GameStop Theorizes Wii Shortage Deliberate 163
In GameStop's quarterly public conference call, company COO Dan DeMatteo called out Nintendo on what he sees as intentional supply shortages. Along with the news that the company hit $5.3 Billion in 2006, Next Gen reports that the call contained several remarks on the next gen systems. The Wii, Dematteo thinks, has been short supplied because 'they made their numbers for the year ... [Nintendo's] new year starts April 1st, and I think we're going to see supply flowing.' They also commented on the Euro launch of the PS3, with CEO R. Richard Fontaine saying, 'I think the summary of that was that it was a very good launch falling somewhat short of what [GameStop's Euro managing directors] would call a great launch.'
Nintendo Retaliates (Score:3, Funny)
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If Nintendo sold all the consoles they could, they could take over the #1 installed base crown from the Xbox 360
I think what you me is "If Nintendo sold all the consoles they could, they could take over the #2 spot from the XBox (not 360), and still be millions of units behind the PS2 and the number one spot." You can add all the current gen consoles sales together and they don't even scratch the surface of the PS2s install base, which is still growing, even out growing the other consoles individually.
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What I was saying is that the current leader in install base is the PS2, and there doesn't seem to be any console challenging that at this time. The PS2 has sold over 110 million units as of the end of 2006 (not including the christmas season where it did sell well), while all other consoles (not hand helds obviously) that are currently still on the market total 64 million (approximation, which includ
PS2 doesn't matter in current-gen console "war" (Score:2)
Clearly, it would be in Nintendo's best interest to chatch up with and overtake the 360 as quickly as possible, to establish the Wii as the current-gen leader. Claiming that Nintendo intentionally sells less consoles is absurd.
Saying that t
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That is a double edged sword (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if that is what Nintendo did... but it would seem short sighted to lose a customer over the life of this product and reaping in game sales just to have better numbers in one quarter.
Re:That is a double edged sword (Score:5, Interesting)
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Sorry, but I just want to point out the house of cards you're arguing about the Wii - they aren't faking the shortage because there obviously is a shortage due to the fact they can't keep up with demand. Wouldn't an artificial shortage cause it to appear there's high demand due to a shortage? If there wasn't a shortage, demand would be sated and
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Remember they released the DS Lite in Australia before US
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Well before the launch they were talking about how they produced so many units you should just be able to walk into your local retailer and walk out with one(sans waiting in line in cold weather for hours) on launch day.
That is not true.
Here [slashdot.org] is a story where Reggie Fils-Aime says "not to get complacent."
Re:That is a double edged sword (Score:5, Insightful)
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Have you asked anyone with a decent HD set? If you have one, the PS3 is a better deal than the 360 because of the Bluray.
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However, I don't have much interest in an HD-DVD drive for the 360 either. My perspective is, if I want an HD player (whichever one wins - Blu Ray or HD DVD) I'd rather get a good one, given how much I've invested already in my home media kit.
While I'm sure the PS3 is a competent console and plays gam
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He wasn't spouting crap off as fact without knowing what he was talking about. Just about everything he said is carefully worded to make it absolutely clear it's his opinion, his skepticism and his issues.
Ther
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No. I happen to live in a middle-class area where not everybody can afford a several-thousand dollars TV. Heck, a coworker doesn't even own a TV at all (by choice though), and some are still watching TV with rabbit's ears.
I brought my Wii to the office last week, and plugged it in the projector in the conference room. The viral effect of the Wii is amazing. Everybody passing by stoppe
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24 million people out of a 300 million population is a penetration rate of 8%. While that number is bound to grow in the future, that is currently leaving out 92% of people out of the equation. And how fast HD penetration rate will increase is a total unknown. How long have people been saying that broadband Internet is a year away f
It takes a thief... (Score:3, Insightful)
artificially choking supply? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:artificially choking supply? (Score:4, Interesting)
It is possible that Nintendo underestimated demand when they were reserving factory time for the Wii to be built. Then again, it is possible they just can't get enough units to market as quickly as they would like due to some factor beyond their control (this is most likely).
Re:artificially choking supply? (Score:5, Insightful)
How many times have we discussed on
I think they simply underestimated demand, and now it's both difficult and expensive to try to meet it.
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P.S.: Don't point me to NexGenWars... they estimate based on trends. VGCharts only uses official numbers.
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Marketshare would be the percentage of consoles sold in some period of time. This is just raw units shipped since launch.
Not that installed base is unimportant, but it isn't the same thing as marketshare.
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Give it another 4, maybe 5 months and the Wii will be the best-selling next-gen console.
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When will we catch up with the future and stop calling the Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 "next-gen". When does a console become "current gen"?
Current Gen is (Score:2)
1. It makes up the majority of the install base or
2. People are talking about the 'next gen', turning the former 'next gen' into the 'current gen'.
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Nintendo is a very conservative company, and as such, they would be more likely to just try to ride out the wave rather than spending huge amounts of money ramping up production only to be overproducing and having wasted all that money
Re:artificially choking supply? (Score:4, Insightful)
Today: March 27, 2007.
Days between the two dates: 129 days (including today)
Wii's produced till today: 6,000,000+
6,000,000 Wiis / 129 days = 46,511.628 Wiis / day.
Each Wii sold includes 1 remote, 1 nun-chuck, 1 sensor bar, 1 a/v cable, and 1 power brick. In addition to this, Nintendo must also produce additional remotes, nun-chucks, and classic controllers at roughly the same rate.
I don't know about you, but you find me a manufacturer that can produce electronic hardware at a rate of 46.5k units a day without running out of any supplied part in the process. Even if you give them an additional 30 days to buffer the launch dates with units to sell you'd still get roughly 37.7k Wiis per a day. In order to pull this off Nintendo has to have good engineering (low defect rate), good manufacturing process (low manufacturing defects, fast/efficient production lines), and good supply chain management (can be compensated by better engineering to accept multiple part alternatives in the event a supplier cannot keep up with demand--I've seen this with their battery manufacturer changes that ship with the remotes). That doesn't even begin to include what you're going to do when people send back defective units during the warranty period.
For a global/multilingual launch and a company that only deals with gaming hardware/software, I'd say they're doing a damn good job.
I don't think anyone expected this kind of demand; it's not everyday that your mom, aunt, and grandma (literally) say "I want a Nintendo (Wii)." If there was a new product that was the next big thing compared to sliced bread, this is pretty close.
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At a slightly higher pace actually. Many Wii owners will eventually want 4 Wiimotes, so that's 3 extra Wiimotes per Wii sold. And they're currently as hard to find in stores as Wii consoles. I got a Wii at launch, but only managed to get a 4th Wiimote two weeks ago, and that's only because I managed to get my hands on Wii-Play with the Wiimote bundled.
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Not quite. You would have to factor in how quickly the initial supply sold out; after that it would come out differently - and likely still quiet close to the original 46.5k per day. So... suppose an initial supply of 400k units with a sell out of 7 days (close, I think):
Initial Supply = 400k
Initial Supply Sell Out = 7 days
400k / 7 = 57142.857.. Wiis/day
Sold Since =
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ya think? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not so sure that's the case though. There definitely does seem to be more demand than can be quickly supplied. Remember kids, the PS3 was the intentionally shorted console, and now they're on shelves everywhere. The Wii on the other hand is actually selling still and there's tremendous demand for them.
so? (Score:2)
I bought one for my house and one for my nephews. I'd rather be complaining about a company providing a limited release when there is a lack of software than have the poor implementation of the competitors.
One can only guess... (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably a more practical reason is to short the supply of units during the innitial games draught, a game release slump which is simply unavoidable for any console. If 5 million people get their Wii off the bat, and then have to wait 6 months for good games to start coming out, you're going to have a lot of angry people. Currently, most people are still focused on getting the damn system itself, and don't have time to bitch about the lack of games. Now that some big titles, such as Super Paper Mario, and possibly MP3 are on the horizon, they can satisfy more customers, with less public backlash.
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It doesn't make any sense at all. The claim is that Nintendo, having easily met their fiscal goals, deliberately clamped production/shipments. First, so long as you don't appear to be sacrificing long term stability, investors would love for you to exceed your goal. Nobody complains about making more money, and I can
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It makes perfect sense. Investors would much rather see a company make their goals for two years in a row, then to have one high year, followed by a dissapointing year
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Like I said, that only appiles if the next year is going to be dissapointing, otherwise having an exceptional year is a good thing as far as investors are concerned. There is little reason
Gamestop is just frustrated (Score:5, Funny)
Trying to strong-arm Nintendo won't help, Gamestop.
Pure speculation but possible (Score:5, Insightful)
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Say what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok, yeah, that last one was un-called for. And I do like the PS3, but only enough to pay about $350, so till then, I'll stick with the Wii (and maybe a 360 if they release the new hardware and it comes down to $300).
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A person like Dan DeMatteo doesn't make those kind of statements unless he has legitimate reason to believe them. GameStop is a pretty large corporation, and CEO's of Fortune 400 companies don't blindly make that sort of accusation without there being some truth to it.
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Are you sure you don't mean DS Lite and Gameboy Micro?
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Now, thats a variety of stores from KC MO, KC KS, St. Louis MO, Columbia MO, Springfield IL, Peoria IL, Urbana/Champaign IL, and Little Rock AR that I've personally been in in the last two weeks, at various times of day
Re:Say what? (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, you gotta find a better hobby than browsing the electronics section of discount stores over a four state area. I mean, dude. Wow.
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Its either that or sit in the hotel room drinking beer and posting to slashdot. And we all know how well drinking and posting works.
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In regards to the person who mentioned the GameBoy Micro, this is a dead system in the US. The GameBoy Advance SP, however, is still a good seller, though it has little further growth potential with the DS/Lite getting so many new titles.
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Shortage? (Score:3, Interesting)
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I suppose it is entirely possible they expected high demand here, but they received higher demand than planned. I don't, however, think Nintendo shorted the US any more than it had to due to production constraints and launches elsewhere. I certainly doubt they'd do so over something as trivial as just making quarterly numbers.
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Oh of course (Score:5, Funny)
I think before too long I'll just stop shipping product all together, why the sheer panic as people riot in the streets for my items is sure to make me millions and millions of dollars
*point at lip with pinky*
Long suspected (Score:2, Interesting)
For quite some time now I've thought the shortage was deliberate to help them liquidate their stock of GameCube titles. I was never interested in the GC but there's such a shortage of good Wii games (that I have not already played through) I am forced to look in other directions. The online retro titles don't interest me so I'm forced to choose between lego star wars and mario sunshine.
As for april 1, I don't think we'll see anything new unless Nintendo issues with their shares has ended. Miyamoto couldn
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I don't buy it, for the simple reason that the Wii can run all those GameCube titles too. With the relatively small number of upcoming Wii releases, I'm expecting to work my way through the GameCube back catalog to fill in the gaps.
No, as a GameCube owner I can tell you that Nintendo has always had distribution problems. They just can't keep stuff in stores for whatever reason. Even hig
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Since the first thing I did after (finally) getting my Wii and a couple major titles was to go out and buy (cheap!) a bunch of the old Gamecube games I missed out on since I haven't owned a console in more than 10 years, I'm skeptical of the notion that withholding Wii stock will increase sales of GC titles. Also, that would be the most radically shortsighted, stupid move they could make even if it worked, since a few extra dollars from old, mostly out-of-print GC games will not compensate for the potential
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I still think it would be stupid of them, but, it appears everyone seems to think purposely withholding stock is the norm in the console wars.
Mmmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
This is so *very* not news... (Score:2)
And I'll apologize for using the "leverage" buzzword by providing documentation to back up my facts.
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Press-Start-Contin ue/dp/0966961706/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-2040246-58511 46?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175043506&sr=1-2 [amazon.com]
Japan? (Score:2, Insightful)
Are there Wii shortages in Japan? clearly
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Yes, yes it is. They're very keen [kotaku.com] on the Wii in Japan.
I wouldn't rule it out... but... (Score:2)
But that logic does NOT work with the consoles themselves.
Let me see, six months ago, exactly how many people figured the Wii would be the #1 con
I bet Nintendo is on the phone right now... (Score:2)
Cartmanland (Score:2)
I guess they learnt their lessons from Cartmanland [wikipedia.org]
Gamestop could have all the Wii's they need... (Score:2)
Wii shortage = IBM shortage? (Score:2)
As a long-time Mac fan, the first thing that occurred to me when the Wii was so hard to find this winter was... is this a Nintendo problem? or an IBM problem?
IBM is notorious for production volume issues with PowerPC chips. Several times, Apple had to delay planned product refreshes because IBM simply couldn't churn out enough new-model chips to meet the projected demand. (Motorola was even worse.) It was IBM's supply issues, combined with an inability to break certain performance-per-watt barriers in t
Re:You mean like the PS3 or XBox 360 launch? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:You mean like the PS3 or XBox 360 launch? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Desire is the root of suffering. Therefore if you desire a console too much, you won't obtain it and suffer.
I don't want a 360 or PS3 and they're plentiful.
I do have a Wii, but I went to the store half-heartily, stood in line, expecting to be turned away, and was 3rd to last to get a ticket.
I want to play games on the Wii but don't really like the games.
Some of the games that I'd like to play are on a different system.
And I have no time to play.
Hmmm....I started this a
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Most companies -- especially in the video game industry -- would shipped everything out the door that would increase their numbers at the end of the quarter.
I respectfully disagree. Video game companies would be more likely to do this because DVD stamping is cheap and easy to ramp up. Console manufacturing is a whole different ball game. Any type of manufacturing includes significant capital expenditures.
Also, consider the human factor. If you've already made your maximum bonus for the year, it might be worth reserving some future sales in your back pocket for the following year.
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Game companies, especially large ones, do this kind of thing all the time. It's all about hitting the expectations for the quarter or year. If they've already hit their numbers this period, they want to do as much as possible to delay sales until the beginning of the next, so they'll have a better chance of hitting the numbers then. Project schedules for many products I've worked on have been moved around entirely to increase
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There are several reasons Nintendo would do this.
1) Free Press. "Wii Shortages Continue", "Wii still high demand!", etc
2) Viral Marketing. "Did you hear, Johnny and Sally both just got a Wii! I've been looking for 2 months and I haven't found one! They must be the most popular and coolest thing on the planet! I'm so excited now, I really want one! Mooooom! I really want to get a Wii! Everyone else is getting them!"
3) Japanese business culture. Well, I'm not expert her
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Nintendo certainly had a Monopoly, and they used that power in the industry. How much of it was greed and how much of it was necessary corrective action to prevent the mistakes made in the Atari era is up to interpre
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Re:Online Multiplayer (Score:5, Insightful)
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Translation:
Hot ingame graphics are a requirement to get reviewers and teens to buy, gotta pay those guys. With the popularity of online the equally expensive cut scenes, hollywood actors doing voices and paying somebody who can actually write a half baked plot can all be cut to the bone.
Multiplayer is pretty much multiplayer, regardless of the game, because the PLAYERS are the most important t
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Though you do bring up a good point. Many, many people are terrible at games and find online play frustrating. Having cooperative vs. dumb AI is a lot more fun
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I vehemently disagree.
I've had a Wii since launch, and if there's one thing that is true of the console it is this: I never play it anymore when there aren't other people around. For whatever reason, I can't even bring myself to play Zelda unless someone else is there.
The system literally screams for you to call your friends, grab a few drinks and party. It and its games seem designed for groups, even if most people are spectating.
It seems meant for o
Online kills Splitscreen (Score:2)
That's why I bought a Wii instead. Since Nintendo is dragging its feet
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They totally did, dude! I saw 'em, they said your Wii was short and aged.
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I suspect my local Toy'R'Us is also getting 60 units on April 1, just like the got 60 units on March 4 when I bought mine. It's just time for the next shipment. They seem to like Sundays.
It was kinda cool leaving Toys'R'Us a few minutes after ten with my new Wii (arrived two minutes before they opened, waited outside the door for a minute or two, and went right in), and driving past the Best Buy in the s