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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why Is The Wii Having Shortage Issues?

 

Why Is The Wii Having Shortage Issues?

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mike_intellivision on 28 February 2010

Demand is greater than supply.

Demand was waning, supply was cut.
Demand picked up, supply was exhausted and then "borrowed" from the future.
The future becomes the present.
And there is no supply. But demand remains.

If you are Nintendo, you probably secretly like this situation because the supply issues only help increase demand.

I also think something is afoot with the console -- a cosmetic or minor change may be coming.

Mike from Morgantown



      


I am Mario.


I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble.

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Millennium on 28 February 2010

Because sales for the Wii finally peaked after a ridiculously long three-year run, and Nintendo thought it was finally safe to start cutting back on production a bit. It seems they were mistaken.

This is the problem with being the fastest-selling console of all time. It's not possible to measure demand when it is literally off the scale.



Complexity is not depth. Machismo is not maturity. Obsession is not dedication. Tedium is not challenge. Support gaming: support the Wii.

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What do I hate about modern gaming? I hate tedium replacing challenge, complexity replacing depth, and domination replacing entertainment. I hate the outsourcing of mechanics to physics textbooks, art direction to photocopiers, and story to cheap Hollywood screenwriters. I hate the confusion of obsession with dedication, style with substance, new with gimmicky, old with obsolete, new with evolutionary, and old with time-tested.
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Smashchu2 on 28 February 2010
mike_intellivision said:

If you are Nintendo, you probably secretly like this situation because the supply issues only help increase demand.

An decrease in supply increases the price, but quantity falls. If Nintendo doesn't increase the price, then shortages aren't good for them.

Also, a decrease in price is not an increase in demand. Itr only increases the quanity demanded for the market. All it does will move down the supply line, but this means sales are dependent on price. Nintendo has done better to focus on software as it creates new demand curves rather then just move along the same one.



Maynard_Tool on 28 February 2010

Because you touch yourself at night, that's why



03/10/09 HUGE day in my life:

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=63437&page=1

Wyrdness on 28 February 2010

That's what tend happens when a product keeps flying off the shelves.



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Joelcool7 on 01 March 2010
HappySqurriel said:

I think everything that anyone could suggest would be speculation because no one knows for sure ...

Personally, I wouldn’t be that surprised if there was a redesigned Wii coming out in the not too distant future. This change could be mostly cosmetic for sales purposes (smaller or colours) but it could also incorporate fairly major internal changes to prevent piracy. Before introducing a change like this, Nintendo might keep the supply chain tight so that there were (very) few "old-style" Wii systems remaining unsold prior to releasing the upgraded version.

A more substantial change might also be possible, and Nintendo could do something more in line with the "Gameboy Color" and try to produce an enhanced Wii of some form. If you introduced significant increases in piracy protection while producing a reason for existing owners to upgrade Nintendo could drastically reduce the level of piracy on the Wii. The most obvious possibility for a change like this would be a system that rendered Wii games at HD resolutions, but there are (probably) many other possibilities.

Note: For those that didn't know, in most ways the Gameboy color was identical to the Gameboy and the handful of "Gameboy Color" only games were not released on the Gameboy because color was needed to play the game. The reason I used this as an example is that I think Nintendo would want to keep any new system as being (basically) the same platform.

There are some flaws in that logic.

An HD Wii woul.d require heavier firepower under the hood. Why would Nintendo bother releasing a modified Wii four years into its five year lifespan? Nintendo has said several times that the next console will be HD, we know it coming so why release a modified Wii only a year or so before the next console launches. I have to agree with the Regginator on this one, it makes no sense for Nintendo to release a Wii:HD. We will see Nintendo HD support next gen.

In the end the Wii doesn't have much longer to live, the competition (Microsoft) already has a next gen system. Microsoft began developing launch titles for its next system last fall, meaning a new X-Box is either due this year or next year. Once the next X-Box hits the market a new Nintendo and Sony console will follow very quickly.

Now you could argue that this is too soon to be starting the next gen. But Microsoft sales are down 13% YoY and Nintendo is only up one percentage point. Then lets not forget at the beggining of this generation Microsoft said the 360 would have a four year life cycle. Well its year five and the next X-Box isn't here yet.

So with Microsoft being over due on releasing its next console, with major drops in hardware sales and marketshare. It is the perfect time for Microsoft to kick start the next generation. Nintendo will launch its next platform in 2011 end of story and a new Wii model could come out this year but it won't be any GameBoy:Colour it will  be a new colour (Black...etc...etc...) maybe if were lucky some more internal memory. Maybe a smaller size. But HD and a graphical upgrade to the existing hardware is out of the question!



-JC7

"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer

 

Faxanadu on 01 March 2010

Because they want people to buy the DS XL.



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Metallicube on 01 March 2010

Well, selling 3.8 million Wiis in one month in the US probably limited their supply somewhat.. Hopefully they can get their act together and start meeting the newfound demand, as they are only hurting themselves with these shortages and missing out on potential sales.



vonboysp on 01 March 2010

did they know they were releasing nsmb wii in the holidays before they reduced production?

that would sound like a stupid decision to me.



come try out the computer game i've been working on for my high school senior project, titled sling ball. http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=76669&page=1

you can view a few screenshots from the game in my photo album here; http://www.vgchartz.com/photos/album.php?album=2312

yes, this is vonboy's alt account. i can't log into my original account, and i'm not sure if i will ever be able to.

Proud Member of the Official Yoshi Fan Club!.

HappySqurriel on 01 March 2010
Joelcool7 said:
HappySqurriel said:

I think everything that anyone could suggest would be speculation because no one knows for sure ...

Personally, I wouldn’t be that surprised if there was a redesigned Wii coming out in the not too distant future. This change could be mostly cosmetic for sales purposes (smaller or colours) but it could also incorporate fairly major internal changes to prevent piracy. Before introducing a change like this, Nintendo might keep the supply chain tight so that there were (very) few "old-style" Wii systems remaining unsold prior to releasing the upgraded version.

A more substantial change might also be possible, and Nintendo could do something more in line with the "Gameboy Color" and try to produce an enhanced Wii of some form. If you introduced significant increases in piracy protection while producing a reason for existing owners to upgrade Nintendo could drastically reduce the level of piracy on the Wii. The most obvious possibility for a change like this would be a system that rendered Wii games at HD resolutions, but there are (probably) many other possibilities.

Note: For those that didn't know, in most ways the Gameboy color was identical to the Gameboy and the handful of "Gameboy Color" only games were not released on the Gameboy because color was needed to play the game. The reason I used this as an example is that I think Nintendo would want to keep any new system as being (basically) the same platform.

There are some flaws in that logic.

An HD Wii woul.d require heavier firepower under the hood. Why would Nintendo bother releasing a modified Wii four years into its five year lifespan? Nintendo has said several times that the next console will be HD, we know it coming so why release a modified Wii only a year or so before the next console launches. I have to agree with the Regginator on this one, it makes no sense for Nintendo to release a Wii:HD. We will see Nintendo HD support next gen.

In the end the Wii doesn't have much longer to live, the competition (Microsoft) already has a next gen system. Microsoft began developing launch titles for its next system last fall, meaning a new X-Box is either due this year or next year. Once the next X-Box hits the market a new Nintendo and Sony console will follow very quickly.

Now you could argue that this is too soon to be starting the next gen. But Microsoft sales are down 13% YoY and Nintendo is only up one percentage point. Then lets not forget at the beggining of this generation Microsoft said the 360 would have a four year life cycle. Well its year five and the next X-Box isn't here yet.

So with Microsoft being over due on releasing its next console, with major drops in hardware sales and marketshare. It is the perfect time for Microsoft to kick start the next generation. Nintendo will launch its next platform in 2011 end of story and a new Wii model could come out this year but it won't be any GameBoy:Colour it will  be a new colour (Black...etc...etc...) maybe if were lucky some more internal memory. Maybe a smaller size. But HD and a graphical upgrade to the existing hardware is out of the question!

You're making the assumption that Nintendo is intending on releasing a new console in the next 12 to 24 months ... It is entirely possible that Nintendo could be aiming to release their next console after 6 or 7 years; especially if they anticipate that the earliest their competition is considering releasing a console is the end of 2012; so releasing an enhanced console at (roughly) the halfway point is not out of the question.

While higher resolutions do require additional processing power, decades of PC gaming have demonstrated that it is an easy to upgrade existing hardware to achieve higher resolutions as long as games are developed using a standardized API where compatibility is maintained in the new hardware. Being that most Gamecube development used OpenGL as the 3D API, with specific extensions for Gamecube specific features, I would imagine that the same would be true of the Wii.

It doesn’t really matter anyways, the entire reason I mentioned that was as an example of what a company could do to try to encourage existing customers to buy new hardware; and in the process of making this upgraded hardware they could significantly enhance the piracy protection and try to limit the number of games stolen.