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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.'"
I must live in the oddity spot of America.
I had a large number of friends who were pretty excited about the Wii, I know four who got them, all within the first couple months of the systems release. A couple got it fairly easily, one spent every weekend calling stores until she could find one but even that didn't take more than a month.
I also know one who still uses it. The supply of worthwhile games between Metroid and Supersmash Brawl has been such a desolate wasteland that they've all moved on. Yes the Wii is cheaper, but what am I going to do with it? I refuse to invest in a next-gen system at the prices they're sitting at especially with the continued production of new, quality, PS2 games.