person, those don't matter. Price, "cute" and "simple" matter.
I have no loyalty to any of the consoles. I don't own any of them, and have no plans to buy any of them anytime soon. Maybe in a couple years I'll pick one of each up when the Wii is $149, and the PS3 and 360 can be found for $299 or less -- I can afford to buy all of them them now, but console gaming simply isn't worth that much money to me given how much time I'd spend on it.
That's because you're basing value off of horsepower, alone. The whole point of this generation, and the point that Nintendo is trying to make, is that horsepower is a shitty thing to base value off of. You could "duct tape" two gamecubes together, and it wouldn't be able to play a Wii game, you could duct tape two PS3s together, and it wouldn't be able to play a Wii game. The value of the system, itself, is in its design philosophy... a much more valuable commodity than horsepower.
Even if the Wii used the same hardware as the GameCube, but used the same design philosophy as it does now, it would still sell about the same amount. Creative design is worth a lot more than clock cycles.
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It might also have to do with them selling more units faster than any other system. The Wii is not a trivial thing to produce, nor is a PS3. You see PS3's on the shelf because the initial demand has been met. The Wii's has not and has sold 2 to 3 times more units. It's simply a matter of Nintendo mis-gauging demand. They felt it would take longer for the Wii to 'Catch on' as is evidenced by the lack of 'casual gamer' titles available (both Wii, and VC).
They ramped up launch production so they could launch with about 2 million units world wide, and meet 6 million by the end of their fiscal year. At that point they felt their demand would be met, and wouldn't need any more capacity since 50% of all their hardware sales are Quarter 4 (typically) and they would have enough capacity to meet the next wave of demand. Wii sales exceeded their expectations, plain and simple.