A senior Nintendo of America official says that demand for the Wii videogame console may once again outstrip supply during the runup to Christmas. However, the official says that U.S. supplies are up 50% over the same period last year.
Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America's vice president of Corporate Affairs, made the comments to The Industry Standard in an email. "It's true that despite this amazing amount of product we're putting into the channel, some locations around the country are still experiencing sellouts," Kaigler said. "There's no way to know if we'll have enough Wii consoles for the holidays."
This is the third holiday season in a row that retailers have experienced shortages of the popular -- and profitable -- console. Best Buy says on its website that the console is sold out online. Amazon's Wii page acknowledges shortages, and includes a policy that threatens to cancel orders and close the accounts of customers who order more than three consoles. While Amazon is not currently selling consoles on its own, the small number of partner merchants who have new Wiis in stock are listing them on Amazon.com for $350-$363, a markup of at least $100 over the in-store retail price.
However, Kaigler noted that production of the Wii had increased since last year. "Nintendo now manufactures Wii consoles at a rate of 2.4 million a month worldwide," she said. "During the October-to-December timeframe, we will have 50 percent more systems in the U.S. market than we did during the same period last year."
Nevertheless, Kaigler advised people interested in buying a Wii to do so if they happened to see it in stock at a local retailer. "It might not be on that shelf much longer," she said.
When asked about recent comments by Microsoft suggesting that the Xbox 360 and the Wii are not competitors, Kaigler said, "That's for the market to decide."
Sources cited, referenced, or consulted: Nintendo.com, walmart.com, bestbuy.com, amazon.com, Cnet.com, Rachel Lichterman (GolinHarris), Denise Kaigler (Nintendo of America)
Comments
@Ian, just wanted to correct your statement "While the retailer currently is not selling consoles on its own ...". Nintendo owns the brick&mortar store Nintendo World that is located at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. I was recently there on Thanksgiving and can affirm to all that business is very good at that location and there are plenty of stock of Wii related products (including consoles) at retail prices.
BTW, there is a rumor that Best Buy is hoarding its inventory of Wii Consoles.
If all else fails, count on WalMart who secured significant inventory to stock its online channel with tens of thousands of Wii Consoles and at last check, it is still not sold out.
David: Thanks for the info about Nintendo World -- I was not aware of that outlet.
The retailer comment I made in the article was actually referring to Amazon.com, which is not selling consoles out of its own warehouses right now (even though partner merchants do have limited stock). I've changed the language in the article to reflect that.
I did see the Walmart news, but one thing that I remember from last year were spotty reports of one retailer or another getting a shipment, which would cause of rush of interest and then crushed hopes as they sold out. Tens of thousands of units is encouraging, but if the demand is in the hundreds of thousands, the stocks won't last.
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard
Not sure how the link to Nintendo World store was messed up. Here is the actual link. There is only one such store in the world and you can watch concerts from the Rockefeller Plaza (on morning Today's show) from within the store.
The Wii domination continues. 800K consoles sold on Black Friday and a total of 2.575M consoles sold between 11/1-12/6 in the America alone!. So, the tens of thousands that WalMart allegedly claimed may not be enough to satiate those that are still looking for one although sales have dropped so far in Dec relative to November.
During last year's Thanksgiving holiday week, the console shifted 350,000 units in the U.S., even though shortages were pretty major at the time. With more Wiis in stores this year, that number jumped to 800,000 [in 2008's Thanksgiving holiday week]... To put that in perspective, Nintendo sold 803,000 Wiis in the whole of October.
Source: Nintendo Wii Fanboy
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