proof that nintendo is stock piling wiis?

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ckmlb said:

rasone77 said:
Nintendo actually has a production estimate roughly 5 million higher than Sony by the end of the year. What Playstation fans fail to understand is that Nintendo is making and shipping just as many as Sony is right now, but the demand for the console is staggering. Sony's consoles are sitting onthe shelves because the demand isn't as high, if the demand for the PS3 was as high as that of the Wii. Playstations wouldn't be a dime a dozen in the stores either.

The fact that Nintendo is stock piling shows that they do have the consumers interest at heart. If they shipped every console they were making right now, they would sell out and then the company would be in short supply over the Holidays. By making sure there are more consoles in stores for Christmas they garuntee that more people will be able to get one in their homes.

I personally don't see demand slowing down signifigantly for quite sometime, no matter how many Wiis end up in stores.

Please don't tell me Nintendo stockpiling Wiis for the holidays is for the good of the consumer lol.

Tell that to the people who have been looking for Wiis for months or the ones that stood in line for hours months after launch or the ones buying them much more exspensively cause they are so rare (including me).

Definitely looking out for the consumer by preventing said consumer from getting said console now and instead making him/her wait for the holidays because Nintendo wants big holiday numbers.

 While I would not (and could not) disagree that with-holding consoles is bad for consumers who want them now, I think there is an argument that could be made that it is for the benefit of all current and future Wii owners.  A publicly percieved holiday victory will only help shift more 3rd part support and will bring more games to the console. So there is definately some benefit to the customer.

Now with that said, that customer benefit is obviously not much of a priority for anyone who wants one now. And I think anyone making this argument would be hard pressed to show that Nintendo was doing it for any reason other than financial reasons.  But at the same time the financial reasons are extremely sound and will in all likelihood will result in a larger install base at the end of the console's life than it would without this strategy.

The reasoning is fairly simple, and I am sure I have stated it before, but for the benefit of those who haven't heard it I will restate it.  The benefit of stockpiling consoles until X-mas is two-fold. The first point is that people who want them now but can't get them clearly know what they want and are far less likely to go elsewhere than someone who is gift shopping during the holidays and probably doesn't know the differences or that there even is a difference. The second aspect of this is the Wii's ability to sell itself.  The anecdote of new gamer tries Wii, then new gamer buys Wii has been around long enough that I think it is hard to deny its validity.  With that concept it is easy to see that Wiis at christmas are going to sell themselves to aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and friends who are sharing christmas together and get a chance to see or try it. 

Ideally they could do both, and I am sure they would if they could, but at the moment it is clear that is not possible. So they have to do what is best for their company and their shareholders.  It is unfortunate that any company should be forced to choose between two different consumer groups when their product is capable of selling to both, but in this position they are making the sound business decision and to do anything else would be rediculous.  I'm sure that sounds callous to some but it is the way things work in the business world. 

On the subject of evidence that they are stockpiling, it is fairly substantial.

• Q1 Earning reports indicates the likelihood of an additional 2.5m consoles for Q3.
• Increased shipments to regions with large game releases.
• Increased FY08 forecasts are unmanagable without solid X-mas numbers.
• Parts orders increase without weekly numbers increasing
  
• This recent statement from Reggi (see the OP of this thread)
• Reports from Nintendo pre-launch indicated they would have 9-11m by end of Dec '06.

There is probably more I missed but this should convince most people. Whether or not it is a good thing depends largely on your perspective and I don't think that anyone can claim it is an entirely good or entirely bad thing. My personal feeling is that it is a neccessary evil, but I will leave you guys to decide for yourselves.