Uh…yeah, no.
Is it time for another “The Wii is really a huge failure” threads?
Anecdotal data: I’ve been searching for a Wii, both in local stores and online, for about 2 weeks now. All the local stores apparently (a) have no idea when they’re getting new ones in and (b) sell them out the same day they get new ones. I’ve had several calls of the “Oh, we got some in yesterday, but they’re all gone now” variety. They weren’t hard to find online, but mostly as part of a “console + 4 games that we pick and get fairly lousy reviews for $450-550” package. I finally found one at ebgames that was a decent package - console + wii play & extra controller + nunchuck + 2 controller charging station. This is for Christmas for the kids BTW.
Isn’t the proper response to this to just raise the price? Is public perception of such things so bad that it’s better to have shortages than to price the consoles where they can sell at a profit?
It’s kind of sad that people will scream bloody murder about a corporation raising the price on something and would rather spend their weekends calling and driving around to stores in hopes of getting lucky and hitting the short supply jackpot.
eeeeeeeeeebay! I bought both the Wii and the Fit on ebay in August for my husband’s birthday. There were a number of them, all new in the box, with free shipping. We love them. I exercised on the Fit this morning. It kicked my ass. 
I’ve seen a lot of Wii’s available at Target and Toys R Us lately, so it seems like they’re much easier to find now (at least in the suburban Los Angeles area).
And for those of you looking for a Wii Fit (and I imagine this is true for the Wii console as well)… Check the Target weekly circular. I called Target on a frustrated whim after my online search for a Fit failed and missed the last one they had by about 10 minutes, but the guy I spoke to told me that if it’s advertised in the circular they will have a bunch on Sunday and then get a smaller shipment later in the week. I called on a Thursday and they’d gotten 3 in that morning. Fortunately, there are about 5 other Targets in the area, so I called another one and they still had a few… until people saw me walking through the store with it. I was asked by three times if I knew if they had any more.
BTW, Nintendo actually makes money on the sale of each Wii. Sony and Microsoft were losing money on theirs, positioning them as loss leaders, and since lowering the prices I assume they still are.
The Game Stop in my local Hollywood Video had Wii on the shelf when I was in there last week. The Wii Fit is impossible to find here though.
It can take a year or two to develop games for a device. Once you’ve seen what people are making for your device, moving to market to what that is isn’t so hard, especially if you’ve brought in people to test the games and surveyed them about how it seems to them.
After the fact, Nintendo has indeed made the right moves. I’m just saying that from my experiences, I would doubt any planning behind the device than, “Oh shit! We’re losing market share! Toss everything in and let’s hope something sticks!”
Totally the opposite situation here, where Wii Fit is readily available, but the consoles are very hard to find on shelves.
I want to agree that the unavailability of the Wii is totally down to demand, but situations like that–and the news that Wii consoles are available in large numbers in the Japan and Europe markets but not in North America–suggest to me there’s a large dollop of logistical failure too. Nintendo isn’t the only company (as opposed to the only console company) to have dealt with high demand, but most companies seem to have got a handle on the situation within a year or two.
While Nintendo was losing market share with the GameCube, their handheld systems have always held commanding leads and the company made more profit on the GameCube than Sony made on the PS2. Even though the PS2 has outsold the GC something like 6-1.
For a long time now, Nintendo has been “for kids” and the others were for grownup (12+) hardcore gamers. Nintendo lost that war but I don’t think they really wanted to win it. Nintendo can’t complete against the perception, and they don’t want to really. As long as they keep it fun and the price down, they’ll get the hardcore gamers too. C’mon, even the hardest-of-core gamers can’t resist Mario. They won’t admit it, of course.
Nintendo has successfully divided the console wars into two, and they’re the uncontested winner in their division, being the only one in it, and all.
A gamer might pick between Xbox or PS3, but he’ll toss a Wii in the basket regardless.
Hogwash.
Nintendo has “won” using any metric you want to use. They didn’t divide the console wars, they decimated the competition so the competition has to use this “we’re not competetitors” line to save face.
And Nintendo has never been “for kids”, they’ve always positioned themselves as making games for “all ages.” Nintendo executives have been quoted as saying that for years. Decades if you feel like going way far back (or reading Game Over by David Sheff, which is excellent). The “hardcore” have always been a small part of gaming and they’ve always used Nintendo consoles as a primary or secondary system.
The only difference now is that the industry is catching on that Nintendo has always been in charge.
How does this explain the lack of HD support, advanced graphics processors, or DVD playback capability in the Wii? If the plan was “toss in everything,” I’d expect it to actually have “everything.” The fact that they deliberatly avoided including features that the other companies viewed as essential (if not defining) features for their consoles speaks to some degree of careful planning in the development of the Wii.
Want to trade?
I want to agree that the unavailability of the Wii is totally down to demand, but situations like that–and the news that Wii consoles are available in large numbers in the Japan and Europe markets but not in North America–suggest to me there’s a large dollop of logistical failure too. Nintendo isn’t the only company (as opposed to the only console company) to have dealt with high demand, but most companies seem to have got a handle on the situation within a year or two.
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I forgot to mention, for a while, Comcast was offering a free Wii as part of their triple play package (intenet/cable/phone). I don’t know if they were actually delivering or not since I’m not a customer, but it makes me curious if that relates to the demand problem.
Well, we’ll have to disagree then. If Nintendo won the console wars, we’d be wondering if Xbox or PS3 are going to even continue to exist, and we’d be lamenting the fact that game developers are hesitating to develop for those systems, and whining about how the developers aren’t porting their games from the Nintendo to the other systems.
When I say Nintendo is “for kids” I’m not talking about what Nintendo execs are saying. It’s public perception. I’m a long-time Nintendo loyalist, and I know Nintendo isn’t just “for kids.” I’ve killed my share of enemies in a bloody way using a Nintendo. Not that I care, but yes, I’ve also seen girls’ panties on my Nintendo.
What’s left? Processing power, graphics, sound, speed. Some people want the latest. Nintendo isn’t fighting that fight.
“Won the console wars” is such a subjective term. And the “continue to exist” argument is just a stupid after effect of the Dreamcast. Sega going third party was never in Nintendo’s future and just because the 12 year olds that troll most video game forums thought it was going to happen never made it realistic.
Even when Nintendo was losting market share, they were never in danger of failing to exist.
I think people tend to forget Nintendo’s ability to adapt. After all, they didn’t always make video games. 
But you know that, and I know that, and Game Over is an excellent book.
Minor hijack: Nintendo’s first product was playing cards, specifically hanafuda cards. For their first 70 years they made nothing else. Then they started making something else…that’s right, they made instant rice. Somehow I don’t think Sega or Atari ever expected a career arc like that.
And which they still make.
Sega has a pretty interesting history as well.
Yeah - I love that about them. Probably my most prized gaming memorabilia are the Nintendo-made hanafuda and regular playing card decks I picked up (at a 7-11 or similar, I think) while in Japan. They’re totally normal and unassuming, except for the whole “made-by-Nintendo” bit. The fact that they quiety continue selling their original product (you think the Wii is low-tech?) says a lot about them as a company.
(If I really wanted to be all obnoxious-fangirlish, I’d say Nintendo is a video game company, whereas Sony and Microsoft are more into video games…)