Slashdot Mirror
Where are Wii?
WirePosted writes "Santa is in trouble, it looks like supplying the Christmas need for a Nintendo Wii game console is in jeopardy as stocks wither under constant and heavy demand. Conspiracy believers suggest this is an orchestrated move on behalf of Nintendo." Since this happens to be what I want for Christmas, I hope they work it out, or my loving wife has already found one.
Two things jump out at me in this article. The first is that this once again proves that Gartner is worse than useless. The second is that they left out one element. Take a look at Amazon or over at ebay. There are literaly thousands of Wiis that have been purchased by people for no other reason than turning around and selling them above retail. This has been going on for quite a while, though the prices have really spiked in recent weeks. I think they were averaging around $350 on Amazon for quite a while, as opposed to the over $500 now. And the number for sale there has greatly increased. I think some people may end up still holding them after the holidays though, because part of the appeal of the wii is the price. If I'm going to drop $600 on a console - I might as well get a 360 with some games or a PS3 that can play all those PS2 games out there.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Any one remember Buzz Lightyear and the Furbies?
Same shit every Christmas just with a different name. Kids want the same 'cool' toy, so mothers (and some times fathers, but usually mothers) turn up at Toys 'r' US at 3am every day waiting for the next shipment then end up in near fist fights over it. It's been going on for as many years as I can remember, the only difference is the cost of the wii is much greater than the cost of a Furby or Buzz Lightyear was.
But hey, I already have a Wii and want a 360 this year, so I'm quite happy to watch the same story over again, except this time it's on slashdot instead of the local news.
I like muppets.
Nintendo needs to follow the way Apple handles the (NS)AT&T iPhone.
Urban legends tell us that console manufacturers make no profit on the console but recoup the losses on games. Of course, various articles over the years have debunked that belief, and the general message seems to be that Nintendo was making a healthy profit on the Wii LAST year when they started selling it. With the reduction in cost on the various components, it can only be better this time around.
The simple fact is that Nintendo has underestimated demand YET ANOTHER time. It's not as though they were the only ones who made this mistake - tons of third party companies jumped in around July and August this year to announce that they'd be releasing titles for the Wii now (presumably they hadn't been onboard earlier because they expected it to be a failure). Analysts have been continuously stating that the Wii would "lose steam" when people got over the novelty. It never happened. Now demand is through the roof again, and it's a tough problem. Getting the output just right for the holiday season is tricky - too few and you're left with the current situation, but too many and you'll have factories sitting idle after the fact. Couple all of that with the problem other posters have mentioned, ebay and Amazon "scalping" of Wiis, and you've got more difficult problem than you might first think.
Bottom line: Nintendo makes good money on every Wii sold. Every Wii sold at holiday season also likely represents at least one more wiimote+nunchuk combo sale, which nets them even more cash, not to mention the additional games. But obviously Nintendo would rather turn down millions in profit so that they can keep the system "elite" or some such business. This is starting to sound like the old underwear gnomes business model meme.
Think of this way, if it helps: RockBand is also selling out like crazy. EA and Harmonix have publicly stated that they can't make enough to satisfy demand. They make a profit on the package. Do you think they're not selling more as part of some brilliant plan to make it even cooler?
Yeah, it's crazy. Nintendo has indeed pulled all Wii ads in the UK.
When was the last time a company decided to stop advertising a product because they were selling too much of it?
Probably a good move, there are already some pretty pissed off people out there as it is.
Price in the US: USD 249
Price in Europe: EUR 249
The profit margin is much higher in Europe (even after accounting for VAT). It makes sense to give priority to the countries where the profit margin is highest.
"Conspiracy believers suggest this is an orchestrated move on behalf of Nintendo"
Then they would be idiots, do people think that when someone sells one on ebay for £320 (as I have seen happen, that's more than the PS3) they send off a nice cheque to nintendo just to say "thanks"? no. Nintendo loses money on each of these (since they only get the original sale and after the inflated price people are less likely to buy a lot of games). Nintendo really wants to meet demand, it's stupid to suggest otherwise.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
How's that profit? Nintendo isn't selling them at the dynamic market price, they're selling them at MSRP plus they make a hefty chunk of change on game sales which rely heavily on the hardware sales (also other developers will scale their support according to the hardware sales which means more or fewer games and more or fewer hardware sales in the future). It doesn't make sense for them to short the supply, they're making less money with constrained supply.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I'm probably going to get modded down for saying this, but honestly the Wii with just one controller is a pretty shit console, you can count the number of games worth playing by yourself on one hand almost literally. It's a console that really needs to be played with people to really stand out as an amazing console so in my experience, having owned a Wii since release and having a few friends with one you really do need at very least one extra controller, but ideally 4 so you can make the most of the awesome party games that are aimed at multiple players.
Contrasting that with the 360 there's a plethora of games you can play by yourself and with other people but the games you play with other people are nearly always designed to be played with other people online so you realistically only need one controller, maybe 2, there is of course the fact that one controller fits all so other than the likes of guitar hero you are only buying the one or two controllers for the full range of games rather than requiring the classic controller, the gamecube controller for backwards compat., the wiimote and the nunchuck and if you're really into it the various other addons out there like the wii zapper and such.
I'm not saying the Wii is a bad console, but I've always thought those that suggest it's the low price point that made the Wii do well are wrong, because here in the UK you're looking at £175 for the Wii, £30 for Wii play + the Wii mote, £50 for another 2 wii motes, £45 for 3 more nunchucks and £30 for a pair of classic controllers - that's essentially £330 for the Wii to really reach it's peak which is also more than it costs for a PS3 and 360 to reach their peak. In contrast you can get a 360 with a couple of games and extra controller bundled in for £280 now or a PS3 with a game bundled and 2 controllers for £300.
I don't think therefore that the Wii is doing well because it's cheap unless people really are failing to realise the total cost of the Wii but because it is different, because it is a social phenomenon, I realised pretty early on that the Wii was going to end up costing me more in terms of hardware than my 360, but it didn't deter me because the concept of it interested me and because the 360 and PS3 just didn't have the same selection and same amount of fun party games for when friends are over that the Wii did.
I never remember a toy that was 'in' for two consecutive years.
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