Gaming Is Nintendo shooting itself in the foot?

[wovva]

I am the lucky owner of a DS Lite and a Nintendo Wii.

Recently I've been thinking about buying another DS Lite for a family member, I also know of another family member that would like a Wii.

However, it seems incredible that nearly 2 years into the life of the DS you cannot go into shops at buy one due to high demand at Xmas.

In the UK the Nintendo Wii has been out for over a year now and you STILL cannot go into a shop and buy one.

I appreciate that they are incredibly popular, but surely Nintendo has to demonstrate that it can deal with the demand that it KNEW it was going to have. They must be losing lots, and lots of potential customers simply because they cannot provide sufficient hardware for the market.

In some game shops you can't buy Mario Galaxy because of high demand. I've been a Nintendo gamer for 20 years now, and I have known a situation like this.

If Nintendo doesn't get its act together fast then it risks losing the lead it has fought so hard to gain.

 

[laminaatplaat]

Wii is still a problem in the netherlands too

it's crazy

 

[Red_Dragon_JPN]

Hmm, I seem to see a repeat of history. Remember the 360 and the rumors that microsoft was intentionally releasing not enough hardware to go around to make it look "popular". A year in and Nintendo is still having supply and demand issues, not likely.

It's just a thought I guess.

 

[Deleted member 110780]

Sometimes I think Nintendo hates us, because they haven't upgraded production and now they're going to South Korea? Then again, they really don't have anything to gain from the shortage and the people that ARE benefitting from this are eBay sellers. 1.8 million a month still isn't enough. And some of us have been waiting for over a year too.

 

[trelantana]

I have to agree that Nintendo doesn't really have anything to gain from this... Unless you consider the fact that the DS-Lite and DS-Phat are in higher circulation. (Yes, I know it's hard to get one at X-Mas, but what ISN'T hard to get at X-mas?) I am basing my opinion on personal experience: You see, I am the only one of my friends to own a Wii. It's not because I'm the only one that thought the Wii was an amazing system, but it's actually because the Wii was out of stock when they attempted to buy one. (I got mine by camping out, which was surprisingly fun, and not anything like I was led to believe) Instead of holding out indefinitely to spend their 500+ dollars (USD) on a Wii+games+accessories, EACH OF THEM decided that they would instead invest their vast fortune upon a DS Lite plus several, several games, and extra accessories.

This is why I think that the Wii shortage is manufactured. In my opinion, Nintendo recognizes that there are only 5 or 6 "must-have" titles on the Wii, and there are even fewer good titles expected for the next while. So, until their third party support gets it's act together, Nintendo is going to continue the Wii shortage to stealthfully transfer their customers over to a different Nintendo console so that their revenue will not be damaged. See, more triple A titles equals more ca$h, and the DS undoubtedly has more triple-A titles than the Wii is going to have for the next... say... at least 5 months. So until then, the Wii is going to be in short supply.

There is one potential flaw in my theory, though... The fact that Sony also has a competing handheld. To fill this possible hole in my theory, I am going to ask you one simple question: Would you rather have handed to you a Nintendo DS Lite with 60 dollars worth of accessories (case, carrier, styluses, screen protectors, etc) plus 11 *good* games, or would you rather have a PSP plus about 4 or 5 games? The decked-out DS, right? Well, here's a secret: Both things I just listed would cost about the same amount.

So, basically, what I'm saying here is that Nintendo is causing these Wii shortages to migrate potential Wii players to the DS Lite so that their annual revenue can stay intact.

 

[TaMs]

There's plenty of wiis and ds here. come and get them.
at the best i've seen like 50 boxes of them and -50% sale. And no one even looked at them

 

[H8TR]

There pretty hard to find in Canada (well depending on where you live). Only way to get them here is daily (more like hourly) checks at Wal Mart.

 

[Speed Freak]

There's plenty of wiis and ds here. come and get them.
at the best i've seen like 50 boxes of them and -50% sale. And no one even looked at them

Whoa! And to think I spent 450 USD on mine...

If you go to a brazilian store to buy a "legal" Wii with all the taxes and stuff, you won't find for less than 600 USD. This is why brazilian people usually go for alternative ways. Before you all start cursing me for my modus operandi, I should let you know that the taxes for imported goods are over 60% of the price tag PLUS shipping...

 

[Law]

There's plenty of wiis and ds here. come and get them.
at the best i've seen like 50 boxes of them and -50% sale. And no one even looked at them

I'm guessing gamers from Winland arn't really fussed over the Wii, and would rather play their "hxc" PS Triple and 360 games (:.

 

[superrob]

Well when i did buy my Wii i looked in ALL shops in the biggest City nearst my little town..
ALL Sold OUT!

But stupid me didn't check at my own Town.
In a toy store there it WAS!!!
For the same price

And the shop owners are very kind and the most scary thing... They know EVERYBODY's names! Thats creepy!

 

[xJonny]

They're doing it on purpose for your monies!!

 

[Extreme Coder]

You guys should be happy you live in places where you can go to a shop and buy a console normally.
There is this series of shops in Egypt called GameValley, which literally have a monopoly on gaming shops on Egypt. Even though they barely hold anything other than PS2 stuff, since most kids here barely hear of the DS Lite or the Wii, which is very very sad :'(
From the beginning of December, till now, I have been calling GameValley twice a day, to ask them if they have a DS Lite in stock, even though they sell it for almost double the price. And everytime, an asshole replies telling me: "Uhh.. I hope we will get them soon in the futurez, probably by the time you have 3 children. Just keep calling and they'll be here anyday"
One of my friends works there, and he says they bought 5 Wiis from launch day, and the only sold 2 so far, even though about 15-20 people a day come asking for it.
Guess why? THEY SELL IT FOR 4,000 EGP!!

Do the maths.

 

[mr deez]

No way in the world Nintendo are purposefully holding stock back- for the first time in recent console history, they actually MAKE money selling the console, so the more they shift the better.

They may have reasons why, at present they choose not to ramp up production (relocation costs, retooling, quality control) but they are NOT to starve the market - as you rightly say, this will lose them customers and so makes no sense.

 

[superrob]

Omg! Thats 3688.87DKK!
I payed 2100DKK for mine.
What a crappy land Egypt must be to live in

 

[xJonny]

Omg! Thats 3688.87DKK!
I payed 2100DKK for mine.
What a crappy land Egypt must be to live in

You mean what a crappy land Egypt must be to buy DS'/Wiis.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

They are purposefully holding back stock.

The stores are too.

You can buy "bundles" everywhere for like $600 that come with a bunch of games and wiimotes. So, they do have the Wii's but they want to tack on a ton of shit to make more money because they know people are desperate to buy them.

Also, I've heard over in europse Wii's are in stores everywhere, and it seems everyone who wants in Japan has one. There is no way they don't have enough to fill store shelves in America. They are just creating demand so they can compete with the 360 and ps3.

 

[Veho]

They may have reasons why, at present they choose not to ramp up production (relocation costs, retooling, quality control) but they are NOT to starve the market - as you rightly say, this will lose them customers and so makes no sense.

QFT

I seriously doubt they are intentionally holding the production back. Trying to force a faster production would only lead to crappy build quality, and I think that the cracky DS hinge taught them a lesson. I believe it's a calculated risk; the sales missed by not having enough consoles ready are less of a loss than a whole series of faulty consoles that they would have to take back under warranty (red ring of DOOM

), which could happen if they try to rush things.

EDIT: As for the Europe versus USA thing, they are making consoles according to their sales projections, which turned out to have been slightly optimistic regarding sales figures in Europe, and slightly pessimistic regarding the US.

Yes, you can get a Wii here any time you want, for $420, and in the US, you have to wait a month or two, but then you get it for $250. Wanna trade places?

 

[Extreme Coder]

Omg! Thats 3688.87DKK!
I payed 2100DKK for mine.
What a crappy land Egypt must be to live in

That,sir,is the correct answer

I seriously need to move out of Egypt ASAP. I want to go any country, I don't care what it is. As long as it's not Egypt, I'm content with it.
QUOTEYou mean what a crappy land Egypt must be to buy DS'/Wiis.

What do you mean?
You mean other things in Egypt are in a better state?

 

[mr deez]

They are purposefully holding back stock.

The stores are too.

You can buy "bundles" everywhere for like $600 that come with a bunch of games and wiimotes. So, they do have the Wii's but they want to tack on a ton of shit to make more money because they know people are desperate to buy them.

Also, I've heard over in europse Wii's are in stores everywhere, and it seems everyone who wants in Japan has one. There is no way they don't have enough to fill store shelves in America. They are just creating demand so they can compete with the 360 and ps3.

Yes the stores maybe - that's their prerogative with the current levels of demand - although I don't agree with it..

But No way are Nintendo.

You're PS3/360 competition arguement makes no sense - Nintendo MAKE money each time a customer buys a Wii. Microsoft and Sony both LOSE money each time they sell a PS3/360, with a view to (hopefully) making money make on selling tons of games.

So really, Nintendo's best plan is SELL AS MANY WII'S AS POSSIBLE ASAP. Then they're already one step ahead - holding back stock would be seriously dumb as they would only lose out with such a strategy.

 

[WarmWoollySheep]

Anyone who believes they're intentionally holding back stock for over a year hasn't taken a business class.