Wii Shortages Could Last For Months

Next Generation is reporting that, apparently, the Wii shortages could continue for some time yet. This is news from Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's VP of marketing and corporate affairs, speaking to the Game Theory Podcast. Says Kaplan, "There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see a supply / demand situation last for some time. We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can. The number of units that we have been able to produce has far exceeded our hardware production in the past and the production levels of a lot of our competitors but demand continues to be really high."

I got me a Wii...

[Mizled]

The idea to getting a Wii is to keep calling your local game stores everyday. Game stores are getting them in and selliing out the same day. You just have to find out what days they come in and get down there and buy it.

I work a 7 - 4 job and on my lunch break I would call all the local stores...within a week Gamestop got a couple Wiis in and I went on my lunch and picked it up.

You can get a Wii...it's all about how bad you want it. =p

Re:I got mine today

[DreadSpoon]

"Normal" in what sense? Keep in mind that the entire idea of a controller with a thumbpad on one side and buttons on the other didn't exist until Nintendo came along. I'm sure people then were also skeptical on how "normal" games would be played. ;)

The Wii-mote can be turned sideways, and in that respect can function a lot like a "normal" Nintendo controller. Super Paper Mario is one game I own that does this. Plus it also occasionally makes use of the pointing and motion abilities, too, in a very intuitive and easy to play by manner.

There's also the Wii Classic Controller, which is (as its name implies) a classically-shaped controller. While intended for the Virtual Console, I wouldn't be surprised if new games start requiring it, too. Plus, as you say, you can just use the Gamecube controllers.

While I'll admit that needing to buy a Wii-mote, and then also buy additional controller parts (classic controller and nun-chuk controller) is irritating, and rather expensive, in the end it's probably a smooth idea, as it increases the number of game styles the system can support. And it's not like consumers aren't already used to buying unique controllers, such as the Guitar Hero controller or DDR mats and the like.

Re:Local Gamestore

[Shadow Wrought]

I've only played demos on the PS3 and it certainly was fun- just not $600 worth. And certainly not more fun than my Wii for over twice the cost. Sony, and Microsoft too, both invested heavily on making their next generation systems as powerful as possible. Nintendo focused on making its system as readily fun as possible, with less emphasis on horsepower, and more emphasis on intuitive playability. So as far as the value of fun goes, the Wii is more fun, for less price. And that's why its demand is greater than that of the PS3's.

To follow this a bit further, lets talk about gaming. We have an Xbox and a Wii. I play Halo and other FPS games with my stepsons and they just flat out pwn me. A good game for me is one in which I can get 5 kills on them before they get 25 on me. (FWIW I'm even worse with PC controls.) When we played multiplayer MoH on the Wii, however, I was within only a couple of kills of them. 10-9, 15-13, that kind of thing. The controls really are that much easier to use, and that much more intuitive.

I have every intention of buying a 360 one of these months, but won't until after next Christmas since I think there'll (a) likely be a bundle with Halo 3 and (b) a price cut too boot. The chances of me buying a PS3 are pretty miniscule unless corporations pay enough money for the cycles that it will pay itself off in a reasonably short amount of time. Not that that's likely, mind you, just that that's about the only thing that I can see that would get me to spend the money.

Re:Not a big deal...

[Leviance]

Nintendo was arguably right though.. Sony wanted to get all of the licensing fees for games produced for SNES-CD

Re:I don't get it either.

[Wdomburg]

Cutting edge of performance or not, they're custom components. Which means if they want more produced per month, they need to contract the vendor to increase production. In either case it's likely going to require an upfront investment to generate the fabrication capacity as well as an increase in the minimum volume. With ATI it's more complicated, since they don't actually own any fabs, which means they have to contract additional capacity as well.

And that ignores the rest of the component. The accelerometer is state of the art. The eDRAM ASIC is a custom design from NEC and MoSYS which uses a fair number of advanced fab processes. Then there's the custom optical drive which handles 8cm discs. And so on and so forth.

And what has that got to do with what I said?

[Hamster Lover]

I addressed the question of Wii production shortages by positing that perhaps Nintendo is running into problems with the supply of the new GPU and CPU chips in the Wii (because they use different chips from those used in the Gamecube). Obviously, there could be other reasons such as a limited number of available manufacturing facilities.

I don't understand why you come back with a reply to my post with a litany on why gaming doesn't always have to be about performance, which I happen to agree with, when that wasn't my point to begin with. I understand that people want a Wii because it's simply fun to play, and it is. I have one myself and I play Wii Sports every night.