We know that Nintendo's Wii is selling well, but how much better would they have fared if console supplies were plentiful?
There's no way to know for sure, but James Lin, senior analyst at the MDB Capital Group, tells the New York Times that Nintendo may have missed out on over a billion dollars in sales. What's worse is that this figure does not include related software sales.
“It’s staggering,” said James Lin, referring to this holiday season. “They could easily sell double what they’re selling.”
Nintendo says that they've done no wrong, blaming shortages on scheduling problems and disk drive shortages.
“We don’t feel like we’ve made any mistakes,” said George Harrison, senior vice president for marketing at Nintendo of America. “It’s a good problem to have.”
Harrison does admit to a possible downside. “We do worry about not satisfying consumers and that they will drift to a competitor’s system.”
I don't know about a drift factor; I think that families and casual gamers want a Wii, and they won't settle for a Xbox 360 or PS3 instead. One thing's for sure: eBay resellers and console scalpers are making some of Nintendo's lost money for themselves.
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I still call bullshit on this shortage. The majority of the stores in my immediate vicinity have them in stock on an almost daily basis.
It's just the inflation of an item's desirable status.
boo-fucking-hoo
If I were the IRS, I know who I'd be auditing this year.
There's nothing illegal about reselling, but somehow I doubt these guys are reporting the income. Some high-profile jail time might help discourage the practice.
Nintendo would be a lot more willing to respond to the criticism if they didn't have to keep getting their money suits tailored for bigger pockets. Not to mention all those top hats they have to have made...out of money
and here we go again, George Harrison is speaking. run for the hills.
COuldn't this be solved by at least having one manufacture plant here in the States... Hell Reggie empty that vault of money stacks you got cuz..
This manufactured shortage is doing folks a favor. The Wii is destined to be the next Furby.
Oh holy crap if they lost the friend codes they could double that number easily.
double what they're selling now? if that were the case, we'd have to go from saying "it prints money" to "it is money" because there would be enough wii/ds units out there to actually serve as currency.
I call bullshit. It's ludicrous to think that every single person who wants a Wii is going to take their $250 elsewhere. Sure, some will. But a lot of people are waiting, and have been for a while. Not everyone who wants one now needs to get it as an xmas gift.
It's attracting people who aren't usually into video games. Say soccer mom down the street wants a Wii from her husband for xmas. They aren't going to go to the store, see that wii is sold out, and then buy her a 360 or a shitload of DVDs instead. It's in a fairly unique position in that it is what it is and there's nothing that's in so much demand right now.. except the DS.
They might think of recouping costs by participating in ebay rapery.
Fuck you wii.
They will magically "find" a bunch of Wiis just in time for Christmas
Now *this* is a real business: They have the laziest and most inefficient distribution setup (try going to a gamestop and ask when a Wii comes in; they'll tell you "When it comes in"), yet they STILL make profit hand-over-fist.
Place all bets now when this "shortage" ends.
No more monies? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Laziest distribution process? Fuck you, what do you expect? You want them to whip out their cellphones and get Reggie on speaker to ask what the deal is?
Let's ask you the same fuck question 100 times a day and see how composed you are by the third week of it.
Thank god that I got one at launch last year.
Would anyone like to spew the retarded "Nintendo is sitting on a stockpile of Wiis" conspiracy theory at this time?
Mxyzptlk...I'll be glad to put on that kahraaazy hat...
...NINTENDO HAS A DORMANT VOLCANO OFF THE COAST OF MAUI FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH WII'S! THEY WON'T SELL THEM UNTIL YOU BUY A DS THOUGH!
There...does that suffice?
someone wants to buy mine at ebay-rates? I'll put in a free wiimote if you pay sending :-) more then enough Wii's available here...