Comments on: Nintendo: More Wiis available for holidays

Game company also shows U.S. press its new DS-i handheld player, which it acknowledges won't be available in North America any time soon.

[techman21]

What's a "moreWiis"?

[Zoe Slocum]

The typo has been fixed. Thanks.

[karpenterskids]

It's sad that it won't be available in "North American" until 2009.

[Daniel Terdiman]

Fixed the typo. Thanks for pointing it out. I was typing furiously with a battery approaching 0%. Didn't have time to read it over as carefully as I would have liked.

[l3it3r]

What in the world is Reggie wearing!?

Wii-HD needs to come out for Christmas 2010. The year of the Electric car could be the year that Wii jumped the console generation gun and blind sides PS4 and Xbox-R3DRinG 2

[zincmann]

Ok, so again more company hullaballoo. We dont know how many well need? We dont know how many we sold last year? How about ramping up production enough like the more expensive consoles did to have enough on hand. I Just do not buy that they are not sure they will be able to make demand, make more than enough and if there is some left over they will sell.

Stop making this an artificial run on a product that has a lukewarm demand.

[Zomic13]

"Stop making this an artificial run on a product that has a lukewarm demand."

Was that a serious comment? I hope it wasn't for your sake. Wii sells nearly 2.5 million units a month. Xbox and PS3 don't even come close. If the Wii has only lukewarm demand, then the demand for 360 and PS3 is downright abysmal.

Nintendo has almost tripled the monthly production of Wii since launch. Producing more units is not as simple as turning on a switch. Production decisions have to be made many months in advance because the part suppliers need time to make more parts and the production lines need time to increase capacity. You also have to weigh how many you need to make vs. how many will be in demand because it is expensive to increase supply. Sure Nintendo could decide to jack of supply to 10 million a month to satisfy demand, but very quickly demand would be met, leaving Nintendo with excessive inventory and production capacity, which would cost the company a lot more than they are losing on missed sales. It's all business.

[benjwah]

I can't tell if you're pissed off at Nintendo because they rule or because they suck...

[worthygod]

This will be a little better and the camera is the only good thing about the new DSi.I won't get this game system.This is more money too.I would rather have 3 NINTENDO 64's with no controllers or games.

[steve5200]

I simply can't believe that Nintendo has been unable to meet the demand for Wiis two years after its release. Give me a break. It seems to me that they are continuing to create a high demand by keeping the supply artificially low.

[E_D_D_I_E]

Im getting a nintendo ds today and i cant wait. Im getting a red one (im talking bout the normal ds)YEHH well i cant wait
!!!!!!!!!!!.

[PunkCityKid2]

Don't be a dummy, buy a psp. It's a much better device.

[Bookerman]

Give me break. There is no shortage of Wii's. Everybody who wanted one, already has one. Nintendo is just trying to create an illusion of a shortage, so the Wii will be a desirable purchase this holiday season. If Nintendo wants to attract attention, they should be releasing more and/or better games instead. By the way, what is the Nintendo Wii's must-have game for the holidays?

[DarkHawke]

If they'd <i>really</i> wanted to wait for further market penetration of the DS Lite, they shouldn't have announced this new, feature enhanced model. Now anyone who hears about it will wait till it's released over here before buying a DS. In their favor, though, at least this is a really substantial upgrade in the capabilities of the device. Meanwhile, Sony sucks it again with the piddling enhancements of the "PSP 3000." As if adding a big number to the name's gonna trick anyone into thinking it's more than just a mild refresh of the existing hardware.

[Shaun822]

"Give me a break. There is no shortage of Wii's. Everybody that wanted one, already has one." I can assure with with full faith that your statement is not correct. They are becoming easier to find but I haven't seen a Wii at any of my local retailers yet. They all get 2 or 3 on the ship date and they are gone within 10 minutes. The only reason that I got a Wii is that I happened to walk into a Toys R Us to buy my sister a birthday present ad saw a small piece of paper at the entrance to the R-Zone that advertised them as being in stock. I do believe however, that Nintendo is riding the wave of the shortage that is probably creating artificial demand of the Wii and that if they were serious about getting a Wii into the hands of everyone that wanted one they probably could. And, I agree that they are in a low point as far as games go right now.

[ithomas94]

They are in a low point; nintendo has basically alienated all the hardcore gamers.
The Conduit might bring back some people, but not enough.
Nintendo would need something amazing to get the hardcore market into their hands . . . but what do they care?
They're obscenely rich. The DS-i thing is a bit backwards to me too. They're just waiting until everyone has a DS-lite, and then spring the DS-i on us in late 09.

[treet007]

I have been trying for the past 6 months to see the Wii and the Wii Fit so that my wife and I can determine if the Wii is a good exercise platform (using Wii Fit). Circuit City, Best Buy, and others never had the Wii Fit in stock, and yet they want me to purchase something sight-unseen. Sorry, I do not purchase vaporware. No matter how many people says that the Wii and Wii Fit are "just great", my wife and I need to see and try the system for ourselves. Why is Nintendo limiting availability? To keep the prices artificially high?

[MintyBasic]

Nintendo is only limited by what it can afford. Just because thier system is popular doesn't mean its manufacturing plants magically expand to meet demand or that there are suddenly more shipping containers to haul product. Reviews of the product can easily tell you that Wii Fit is not an exercise tool but rather a game controller for the feet. People enjoy it because they're playing games with it. The goal of Wii Fit isn't to make anyone fit, just more aware of their fitness by tracking the weight, response times, etc. of the player. I don't even own Wii Fit but I did spend 6 minutes reading reviews to learn all there was to know about the game.

TL;DR - Wii Fit is a game, not an exercise platform.

[abbyjulia]

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"Why is Nintendo limiting availability? To keep the prices artificially high?"

Could be. I was just in Andorra, the little duty-free tax haven of western Europe. I found plenty of Wii consoles there for just 250 Euros. At the time, that was about US$ 360. And that was a bargain for folks in Europe, as they avoided their own country's tax (say roughly 20%).

Now, imagine that you're a Nintendo executive in Japan. You've got a fixed number of Wii consoles to ship somewhere this quarter. You can sell plenty of Wii consoles in Europe for US$360 (and maybe allocate a few to the US just to mollify your retail partners) or you can ship them all to the US where they will sell out for $250 each. Oh, and you can't change those prices as that would send the wrong signals to the media and your competitors. Where would you send those consoles?

[1928pc]

can the dsi switch to english if you get it from japan early and can it play the american games