Reggie talks about Wii supply
Category: Wii, Posted: 12/06/2007 at 11:40AM CST by Eddie Inzauto, Senior Editor
For the second holiday season in a row, the Wii is one of the most difficult consumer products to get ahold of - we are all aware of this fact. How does Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime feel about it, though? In an interview with MSNBC he covered topics ranging from his employment history to hardcore gamers to the future of the Nintendo DS, but also weighed in on Nintendo's current supply-and-demand dilemma.
With regard to the production of the Wii, and Nintendo's ability to meet market demand, he stated:
"You know, the very first annual estimate for Wii was 14.5 million units. No home console had ever sold that many in a first year. And so we were very aggressive at the start. Our issue is one of unprecedented demand and for this holiday season, we are putting more than twice as many Wii consoles into the marketplace as we had at launch. So we are not conservative in our manufacturing. If anything, we’ve been too conservative in understanding the depth of enjoyment and passion that the consumer has for the console."
He also addressed the conspiracy theorists out there, and the idea that Wii shortages could possibly be a part of Nintendo's marketing strategy:
"In absolute terms, it is highly, highly unfortunate that consumers cannot find a Wii to purchase. And anyone who suggests that a shortage is good for business really doesn’t understand business. We want the consumer to walk into any retail establishment and find the product. And that’s what we’re working tirelessly to make happen."
At present, Nintendo has sold 13.2 million Wii consoles, trailing the Xbox 360's worldwide numbers by only a small margin. Given the fact that the 360 had a one year head start, I'm inclined to believe that Nintendo is doing their best to churn out their little bundle of joy just as quickly as Reggie says.
- Mega Man 9 10/08/2008
- Mega Man 9 10/08/2008
- Mega Man 9 10/08/2008
- Rock Band 2 10/03/2008
- Rock Band 2 10/03/2008
- Tales of Vesperia 09/28/2008
- View More
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe ... 07/31/2008
- Hands-On: N+ 07/29/2008
- E3 2008: Resident Evil 5 hands... 07/25/2008
- E3 2008: Too Human hands-on 07/23/2008
- E3 2008: The Agency developer ... 07/22/2008
- E3 2008: Left 4 Dead direct fe... 07/21/2008
- View More
Kyle Stallock
Updated June 4th, 2008
Indie Games Journalism
Brendon Lindsey
Updated September 9, 2008
Blu-Ray Review: Trans...
Frank Ling
Updated: Aug. 1th, 2008 Are you a game snob?
Eddie Inzauto
Updated Wed, September 3
Too Human scribblings
GamerNode needs your help. Register
now and join thousands of gamers in a
crusade to spread the word of
GamerNode!
Join the Node Army!
- Halo 3: Recon 10/15/2008
- What are you listening to? 10/15/2008
- GameStop's unwrapping of all gam... 10/15/2008
- World's Longest Thread 10/15/2008
- Fun Fact... 10/15/2008
- Error when tryin' to play Mediev... 10/15/2008
- What's your favorite grand theft... 10/15/2008
- What game did you play today? 10/15/2008
- New PC Time, Need Help 10/15/2008
- You laugh, you lose. 10/15/2008
- View More
Stood in line for a few hours at a pretty out-of-the-way Circuit City on Wii launch day last year to get one for my kids. I'm pretty much in awe that they are as hard to come by this year as they were last year, if not more so. The Wii is a first party console, you're never going to see a wealth of awesome 3rd party games on this, and yet consumers are eating these things up.
I know at least half a dozen people who are trying to score Wiis for their kids for XMas this year, and I don't know a lot of people, so I can only imagine the demand must be enormous.
The problem is that it's not really doing anything to make people gamers. A lot of this is for Wii Sports/Wii Play. Who ever heard of a Mario game only selling 500k in the first week before?
Well, i bet alot of people waited until the darn black friday to get the thing, and sadly, your right that alot of people are getting it for the wii sports, i play irt for FPS and Nintendo games, for those are what i liek the most one the thing. I just hope the online functions get better.
The Wii continues to generate a flood of software most people barely notice. There are a lot of really good casual games out there that people are buying but that we don't hear about on hardcore sites. Another thing to remember is that a company doesn't have to sell as many copies to have a huge hit. Namco Bandai once said it needed to sell 500,000 units of a next-gen game to break even (a number that's still hard to reach), but what about a game for the Wii? The number is surely lower. I think the next year or two will be really telling for both the Wii and the PS3... and for that matter, the Xbox 360.
"If anything, we’ve been too conservative in understanding the depth of enjoyment and passion that the consumer has for the console," again with the self-love Reggie? How shameless.