Nintendo Already Anticipating Holiday Wii Shortages

As we approach the holiday season, Nintendo has already said that they don't expect to keep up with demand for the Wii console. In an interview with the LA Times, Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said they're ramping up production by 33% already, with further increases planned. They're hoping to avoid the scarcity of Wii's that occurred last year, which cost them a great deal of money in potential sales. "We're now producing 2.4 million units a month worldwide. Last year, we made 1.6 million a month. So we've made a 33% increase. One of our competitors projects they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that's three months of production. We're producing an unprecedented level of hardware to try to meet demand."

So has Nintendo won the console war?

[chebucto]

Is it official yet, or do the other contenders still have a shot at avoiding humiliation?

Re:Who doesn't have a wii at this point?

[NoobixCube]

Three Wiis? With twelve, I could set up a Beowulf Cluster and run Linux to calculate Pi to the 50 billionth decimal place!

Re:Who doesn't have a wii at this point?

[Coraon]

No, people arn't eating them, but I hear that their CPU when ground up makes a powerful aphrodisiac.

Re:Who doesn't have a wii at this point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Four Words: Red Ring of Death

At least "children's toys" are built for resilience.

Re:Must be ramping down production

[Atriqus]

Tell me about it, I mean just look at their sales for the last two years... oh wait.

Re:Holiday Wii shortages

[Anonymous Coward]

Hah, like a Linux user would know how without a man page.

Re:In other news...

[MichaelSmith]

Nintendo will not only be exceeding the record set by the PS2, they will shatter it to pieces.

Several reasons have been proposed for this:

1. The Wii is slightly cheaper...

Re:In other news...

[maliabu]

The best sales are obviously around Christmas, both before and after. (After for all the folks who couldn't get one during the Christmas season.) Being at the opposite end of the year, summer is obviously going to be the low-point for sales. Consumers are spending their money on vacations and outdoor fun rather than game consoles.

We celebrate summer Christmas you insensitive clod!

Re:In other news...

[MadKeithV]

Just imagine how much it would sell if it reassuringly said "Don't Panic!" in large blocky lettering on the front!