Comments on: Are stock shortages the new marketing strategy for consoles?

As Wii and Xbox 360 shortages play games with consumers, Don Reisinger wonders if it's all a ploy to sell more consoles.

[Tinman52]

It's certainly happening, which makes it interesting that the government hasn't stepped in yet.

[natronforever]

The government? So now you want the government to regulate the supply of video game consoles? You're saying that if you don't like how a company regulates the release of its own products, then we should have the government write laws to bring them in line? Sorry, but that's fascism.

[aztec92154]

LOL... companies using shortages as a marketing tool, government involvement, fascism. It all sounds a little far fetched to me. :-)

Maybe:
- The PR people are just making a bad situation sound good.
- Nintendo has dropped the ball on their supply chain, and so has Microsoft.

Surely you dont think that at launch time and in the months after, Nintendo purposefully made nun-chucks, wiimotes, and Twilight Princes (software) hard to find on purpose? You dont believe that a publisher would produce less Rockband / Guitar Hero boxes just to create artificial demand, right?

Hmmm... So if I follow Dons logic, Apple has slowed production on the iPhone BECAUSE it wants to create the demand to sell 10 million of them?

Source: Engadget Article: "Apple reduces iPod / iPhone build rates, increases iMac production"
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/13/apple-reduces-ipod-iphone-build-rates-increases-imac-producti/

[vbonline]

I can buy a Wii or a PS3 or a XBOX360 whenever I want. There are plenty of all of them in the shops....

But let me explain:

Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are global acting companies. A Wii is selling for 249 USD which translates to 26.800 YEN. But a WII is selling for 249 Euro in Euroland (Europe) which translates to 39.300 YEN. Where do you think are all the produced WIIs?
Even during the Holiday season I could get a Wii in every shop I wanted to buy one. There was no shortage! (I actual got one. Sometime mid december. In the first shop i went to and they had plenty of them)

During the time of a strong dollar it was vice versa. It was allways Europe which got products late and in short supply. Now you are suffering... Thats the price you pay for electing an administration who spends money faster than they can print it :-)

To quote the last good president you elected: Its the economy, stupid!

[vbonline]

I just looked up the stock of an retail shop in walking distance of my workplace:

WII: 107 in Stock
PS3: 84 in Stock
Sorry, not selling XBOX360...

To repeat: There is no shortage of consoles (here) :-)

[aztec92154]

@vbononline
Name of store + Phone number please...

[mk-1601]

As usual, your argument makes no sense. We've seen consoles be supply constrained many times (the PS2 and Wii being particularly extreme examples), resulting in the obvious limiting effect on sales. It's generally accepted that Nintendo lost out on millions of dollars in hardware sales over the last two Christmases because they couldn't meet demand. What an awesomely successful marketing stunt! Only a clueless hack with a quota to fill and a woefully inadequate pool of expertise to draw on would entertain such risible nonsense.

"Sales tend to drop off toward the end of the second year in the cycle" - simply not true. The marketing leading console usually nets the bulk of its sales in the latter part of it's life once the price has fallen into the impulse purchase range.

The Wii has sold over 20m units worldwide now. It's fun to watch you come up with increasingly bizarre theories as to why it doesn't deserve to succeed.

[brianmv]

The more I read your articles, the more I feel you are an uninformed jack***, a "Bill O'Reilly" or "Ann Coulter" of tech news. I agree entirely with mk-1601's response and it makes me wonder if you ever actually graduated high school, because if you did you would come to understand that BASIC ECONOMIC THEORY is what keeps your stupid opinion from being informed or cohesive. The only way for any company to maintain sales is to maintain availability of products. If anything, Nintendo is hurt by this, not helped.