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Why You Can't Find a Wii for Christmas

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the they're-already-making-a-skillion dept.

Nintendo is making Wii consoles at a record pace, some 1.8 million a month. Last week they sold 350,000 units. Yes, just last week. And yet, still, it's going to be almost impossible to find a Wii in a store this Christmas. Wired reports that the problem actually began back in August. Summer being the traditional 'dry' season in gaming usually leads to hardware surpluses, but not with Nintendo's console. The result is a holiday season that Nintendo essentially couldn't prepare for. "Demand for Wii is so high, says analyst Michael Pachter, because of all the different types of consumers competing for the units ... it's not just kids who crave Wii. [It's] an especially big hit at retirement homes ... Hard-core gamers, who initially spurned the Wii's lower graphic power compared to the Xbox and PlayStation 3, have changed their tune on the console, thanks to brilliant software like the first-person shooter Metroid Prime 3. And eBay scalpers? They really want Wii." In fact, the only reliable way to get your hands on a Wii is to go that most dubious of routes. Ebay Wii sales are very brisk indeed this week.

13 of 450 comments (clear)

  1. Dear the rest of the world... by minginqunt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Welcome to last year.

    Trust me, I'll be able to find a Wii come Christmas Morning. It'll be exactly where I put it a year ago.

    1. Re:Dear the rest of the world... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow, I've never seen so much smug in a single post outside of a Prius owner's forum. Does it hurt?

      --
      Comment of the year
    2. Re:Dear the rest of the world... by Ubergrendle · · Score: 5, Funny

      You must be new here - welcome! Are you familiar with all sections of Slashdot?

      --
      John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
    3. Re:Dear the rest of the world... by SMS_Design · · Score: 3, Funny

      It'll be exactly where I put it a year ago.

      Considering the demand on the Wii and the resulting rise in value... Don't count on it.

  2. It's really small. by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Really, really small. And quite cheap.

    If it becomes too hard to find, just go to a friend's house and take his.

    Leaving the money where the Wii was, is regarded as a nice touch.

  3. No Mom, It's MY Wii by dorath · · Score: 5, Funny

    My mom got me a Wii for my birthday, and she has all but come out and said that she wants it back. She threatened to buy her own if I didn't bring mine for Thanksgiving (in retrospect I should have called her bluff). My aunts and uncles went absolutely nuts over Wii Sports Boxing. In 33 years I've never seen them get so worked up over any kind of game, much less heard them yelling and shrieking like they were. So yeah, I'd say that they're going to be hard to find. My mom hates consoles in general, but she'd really like a Wii.

    1. Re:No Mom, It's MY Wii by Tetsujin · · Score: 3, Funny

      she'd really like a Wii.


      Well then she'd better go and have one then - it's not good for the bladder holding it in like that.


      Sorry, I was waiting for an "I'd like a Wii" statement...

      Oh, good... 'Cause, you know, that joke just gets funnier every time I hear it.

      (Dude left himself wide open, even talked about his mom wanting a Wii, and best you got is that she had to go to the toilet? I woulda been all like "watersports" and such... You know, his mom doesn't have wii she needs to get rid of, she wants it... Such a waste...)
      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
  4. Re:It's all about over-hype and sheeple by PJ1216 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Me? I'll wait a couple of months after Xmas and buy a Wii thats what people said last year too.
  5. Re:Shortage should not affect most slashdotters by pandrijeczko · · Score: 4, Funny
    When I decided to by mine, I just set up a script that checked Amazon every minute or two.

    I'm doing the same thing for Duke Nukem Forever - no sign of it yet though.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  6. Re:It's all about over-hype and sheeple by jjohnson · · Score: 5, Funny

    You broke the needle on my 'smug elitist' detector.

    --
    Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
  7. Smug Humor (Re:Dear the rest of the world...) by AslanTheMentat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Try this on for size :)

    I have THREE PS3s.

    Good stuff...

  8. Re:The math? by omeomi · · Score: 4, Funny

    The "busiest shopping day" is not a "per store" statistic. I'm sure that at the bikini store, it's probably around Memorial Day. That's irrelevant, particularly at the scale that this discussion is about. Please, please, please: learn to be wary of anecdotal reasoning.

    But my friend, the bikini store owner, says....

    --
    ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
  9. Re:eBay Effect by Tim+Browse · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're right! Your anecdotal evidence totally trumps that other guy's anecdotal evidence!

    Go you!