Analyst Michael Pachter told Kotaku a few months ago to expect supply constraints for Wii this season, and speaking to Forbes, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata seems pretty certain himself that's how it'll go down, again:

"We are really intending to increase the shipments to the U.S., especially compared to last year," says Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's global president and CEO. "However, I can't give you a 100% commitment [that you'll be able to find a Wii this holiday season]. What I can commit myself to is that Nintendo is going to do its best to supply as many Wii hardware units as possible in order to meet demand there."

A Wii Bit Short On Supplies [worst pun ever, Forbes!]

Nintendo delays Wii expansion plans [Digitimes Systems]

Kotakuite Howard L. wrote in about his harrowing "Zelda-like quest" throughout the greater Atlanta area to find the elusive Wii Nunchuk Controller. His journey took him to 2 Targets, 1 Wal-Mart, 2 Best Buys, The Fry's in Duluth, 1 Circuit City, and a Comp-USA where Wii-motes were plentiful, but nary a Nunchuk was to be found. During his 7 store trek, he inquired about the availability issue and was told by various employees that very few nunchuks were actually shipped. It seems that they averaged about 1 Nunchuk for every 3 Wii-motes. Finally, at a Best Buy in Duluth, GA. he found one that was being returned to the shelves by an employee.

Hopefully, this isn't indicative of a wider spread problem. Nintendo did an amazing job getting so many consoles in to so many hands but it seems like they may have skimped on the nunchuks. Has anybody else experienced this same issue in their area? Flynn De Marco

The store did not get extra 60GB models to make up for the 20GB shortage. Maybe this is why the Playstation 3 shipments to the U.S. are being reduced. I'll be checking in with Sony P.R. this morning to see what I can find out. Brian Crecente

Ee hee hee! I like the headline "Shortage of Blue Lasers". It makes me feel like I'm living in the neon-grit future that I crave, instead of this obese, mooing present.

Anyway, now that everyone is making or planning to make HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives, the laser supply is taking a strain. Blue laser diodes, which both HD DVD and Blu-ray use, are difficult to manufacture. The yield rates for the things are not increasing much, even though the demand for them is. But Sony's got our back!

This puts Sony in particular in quite a bind. Sony has obviously invested quite a bit in the Blu-ray format and the company would very much like consumers to pick up a Blu-ray player and not an HD DVD player or the HD DVD peripheral for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In order to make sure that the Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 does not run into any further problems, Sony has actually suspended shipments of blue laser diodes to other customers so that the components can be used for PS3 manufacturing first.

Hoarding all the blue lasers for the gamers, eh Sony? That's the girl I married! Eliza Gauger

Report: Blue Laser Shortage May Affect Blu-ray/HD DVD Battle [GameDaily BIZ]

Alright! 4 Color Rebellion is reporting that the Japanese Nintendo DS Lite shortage is officially over, where the proper degree of officiality is determined thanks to online retailer Lik-Sang, who are shipping off DS Lites to overseas consumers at last. No news on whether this means Ashcraft will finally start sending out DS Lites to his Kotaku co-workers, though. All we can say is god help both him and his scrotum if he doesn't.

Free At Last! DS lite Shortage Over! [4CR]

Still can't find an Xbox 360? Dean Takahashi offers an explaination over at Mercury News. He cites Microsoft's use of a German memory maker, Infineon Technologies, as one reason for the lack of availability. Takahashi's piece levels the barrel at Infineon, when Peter Moore and Microsoft have both been reluctant to target a single factor in explaining away the shortages. Takahashi's piece will likely stir some controversy up, it's one of the first big fingers (other than the all-popular middle finger) that's been pointed at the shortage mess.

Memory Chips Are One Reason For The Xbox 360 Shortage [Mercury News]

At CES, Peter Moore said a third-party manufacturing plant had been wrangled in to increase supply. "We are making them as fast as we possibly can," Moore stated, "and we do expect over the next three-to-four months that availability will get a lot better." Meanwhile, Circuit City has steered clear of promoting the new Xbox in advertisements.

According to Ziff Davis Media's John Davison, Microsoft "needs to get the supply-and-demand situation nailed real soon. If it drags out much longer, it's just going to promote apathy rather than excitement." Not sure about apathy, but definitely annoyance. Figured that the software giant would've had all this figured out by now. Take those consoles unsold in Japan, repackage them and ship them to the US.

Full Story Here [USA Today] Thanks, Chilly!

It appears as though the shortage just overwhelmed them. Next Generation reports that according to an article in the Financial Times, Microsoft is changing its focus to meeting the long-term shipping goals it outlined at CES, rather than the 90-day shipment totals (which it will not meet). Now, by June, Microsoft hopes to have sold between 4 and 5.5 million units.

Microsoft Abandons 90-Day Target [Next Generation]

Man, there is egg on my face. Remember when I said that the Ballmer family wouldn't be scoring a free Xbox 360? Well that part holds true, but they sure got one easily enough. The manager of a Best Buy in Bellevue, Washington alerted Microsoft employees of a shipment coming in the following day, Ballmer says many Microsoft employees shop at the store, so it's not that big of a deal. Which may be true, but that doesn't mean I can't still be a little jealous, right?

Thanks Chilly, count backwards from 10.

The Ballmers Get an Xbox 360 [News.com]
No Free Xbox 360 for Steve Ballmer's Kids

Rather than looking at the 360 shortage through gamer-tinted eyes, Slate studies the shortage and other shortage phenomena in terms of economics. Recognizing the very nature of shortages with console electronics, author Tim Harford questions why Microsoft would start pricing at just $300 when the console is fetching $700 on eBay? He likens picking up a 360 in the store to getting a $400 voucher, because that 400 bucks is what you would've spent in addition to the unit's price to nab one on eBay.

Instead of focusing the actual scarcity of the 360, Harford is fascinating by the console's low price. I think here, Harford is speaking relatively, in terms of what people are willing to pay for the system - in terms of video game system launches the $300 core system is pretty much par for the course.

The Great Xbox Shortage of 2005 [Slate]

Here are some of the highlights:

With software sales of 1.3 million units and an attach rate of 3.9 games sold per console, Xbox 360 launched well above the original Xbox s industry record of 2.4 in November of 2001.

With an attach rate of 3.1 accessory units per console, Xbox 360 also marked the highest accessory attach rate for a console during its launch month in the U.S. This is nearly double the previous recorded attach rate for a video game console.

Additionally, wireless controllers attached to 98 percent of consoles as consumers took full advantage of the console s wireless freedom.

With the strong emergence of Xbox 360, market share for the original Xbox appeared at 19 percent, with the platform seeing the smallest portion of an industry-wide dip in year-to-date software sales at 5 percent, while PS2 sales were down 8 percent.

Xbox boasted the top selling cross platform title for November with Star Wars: Battlefront II, outselling the PS2 version.

Xbox accessory sales continue to drive the market, with year-to-date unit sales of all accessory products up 2 percent.

Most importantly, Microsoft understands the "incredible worldwide demand" for the Xbox 360 and say their "manufacturing facilities are working 24 hours a day to make as many Xbox 360 consoles as possible. Airplanes have been chartered to fly into our distribution centers on a weekly basis to get the units in the hands of our customers."

The release reiterates that they believe they are on track to meet their 90-day sales target of 2.75 to 3 million consoles. But they don't say how close they've gotten so far.

Man, these Xbox 360 shortages are harsh. Even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was left out in the cold for an Xbox 360 this holiday season. Sounds like he should've pre-ordered. Oh wait, that might not have helped, either.

Microsoft's CEO Will Have to Shop for His Xbox 360 [Reuters]

And by "experts" we mean Crecente. He was interviewed for an article on the Xbox 360 shortages. One of the things Crecente pointed out? Some stories from you, the readers, speculating that game store employees were snatching up replenished units and selling them on eBay. ABC also looked into the 360 technical issues that seemed to plague launch systems, but in the last week or so, reports have died down considerably (the red phone at Kotaku HQ isn't lightning up with Xbox 360 complaints, of late).

Xbox 360s in Short Supply [ABC News]

Without knowing the size of the GameShout readership, their readers have done some serious legwork into finding out how many systems Wal-Mart stores will be getting. Their findings? Pretty unsettling. According to their research, Superstores were only receiving 10 units and smaller Wal-Marts were receiving three units. Any Kotaku readers out there who are planning on getting their 360s from Wal-Mart should probably call ahead now and see if your store is sporting single-digit 360 quantities. If these numbers are true, folks better pack up the Eureka tents tonight and start camping Wal-Mart like the next Star Wars movie is going to open there. Yes, I know we're allegedly finished with SW flicks, I don't need a bunch of emails that read, "Episode III was the last one, newb," thanks.

Wal-Mart Only Has Three Units Per Store [GameShout]

GR Futureshop Xbox 360 Allocation Numbers [Gamers Reports]
Best Buy Expecting Tiny Xbox 360 Shipment