Reggie: Not my problem

According to Reggie's report, one store in 14 has 3 or more Wii's in stock. That sounds like good news to me...

Mii want a Wii. Still cant find one other than Ebay

oh, NOW you notice that not everyone has a wii... >_>

No one expected the Wii to be this popular

Well they have finally started to come back into stock in Australia I was able to get a nunchuck for mine about 3 months after I bought the console and I have noticed a little bit of leftover stock in some of the stores a week ago around Sydney but this may no longer be the case.

Everyone knows the Wii is a gamecube in a pretty candy shell. Manufacturers have had six years to perfect the manufacture of Gamecubes. Of course they're flawless.

At least he's being apologetic. That's a lot more than you can say about another game console manufacturer.

No one expected the Wii to be this popular

The demand is unprecedented!

@Dishliquid: Mmmmm, flawless candy coated goodness.

@lombot: Still looking for a couple more wiimotes in Illinois

Agreed

@zealousd: I was looking for the "We like empty shelves. The only thing worse than an empty shelf is a full shelf" speech also.

I reserved and had no problem getting one. Maybe you people who said I dont reserve and there will be plenty will learn that doesnt apply to good systems like the 360 and wii now thay "other system" can be found all over yet the makers claim theres a shortage.

Note to Sony talking heads: THIS is how you handle questions regarding supply/demand.

Also - Gamecube in a pretty candy shell... only smaller... plus wireless... oh, and updated... and no longer top-loading... oh and not using mini-DVD discs... but yeah, just throw those old GC's into a new box, WHAMMO! Wii!

Ordered one on the first of december and it still hasn't arrived. And where i live i haven't got much of a choice but wait until HMV get more stock. i could try and import one but i don't think i'd have much luck there either. i bought ZeldaTP in january expecting my Wii to arrive soon. Haven't owned a console since the N64 and having my first nintendo 'disc' was quite an exciting experience but so far all i can do is run my fingers lovingly over the gold link on said "first disc" and wonder what it actually plays like.

@Mansteak:

And internal flash memory, and usb ports, and wifi (or bluetooth, depending on what you meant by wireless), and 3x larger GPU.

Luckily I camped out on launch day, so I have no regrets.

I do agree ramping up to produce a ton of units is hard.

But honestly, I don't think N has any interest in fully satisfying demand yet. They've seen the press they get from DS lines in Japan and Wii lines here.

Besides, if they ramp up to sell as many Wiis as there is demand for now, they'll just have to shut the lines down once they satisfy demand.

@Mansteak:
When asked about the PS3 shortage (when there was one). Sony said they shipped 1.6M units over Xmas holiday. How is that a lot different?

Damn, I've been think'n of selling mine. But I'm still holding on to hope for wii games in the future.

Systems pop up here and there but I just want a fourth wii-mote and nunchuck combo! I can't even find Wii Play!

@Dishliquid: It is comments like this that contributes to my low faith in humanity.

Why get a gimmick product with no games into the hands of everyone who wants one?

Release in small quanitities creating a higher demand(consumers get irked by saying you can't have one and will put 2x the effort in wantint one) until there is enough games support so the gimmick portion of your consol is over shadowed by solid game support then flood the market so everyone who wants one can get one,6 months later when it's collecting dust, you've already made your money.

@ApeofGods

I bet you thought that about the DS as well.

Two years since its release and there's loads of them collecting dust.

I still just don't see the appeal, I (unfortunately) bought one and couldn't be more disappointed with it.

I plan on selling it soon for a Playstation 3. Already have my 360, so now I'm really set.

:)

I totally agree and disagree that the Wii is a gimmick production.

Well, what I mean is in games like Zelda it is a gimmick, but in games like Warioware it is not.

Unless the swings match what I am doing with the remote, it is a gimmick. I would much rather have the swings mapped to a button.

There needs to be more games like Warioware and Wii sports where the remote actually plays a part in the gameplay.

Who cares about the Wii, where are the games?! I got one at launch while back and pretty much only game I got was Zelda and Metal Slug (which is to be on PSP and PS2).....

Honestly, Nintendo can't even keep up with DS demand, much less the Wii. They only have access to so many magical gnomes to make their products, what do you expect?

@mansteak:
I just realized we have the similar affliction of outfitting ourselves with weak animals (though a certain rabbit has been known to be dynamite, and rip people apart). Hopefully you were as drunk as I was when I won this in a claw machine and wore it to the bars.

As much as I want to complain about the Wii's availability, I really think it did better then Nintendo thought. And they shipped a lot, it's just they are selling like hotcakes. And yes, if this was Sony, we'd be bashing the hell out of them. We bash them because they are now sitting on shelves and we would bash them if they couldn't supply enough. Nintendo has a good rep, what can I say? It's not like they aren't going to ramp up production, but really, what can they do for this demand? I will bash Nintendo for their online capabilities at the moment, but I think this isn't really their fault. Low price+ Great reviews+ expanded fanbase = systems moving

If he had chains on and a wad of money in hand, he could easily pull of "I'm reeeich beeeeeitch!"

Nah, there probably isn't going to be anybody shot - Nintendo gamers are friendlier gamers.

Even camping for mine at Walmart, The 29 people in line (only 29 units for the store) stuck up for each other - we made a list, and submitted it to Walmart Management, so we could go grab a coffee, or a restroom break or something inside, and come back and still have our place in line. We even successfully nonviolently defended the first person-in-line's place against a rude person trying to f'nagle his way in line mere hours before the system went on sale (and we'd been there for 15+ hours prior)

Nintendo gamers are a community, a family. We stick up for our own.

@ApeofGods:

feeling bitter because the "Gimmick" is crushing the competion? Don't feel bad, the Wii is the new DS

Yah, same thing happened when I waited in line on Launch day. Best Buy was as anti-customer as possible (I honestly believed that they do not like people to give them money after that experience, to the point that I refuse to give them money anymore). We shared blankets, food, hot chocolate (It was below freezing most of the night with good amount of wind. Good ol' Massachusetts.), and defened eachother against super annoying drunk people. People also lent out their DS's to complete strangers just to pass time. All in all it's an experience I loved and won't fotget.

@Avinash_Tyagi:

I did. Seriously, I saw the huge popularity of the Wii coming from a mile away. I know it sounds cliche now, but the Wii really did look to be the console extension of the DS, and I expected it to preform similarly.

@Mr.Speed
Selling something disappointing for something more disappointing? That's pretty masochistic.

I'm happy I've got my console (and full wiimote and nunchuck set) so I don't mind.
Reggie this isn't how you promote shelves being empty! Offer $1200 to anyone who can find one!

got the chance finally to buy one about a week ago. friend of a friend cornered the last unit in town by chance and physically hide it while she rang me to tell me to get over there if i wanted it.

except my circumstances have changed significantly since xmas, and i cant afford it any longer. bummer. had to say no.

@MJDeviant:

And yes, if this was Sony, we'd be bashing the hell out of them. We bash them because they are now sitting on shelves and we would bash them if they couldn't supply enough.

Absolutely. As I was reading this I was thinking if Sony said the exact same thing people would be jumping all over them. Hell, even I've taken a few swipes at them.

I don't see why they're having such a hard time keeping these things stocked. I know they're selling well, but still they should be able to either up the frequency of their deliveries or at least ship more units per delivery.

I found a wii for my bf thru itrackr.com, tells you where to find one. That might help others! :)

"The factorys cannae take it capin'. We jus' doont have the pooer!"

Hardware-wise, there is nothing really cutting edge with the Wii.

However,

It doesn't take much to screw up production. The 360's early launch shortages was widely beleived to be related to a German memory manufacturing company that MS contracted with. Not problems with the cutting edge CPU or GPU, just fairly standard memory.

I think the fan boys stopped reading my post as soon as I used the word gimmick.

The Wii is a gimmick(keep reading after this word) there is no doubt, just look at the titles and you can tell developers don't know what to do with it yet. Like I said, I'm sure that's why Nintendo is releasing it in such small quantities, it drives the market demand for it up and gives them time to develop some quality titles.

It could potentially become the next DS, but right now, just like the first year of the DS, it was a poorly exploited gimmick.

@ApeofGod

So in a few months the wii will be collecting dust but in a year it'll be a runaway success?

By the way i'm not a fanboy, i've loved nintendo for twenty years and will criticise them for there many, many, mistakes but the "Gimmick" bandwagon isn't the best way to go about it.

@Mr.Speed
Selling something disappointing for something more disappointing? That's pretty masochistic.

Whats messed up (as someone said earlier) is that Nintendo, gets all the love for what? Zelda is a decent game, I personally spent a large amount of time playing it and found it very dissapointing. Wii sports, I thought I'd be into, just like I was with the DS, but apparently not. I want a machine that plays games, not an excersize machine and theres almost nothing interesting coming out for the wii. Wario ware? I'm not spending $50 on minigames that I know I won't be into, I'd much rather add $10 and get a Resistence or Crackdown and get a very lengthy and fun game at the same time.

Gimmicks, it's like the game cube but probably won't wear out as fast as there are for some reason an incredibly short supply.

Strangely enough, my original Wii actually turned out to be defective. I had strange visual artifacts appearing all over the screen, some scenes worse than others. In Zelda, rain made the game look absolutely atrocious, as this strange digital fuzz/noise/artifacts appeared all over the screen.

While I wasn't happy with the fact that they couldn't cross-ship out a Wii that they had already changed the settings on for me (I had to ship it out first since I had a bunch of Miis and had downloaded a single VC title), once I sent it in, it only took about a week to get it back (and the new one is fixed!) Of course, I also had to wait for them to mail the shipping label, which took a week as well. If my Wii had been completely busted, I wouldn't have been able to finish up Zelda for 2-3 weeks, probably.

-Leshrac
http://alinktothefuture.com

From Dictionary.com:

Gimmick
1. An ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, esp. one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.
2. A concealed, usually devious aspect or feature of something, as a plan or deal: An offer that good must have a gimmick in it somewhere.

@Apeofgod and others:

Which definition are you going by? Ususally when people say "gimmick" there is a negative connotation. If you are using it thusly, your comments seem derogatory. But I think you might be trying to say it differently (or perhaps you should be using a different word), so I'm asking you.

@NinjaBall:

You're right... instead, we get to bash Sony for just saying that they're having shortages when they basically don't exist. At least Nintendo has a legitimate problem that we can bash them for.

Its funny how completly different the two companies talk about their "demand".

Sony outright lies, saying their demand has been unmatched and they would even be willing to pay us if we find PS3... opps, did we say that? Oh we were just kidding! But seriously, we are in demand alot, buy us.

Nintendo is like "yeah, we try out best to get that shit out there, we work with stores to get the shit in the peoples hands as fast as possible, and we are trying to make them perfect and so this shit takes time!"

Its nice being able to sit on the outside of the bubble and see who is bullshitting, and who is blowing smoke up ours, and their own asses.

Although Mcwhetor, I don't think people really are lining up now... are they? Last line up I saw was a month ago for the saturday morning flier, and although the line was large, it only gathered around an hour early.

@br549:

It's different from the response Sony gave regarding the PS3 launch in the following ways:
1.) Nintendo admitting there is a problem.
2.) Nintendo telling us they are working on resolving the problem.
3.) Nintendo not head-faking and telling is the issue is something else entirely ("No, really, the reason you see the product on the shelves so much is because we keep the stock so current, not because no one is buying! The demand is unprecendented!").

As for your assumption that there's more to be gained by not producing enough is dubious. I really doubt there's more to be gained in the press saying "You can't buy one" than actually supplying an already existing demand. If they still had to hype the machine, I'd be more inclined to agree with you there.

I do agree with you on the "once they meet demand they have to slow production" angle, though. It just doesn't make sense to over supply temporary explosion in interest only to have production facilities gathering dust when initial interest settles to reasonable levels.

@MJDeviant:

Ah, that is quite the fetching Duck-Hat. And I'll own up to it - I was stone-cold-sober when I donned the festive "Easter Bunny Ears" - no one else in the office had the cojones to wear the baby blue bunny ears (procured by our payroll lady for a birthday party). Someone had to answer the call, and that person... that MAN... was me.

@ApeofGods:

If Nintendo is tricking people into buying their gimmick, then I'd be curious to know how you categorize Sony's strategy on the PS3. Rape comes to mind.

I loved playing Wii Sports the first couple of months, and the motion sensing, gimmick or not, has made the console a genuine cultural phenomenon -- at my local Starbucks, the barista is actually talking about saving for a Wii, and I'll be damned if she looks like a hardcore gamer. There are many examples like this of people craving the Wii.

In this respect, Nintendo has succeeded extremely well.

Funny thing, though, is that I just don't find the gaming lineup very compelling after the initial euphoria. I don't live for party games and downloading oldies, and when I finally found a game to be excited about (SSX Blur), it turned out to be one of the most disappointing purchases I've ever made for any console -- the use of motion sensing in that game is...yes, a gimmick, and a poorly implemented one at that.

A man indeed.

Reggie: To everyone that made fun of the Wii ... You don't deserve one! Bitches!