Nintendo Deliberately holding back Wii's

Swift19 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-02-2008, 10:06 AM

With global Wii sales around 25 million, Nintendo's console has been a runaway success. The Wii has been further boosted with the recent launch of Wii Fit, which anecdotally has been selling out everywhere. "The consumer response to Wii Fit was exceptional," Nintendo of America's Denise Kaigler told the LA Times. "We are working as hard as we can to replenish the stock."

According to IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon, however, there is only so much pent up demand that consumers can deal with. After a while if they still can't secure the Wii, they may decide it's not worth it anymore. "That's a tough line to tread," Pidgeon commented. "When does the consumer get frustrated and move on?"

"So far, the Wii still has cachet," he added. "But the fact that consumers can't find a Wii or a Wii Fit is definitely a missed opportunity."

American consumers may be having a tougher time finding the game because of the weak U.S. dollar. Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter said that Nintendo is deliberately sending four times as many units to Europe where the company can profit on the strong euro. He estimated that Nintendo shipped just 500,000 copies of the game in North America but as many as 2 million units to Europe.

"The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere," Pachter said. "They know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now [when more stock can be made available]," he added.

(This is another consequence of the weak dollar and that the Wii shortage isn't due to popularity but the company not caring about the American market.)

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...rtunity/?biz=1