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Wii Shortages Costing Nintendo 'A Billion' In Sales
A New York Times article from this past Friday highlights the 'problem' that Nintendo is facing: more people want to give them money than they can handle. Analysts quoted in the story discussing Nintendo's unique Wii shortage problem indicate that the company could be selling twice the 1.8 million consoles a month it ships. All told, these same individuals believe the company could be leaving as much as $1 billion on the table this holiday season. "'We don't feel like we've made any mistakes,' said George Harrison, senior vice president for marketing at Nintendo of America. He said there was a shortage because the company must plan its production schedule five months ahead, and projecting future demand is difficult. He added that there had been a worldwide shortage of disk drives that had hurt Nintendo as well as makers of many other devices. 'It's a good problem to have,' Mr. Harrison said of the demand, but he acknowledged that there could be a downside. 'We do worry about not satisfying consumers and that they will drift to a competitor's system.'"
When people try to justify downloading music, they say it's okay because they wouldn't have bought the album in the first place, which means that no money was lost in the process.
Wouldn't the same kind of logic hold here? How can Nintendo lose money on nonexistent consoles if they're already at full production?
Goo goo g'joob.
Is there anyone who can still read about a projected loss and still find it even remotely believable?
Those who live by the sword, get shot by those who live by the gun...
I just don't understand how they could not have for seen this shortage. I mean last year the same thing happened and they said then they would be ready for this year. Yet here we are. I have friends, family and co-workers asking me where they can get thier hands on a Wii. It really makes me wonder about the rumors of intentional shorting. From a business point it would make no sense to short your sales. From a marketing point however it's been brilliant. Wii is all the rage and is likely so popular BECAUSE it's hard to get. Nothing lights a fire under middle American purchasing power like that hard to get must have Christmas gift.
The question I have is, ok it's $1 billion this holiday season but what about the after affects of the holiday? How many people who are dying to get the Wii (but can't) will still go and buy it in Jan., Feb., Mar.? My guess? A lot. Considering they've been doing it since Nov. 2006.
It reminds of the pirated music idea. A person who pirates music(or movies) isn't necessarly going to be buying said music(or movies). Thus, one cannot say that pirating is a 1:1 effect on sales. Likewise, you cannot say that people who cannot buy a Wii as a gift for the holidays will not buy one after the holidays. Theoretically, if the Big N satisfied demand in December, they would then loose all those Q1 2008 sales. So, what's the point? The real question is, if those who want a Wii, but bought a 360/PS3, will still buy a Wii in the future?
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
If a $Billion is being left on the table, where are people spending it on? 360? PS3? Or how about this new fangled , environmentally friendly device called:
GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!
Includes such games as Real World TENNIS (indoor and outdoor versions available)
Real World BOWLING (available at a bowling alley near you).
Both games come with a bonus titled called, GETTING FRESH AIR.
*please do not frame me if the Wii is you only source of activity b/c of age/disability/religion/sex/creed/political stance.
Nintendo has been doing this since the very first days of the NES. In the beginning, I think the lesson of Atari's "ET parking lot" was fresh in their minds, and they didn't want to get stuck with warehouses full of crap they can't sell. These days, I have to think that they've figured out that the long term benefit of the frenzy that is created far outweighs any short term losses.
Well, it's easy to play armchair CEO in hindsight and say they should have charged more so they could have gotten that theoretical 1 billion. Of course, it's hard for me to understand the criticism when 1. if they had done that, it might be they're losing a billion in unsold consoles, which would be a much bigger problem than having a billion dollars more to expand, and 2. you're talking about raising the price of the wii. That would be nice for nintendo's investors and stock holders, but is anyone here either of those? No? Then let's be happy the price is too low than too high and hope that "marketing scheme" catches on. Phil
"Wii shortages" heh heh heh
Yes that's right I went there. Again.
Anyway I had a thought... isn't this a very good time to advertise the HECK out of the, um, DS? Considering it's cool, makes a good gift, is also appealing to "casual" gamers, and is available? A solid marketing campaign for the DS right about now could sway some people who otherwise will purchase a 360/PS2/PS3 because a Wii is nowhere to be found.
I like basketball!!1!
It really makes me wonder about the rumors of intentional shorting. From a business point it would make no sense to short your sales. From a marketing point however it's been brilliant. Wii is all the rage and is likely so popular BECAUSE it's hard to get. Nothing lights a fire under middle American purchasing power like that hard to get must have Christmas gift.
I don't think the shortage is perpetuating itself... it's only a byproduct of mass market appeal.
This game console appeals to people outside the normal game console demographic. I've seen Wii's in nursing homes, day care facilities, church groups (with adults and children), and actually on my parent's wish list.
None of these groups would be on the PS3 or XBox 360's radar... but the Wii's appeal literally knows no boundaries.
Why the past tense? Is there any real reason they couldn't start charging more now? Not really.
-Dave
Apples and oranges. Music is artificially scarce. Wii is not.
First off, don't misunderstand the subject line - there is definitely a high demand for the Wii, artificially inflated or otherwise. This is due, in part, to two major factors: the novelty of fairly well done motion control and the accessibility of the console to a significantly wider user base than the typical 'hardcore gamers'.
That said, Nintendo is not 'losing a billion in sales' - they are, in fact, creating 'a billion in sales'. Okay, so the knee-jerk reaction is 'huh, stores are always sold out, I can't get one, they're losing my money - how are they creating sales'. Ironically, the question is its own answer. By restricting sales to North America, keeping the influx of consoles at a relatively low number - compared to actual demand - Nintendo is creating a sense of scarcity. This perceived lack of Wii increases the immediate demand for the console, virtually ensuring that new product delivered to stores will sell out within a day or two - three or four at the outside.
This has the effect of creating a stronger the secondary market on E-bay, Craigslist, or the classifieds. People are willing to snatch them up at ridiculous prices in order to get one NOW, rather than wait a week or two for the next shipment and try to get one then - bird in the hand. This leads to further 'gotta have it' frenzy.
By keeping production where it's at - does anyone REALLY believe they couldn't kick it up a few notches? - they are ensuring that the initial sales life of the console continues for a good long time. During which time they can maintain the price for the console itself, the accessories, and the games. It's a cash cow, a print-your-own-money machine. But the instant they jack up production and flood the market to satisfy all the demand - real and hyped - the consoles start lingering on the shelf longer, it's no longer the console to own, the novelty wears off and sales slump. Why on Earth would they want that!
Wouldn't the same kind of logic hold here? How can Nintendo lose money on nonexistent consoles if they're already at full production? No, because no one is downloading magical Wiis and they WOULD give Nintendo that money if they could.
You can't take the sky from me...
No, this has cost Nintendo precisely 0. They have not /lost/ a billion from the bank because of the shortage, they have simply not earnt that money.
The Wii is popular, and profitable. They've lost nothing, only potential sales.
Sony could only dream of such a thing. PS3 availability was good even days after release, as Penny Arcade proved
Increased production cost for uping the production factor?
Since when mass production was a cost increaser?
The Universe is shrinking all around my head.
These are all good points, but I think the extra time that people spend waiting for the wii will be spend evaluating the other options, looking at the games, deciding if it is worth it and if the cross platform games perform the same or better on other consoles. While it is true that the wii has titles and gameplay the other consoles do not, cross platform game support for the wii is downright awful. Plus while it comes with wireless internet support out of the box, practically no game uses it for multiplayer play.
When it comes down to it, for me the choice was pretty clear. Since I don't like Metroid that much and I've already completed Twilight Princess on wii, I could have a $300 mario machine with shitty 3rd party games or pay the same amount and get a PS2 with a pile of accessories and games. Is it fair to compare the mature PS2 library to the wii's? Not entirely, but the Gamecube's at end of life wasn't anything like the PS2's is now either. I don't have high hopes for seeing a wide variety of good games on the wii, aside from Nintendo published games
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Wii shortage? Sounds like a personal problem to me.
Anybody want my mod points?
They've ramped production from 500 thousand / month at release to 1.8 million / month now. That's a pretty sizable production increase. More importantly, I'm not hearing news about DOA units, so they've (so far) avoided compromises in quality while more than tripling production. So, yeah, they completely messed up on demand forecasting. As far as the production ramp-up, I think they've done well.
[Insert pithy quote here]
That would be horrible PR. Besides, they make money on games sales and those need units sold, not profit made from hardware.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I understand the argument for not meeting the insane demand at the holidays because you won't be able to keep up that level of production throughout the year - but here's where that argument breaks down. If Nintendo is currently at 100% manufacturing ability in all of their factories, they're doing something WRONG. Holiday surges are exactly the reason you don't run at 100% capacity. You RAMP UP for the holidays to meet the extra demand, then go back to your standard rate after it's over. All it costs you is the labor for getting more workers in over the holidays.
Consumers view price increases negatively so price increases can do damage to public perception of a brand which can reduce the long term profitability of a product.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
No one needs to build factories any more. All you have to do is to use the same outsource manufacturers like everyone else in the industry. There is no excuses for not meeting demands if that's what they want to do.
Do you think for a minute that MS has their own factories coming from a background of software vendor?
The assertion that Nintendo would build an entire factory to satisfy the console demand is ludicrous. They would and should simply hire a contract manufacturer like a Foxconn or Solectron or Sanmina and get the product out. If quality issues are that important, they can put their own support in-factory to ensure that their standards are met. It's done on a regular basis in the electronics industry.
What you also don't take into account in your analysis is how pent-up demand means lost dollars on licensing revenue. Each system that gets sold nets Nintendo additional dollars from the 3-5 games that will be purchased with the system. Don't forget things like additional Wiimotes, Nunchuks, the online classic game store, and other content. That doesn't even include the good press to see you tromp your competitors by another whole factor of their sales and the subsequent pop to Nintendo's stock price. In short, it makes no sense to delay revenue because basic finance demands money in now is better than money in later, particularly among a very fickle public who may very well buy a 360 or PS3 basic system and not look back no matter what the cachet of the Wii may be.
This is simply an example of Nintendo's poor launch planning that is persisting more than a year since the console's introduction. The product managers ought to be fried for not contingency planning.
Ok, so if a "hardcore" gamer goes into a store, looking to purchase a wii but they end up having to come back over and over again in hopes of getting one they are going to really consider if the ps3 or 360 are really that bad. That makes sense to some degree but I don't really see too many people that were on the fence waiting a good year to change their minds. It seems like if someone was just waiting to get a wii since launch, they would have broken down by now. I know a lot of people who want wiis but wouldn't even consider another console because it's not what they want.
If grandma or soccermom goes looking for a wii but doesn't find it, they aren't going to grab another console no matter how cool gears of war is. I'd say a fair share of the casual gamers that are after the wii aren't going to buy another console if they can't get a wii, they are just going to either wait or go spend that money else, completely outside of the gaming market.
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
Just go look on ebay...there are thousands on thousands of them for sale. The reason why no one can get a Wii is because these resellers are buying them in bulk as soon as they can their hands on them. This is inflating the demand for them beyond reality. don't believe me? Just go to ebay and search for the Wii. There are plenty of them out there.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Step 1: Read Peter Senge's Fifth discipline
... they may even place orders at each store... when person X gets a wii, they cancel all other orders. So "10" orders really was 1 order.
Step 2: Understand that the Wii is a perfect example of the Beer distribution game
Step 3: Realize that demand is at least ONE ORDER of magnitude smaller than reported.
Case in point: Person X goes to store 1 and asks for a wii, then proceeds to search through store(s) 1-10
If Nintendo attempts to fill the "Billion" in orders, they will greatly overshoot and end up with a flooded market that can't get rid of the damn things. Slow and steady wins this race, a few million in sales lost over the entire potential beats the crap out of overshooting with 100 million dollars worth of hardware sitting on shelves, or ending up in landfills
meh
That's self-fulfilling. They could be making more money on hardware. They can't sell more than all of the Wii hardware that exists, so they could bump it up a bit and not miss out on software sales. I suspect that the market price isn't _much_ higher than retail, or else they'd be increasing the price with some subtle bundling.
-Dave
I highly doubt excess unsold Wiis would end up in landfills(literally or metaphorically). IIRC Atari made more copies of the ET game than there were 2600 consoles sold. Wha, you gonna buy TWO copies of the same game? A console itself is different.
I have the solution to solving the holiday product crunch: spread the holidays out over the calendar. In the USA, divide the country up into 12 regions of about the same population and economics. Then assign each region a different month to have the gift giving holidays. Most people don't celebrate Christmas religiously, anymore, so this shouldn't be much of a problem.
The above does still leave a big crunch at stores and malls within a region. So maybe it's better to divide things up on a micro-scale instead of a macro-scale. So, how about celebrating the gift giving holiday based on (zipcode % 12), where you celebrate gift giving based on your zip code modulo 12 to choose the month.
This still means a big crunch for families and neighbors in the same zip code. So I have a better idea. Let's use the date of birth to determine when to celebrate the gift giving holiday, based on who the gift is for. And instead of having it all on one day of the month, let's spread it out further and use the actual date in the date of birth for everyone's own personalized gift giving holiday.
Ooops. I didn't take into account February 29. Never mind.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
$30 each for a pair of used GBA SP's, you can't beat that. And used games are $5-20/title at Gamestop. I'll buy a Wii when they come down in price. I said that last year, and it's a year later and you STILL can't find one in stores, so I know I have a bit of a wait in store before they drop down to the $149 pricepoint that I'm waiting for. I don't care, though; I have a good six generations worth of consoles in my spare bedroom and I can't play them all.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
The issue is the Wii is selling better than any console in history. The Wii is selling faster than the PS2, the DS, or anything else that came before it. So Nintendo forcasted based on "Aggressive sales" and started with production of 1 million for launch, and 1 million a month, which they felt was a fair target (even optimistic, considering that's the rate of initial PS2 sales). Now demand is much higher than anyone (even Nintendo) anticipated, and even now at 1.8 million units per month it still isn't enough.
You're right in saying it makes no business sence to short your sales. Demand isn't a constant, neither is hype. You want to satisfy demand before it wanes.
I think Nintendo would be hit big time with bad publicity if they suddenly raised their prices. Have you ever seen any consumer electronic device come out and then suddenly raise their price when demand was high?
You are all a bunch of idots.
You pay for the GBA? You do know you can just emulate it for free. Free for the system, free for the roms. The one reason I *might* buy myself a Wii or DS is the lack of working emulators.
Afraid/Morally Obligated to only use legal software? Go to GameHippo.com (or one of the other thousand or so freeware sites), there are tons of free games to download - many of which you can use to edit your own new levels.
Bought the GBA because its portable? Try getting some extra use out of your laptop (with such a low User ID, I would be surprised if you didn't have one). You'll get the extra benefit of looking like you're doing something important instead of just messing around with some kid game (because, really, how many adult-oriented games are there that aren't xxx-adult?).
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
New Wii units without a multi-controller/multi-game bundle are selling for a fifty to seventy-five dollar price premium over retail. Even if the 15 million units they've sold to date were sold for USD 50 more, Nintendo would only be making an additional 750,000,000 bucks, less than three-quarters of a billion. And that assumes that everyone willing to pay $250 for Wii is also willing to pay $300 for a Wii which I doubt. It seems to me that a large part of the Wii's popularity is its price.
But more importantly, the lack of a large premium on the Wii from resellers suggest that the present rate of production and price is very close to the market equilibrium. If demand were far outstripping supply, the premium from resellers on eBay would be far higher. If supply were far outstripping demand, we'd be seeing the boxes stack up on the shelves. But from first appearances, it would appear that Nintendo is very close to hitting the sweet spot with their present rate of production.
Over here, the newspaper ads (and Ebay) are full of Nintendo Wii's being sold for double the market price. I suspect that a significant number of the Wiis sold in the three months prior to Christmas have gone to people who are holding them back and taking advantage of those who will pay any price to get one before Christmas.
I suspect after Christmas the price on the Wii will collapse, and the shortages will magically disappear.
"'We don't feel like we've made any mistakes,' said George Harrison, senior vice president for marketing at Nintendo of America. He added mournfully, "I don't know how someone controlled you. They bought and sold you." And then Eric Clapton launched into a guitar solo.
So if they're already exhausting the supply of consoles their contract partners can produce, there are no partners left to contract out to.
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
Not sure, but how much of this 'shortage' was deliberate by a subset of consumers that bought Wiis simply for speculative reasons?
I can find tons (right now I see 9000+) of Wiis on ebay at joke prices. Presumeably almost all of these will go back to the store within a week or two of Christmas.
Not Nintendo's fault, really.
-Styopa
More precisely, $1 billion is just over two months of sales. I don't think anybody expects the market for the Wii to pop like a bubble before March, so this isn't really a problem for Nintendo.
The Wii has been sold out in all us zip codes every day for a full year, regardless of the person's DOB. This solution does not work for items that sell out the moment they arrive at the store. ;-)
back in January you could not get any so I bought a 360 instead.
Presumably, the Wii is manufactured in a 3rd world country where things like overtime and night differential don't exist (as we are treated in most US jobs).
I wonder if Nintendo and its partners are manufacturing Wiis 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at their factories. Does anyone know?
Sorry, the point wasn't that Nintendo would literally build a factory. The use of "build a factory" was to simplify the point of manufacturing supply to avoid long convoluted business strategy, demand management, and time/cost constraints and complexities. Turken also points out other contract manufacturing dependencies.
My apologizes if my statement seemed to literal instead of figurative. I'm familiar enough with contract manufacturing, I work for a manufacturing company that supplies big name retailers (obviously they're not going to build their own factory) and other manufactures, to name a few.
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
Economies of scale only work over the long term. Five years from now, when the additional fixed cost of building another factory has been entirely paid off, each additional unit of production will only be concerned with marginal costs.
They can't raise their prices without increasing the perceived value, or there will be a huge backlash. What they COULD do, is what retailers are doing and forcing bundles. Make the Wii available in 2 packages. 1 solo $250 package (what's offered now) that will get 30% of production, and 70% of production will go to the new $399 "Wii Multiplayer Bundle"; which includes the system, WiiPlay, an Extra Nunchuck, 2 Classic controllers, and $40 in Wii Points cards.
That they could do.
"He added that there had been a worldwide shortage of disk drives that had hurt Nintendo as well as makers of many other devices."
Where are these Wii's with disk drives? I want one! Last I checked, they not only don't have any, but Nintendo has gone so far as to say that they never will.
Perhaps he meant to say "disc drives".
I'll reference this well written article Apple has provided regarding the difference between the words "disk" and "disc":
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302152
~"If at first you don't succeed, chainsaw juggling is probably not for you."
My Wii doesn't have one, it has flash. Where can you get a disk drive? (perhaps it's a disc drive as in CD/DVD? I dunno)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
"Parents, Grandparents, good friends, etc might be looking to get someone a Wii for year-end Holidays (in whatever form they choose to celebrate)."
It is called Christmas! That is the Holiday that most people are celebrating even if they are not Christians. Any one that is looking for a Wii as a Hanukkah present is an idiot or really shopping ahead since it ended about five days ago.
It is Christmas or Hanukkah...
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
But more importantly, the lack of a large premium on the Wii from resellers suggest that the present rate of production and price is very close to the market equilibrium. If demand were far outstripping supply, the premium from resellers on eBay would be far higher.
Not necessarily. This could instead indicate that the demand is elastic with respect to price. That would mean the demand for $250 Wiis is extremely high, while the demand for $400+ Wiis is very low. An item being in short supply relative to the demand does not automatically mean that the people who want the item would be willing to pay more for it. That usually only applies to what are more or less necessities, like gasoline or food staples.
This especially makes sense in the context of who the Wii's primary market is -- casual non-gamers. These are people who maybe saw a friend or relative's Wii, played it and had fun, and decided they want one despite not being into any previous game consoles. For them, $250 for a fun toy may seem like it's worth it. If the toy turns out to be hard to find, are they going to decide that they will instead pay $300, $400, or $500 for it? Or are they going to decide that they don't need it that bad, and can wait until more are available?
It's only the hard-core that are going to be willing to buy their chosen console no matter the price. But even then they're also the ones who'd be willing to call every store in town and show up before they open on shipment day. The latter is the category I fell into. Even I, long-time Nintendo fan boy, wasn't willing to pay scalper mark-ups on a Wii.
What this implies is that despite some theories to the contrary, the Wii's MSRP is in fact a major selling point.
The enemies of Democracy are
Nintendo are still advertising the Wii and the DS on TV here - and both are as common as rocking horse droppings. My wife's had to settle for a silver DS after I couldn't get her a pink one. 50 years old and her first console - starting with "Imagine Babies" of all things.
But, hats off to Nintendo. Brilliant execution after everyone had written them off...
Ian W.
Apple may do what it likes of course, however, without some technical reference or source OUTSIDE of Apple (apparently missing at the link), I'll be skeptical of this "difference".
And probably Ringo is in charge of forecasting.
Where can I get some problems like the one Nintendo's got?
Nintendo: "Well, we're making money hand over fist here and we can't keep up with the demand. Woe is us!"
Quite so, and to be even more in tune with reality: ;-)
/kicks self)
Nintendo is the only console manufacturer to be making a profit on their entire hardware line. I *think* it was a minimum of $20 per Wii on launch day, and it must be quite a bit more now. Microsoft's entire console division didn't see a profit until Halo 3, and that was for their SECOND console. (I think Halo 2 basically paid for the R&D of both.
So, stock shortage or not, the worst that can be said about "missing" a Billion in sales is that Nintendo and its investors are laughing slightly-less-hard all the way to the bank. And hey, don't forget about the DS sales. HAHAHA!
(Boy I wish I bought Nintendo stock in the N64 days...
sounds like they might have bought into as much of the ps3 hype as the rest of us did and just didn't make enough. Maybe it was an attempt at "shrewd" marketing
IMO everyone loves the wii because for the first time video games made people move and interact with the other players instead of just pressing a button...now dad's really pitching to you...Hell even mom can swing a golf club.
Will the wii bring families closer together? Does it count as quality time?
Firstly, Real World Tennis comes some-assembly-required. It requires a tennis court, some balls, racquets and another person, not all of which are available all the time, and none of which are included in the base package.
Secondly, Real World Bowling does not come with GETTING FRESH AIR as you've advertised. Real World Bowling comes with GETTING STALE BOWLING ALLEY AIR THAT SMELLS LIKE A COMBINATION OF STALE BEER AND OTHER PEOPLE'S FEET. Additionally, RWB can only be played at certain hours, and only on a pay-per-play basis.
Just go look on ebay...there are thousands on thousands of them for sale.
... amounts to little more than statistical noise. The vast majority of Wii purchasers are playing their consoles. Someone (well, people collectively) would have to be ebaying HUNDREDS of thousands, every single month, to make any noticeable impact to the market.
Your "thousands and thousands" amongst sales of nearly 2 MILLION per month
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
They should license Panasonic to make a Wii that also plays HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, like they previously made the Q that was a Gamecube that played DVDs. They could crank the price right up and plenty of people would still buy it until the normal Wii caught up with demand.
The Wii has been effectively sold out for over 12 months straight now.
I don't understand this. The guy next to me at work was all, "I want a wii, they don't have it
on target.com, its sold out blah blah blah". I called ghetto ass gamestop and they had a pile of them
for the regular old price. Of course, the next day he "decided not to get it just yet". Anyway,
Where is the shortage? The day before xmas? News flash, they are also
out of the good barbies, transformers, and anything else interesting until they restock....
Everyone that I know that wanted a Wii went to the store and bought one already.
music lover since 1969
They could have solved this entire issue by making consoles that aren't region locked. There are dozens of Wii consoles sitting at my local game shop here in Japan, and there's no big Christmas rush here. Since you're probably making the consoles in China or Malaysia and have to ship them anyway, and if there is a surplus in Japan, you'd say, why doesn't Nintendo just ship the extra units from Japan to the U.S.? Well they can't, because they've factory-locked the console to only play discs from Japan. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The way to design a product you're selling internationally is to prompt the user for a language on first boot-up (I think the iPod does this), package in a regionalized manual or a universal manual with just pictures of how to set it up, and include a localized power cord. Of course, you have to design the console to operate in either PAL or NTSC. But a nice perk of this is that you don't piss off the few customers who want to play games released only in another region. Of course, that means you won't be able to charge twice as much for games sold in the UK and Australia anymore, but you'll more than make up for it in volume.
Nintendo really shot themselves in the foot with this. They got it right with the DS and fucked it up with the Wii. It was completely avoidable.
Thats why they are selling as much as they are. They don't care about the loss of 100 million because the cost to produce the extra units would result in LESS profit then they are currently experiencing. This is a very simplistic overview of what they are doing on a decision basis.
Thanks to the shortages and articles like this, the Wii is the hot item to get for Christmas. This year's Google Zeitgeist has an interesting page showing the surge of Wii searches as we approach the end of the year.
Even 30,000 is only 1.6 percent of their monthly sales...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I've had a Wii since day one. I see them in all the stores I got to in both Europe and the U.S. Who are these people that can't find one? My guess is its only the people who need to buy one between December 10th and 24th. Plan ahead a little people, fer chrissakes.
Even if OP meant disc drive, i'm pretty sure nintendo manufactures their own, considering its a slot loading drive like nothing else i've seen. Its operation, grabbing the disc at the very edge and also accepting the 6cm sized gamecube discs, is different from any other drive on the market.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
That the Wii's have no disk drives in them.
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
Sell Wii's at twice the price.
You hope that Nintendo Wii doesn't become the Gobots of the decade.
The Gobots line was a brilliant idea, but what ultimately sunk it was a lack of availability. Another toy came along that was able to keep up with the demand better [Transformers], and Gobots faded into oblivion.
Uh, being a "major selling point" is not meant to imply that people would buy any item at this price, or that it is the only thing about the item that makes it desirable. It's meant to imply that it is a major feature that in it's absence would stop many people from buying it. Motions controls and simple intuitive games like Wii Sports are also major selling points, and without them you basically get a Gamecube with commensurate sales. However, as the Ebay auctions show, most people are not willing to buy the Wii without the price-feature either. The people buying Wiis are not hard-core gamers, they were never in the market for a Gamecube-era system anyway, and they aren't willing to spend much more than the Wii's MSRP on any game console. Thus, it's price is a major selling point.
The enemies of Democracy are
1. If they put too much money into ramping up production now for the Wii, will that make it easier - or harder - when they come out with the 1080p HDTV-supporting Wii2 console?
2. Even if they doubled production again, who's to say the true market is not four times the size, and there will still be lines?
3. Do they have enough Wiimotes and Nunchuks for all those consoles, if they did double production - again?
One hopes they will be ready for all the demand when they bring out the higher resolution Wii2 with the even more improved high definition storage drives (probably HD-DVD, but if Sony pulls an upset, I can see having Blu-Ray) and the better processors. It might even have a new name, since the chip designs will be radically different.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You're wrong. Here's how 90% of all Wii owners I know got their Wii:
Played Wii Sports or Rayman or Carnival Games or EA Playground or Mario Soccer at a friend's place. Decided they wanted to have this game, too.
They don't care about other options. You can't play Wii Sports on any other console, and Rayman sucks on the PS2, so there is no other option.
See, Nintendo's position here makes perfect sense. The problem this year was that Christmas wasn't announced until after their 5 month window to prepare for it had started. They weren't given enough time with that late announcement that we were doing the Christmas thing for once this year.
Next time we do Christmas, let's just plan ahead a little and give some notice, m'kay?
or else!