It should be noted that (I believe) Nintendo does not own their own production factories. They purchase production capacity from companies such as Foxconn, and there is a limit as to how much capacity can be purchased for this type of manufacturing. There aren't an unlimited number of high-tech, high quality factories sitting around waiting to produce Wiis.

darklich13 said: mesoteto said: another person trying to start a flame war--- No, I just want to buy a Wii. I have to vent my frustration somehow.

I am sorry you can't find a Wii, however, you are not going to get one by starting threads and complaining. I'd spend your free internet time trying to go to forums where they talk about how to find a Wii, what straegies to use, UPS schedules ect. Or maybe even asking what ideas people had. I for one know that my local Toys R Us gets a shipment every Sunday morning and people start lining up at 4am. Perhaps doing that would be a more productive use of your time.

People are tired of hearing this topic, especially when the person posting is obviously trying to berate other forum members who have nothing to do with the situation. 

 

They don't actually build factories. But they do have to sign contracts months in advance with companies like HonHai who build factories. It's not like you can call HonHai up and say I need 5 million consoles two months from now, at least not without them hanging up the phone. It's a negotiated process with contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

mrstickball said: Actually, Nintendo's shipments for the Wii aren't the fastest-shipping for a system on it's first full Christmas. The Playstation 2, in a 3 month period, October 2001-December 2001 (it's first full Christmas worldwide, having launched in Feb/Mar 2000 in Japan alone), shipped 8.07 million hardware units, according to VGC. The Wii, for comparison has sold/shipped 3.2m units in the same period. The Wii is nowhere near the PS2's first full Christmas....By a long shot. It has another month, but there's no way it'll sell 5m units in December alone. Most likely, it'll sell *around* 3m to 4m units, max, for a grand total of 6.2-7.2m units. Well under PS2's 01 Christmas of 8.07m units. The issue is that the Playstation 2 knew that sales would be incredible, and had the manufacturing in place for huge prodiction of the system. The Wii doesn't have that ability. "complicated hardware" is absolutely, positively no excuse. The Xbox 360, for all it's "new technology" and hundreds of component makers was churning out 30,000 Xbox 360's within 2 months of sale, per day, and MS could of done whatever they needed to get a few more factories online (however, sales started to drop slowly, so MS never needed it). It entirely comes down to the fact that to broker the deals, Nintendo would have to actually........Invest money. Something they don't like to do (the Wii was one of their lowest budget R&D'ed systems thus far). Parting with alot of cash isn't Nintendo's game. They only have so much of it, and unlike MS/Sony, they don't have 10 other ventures of which to draw funds from if need be. So Nintendo would rather let supply suffer than go through the hoops of opening up a few new factories. Trust me, there are probably dozens of plants that would LOVE to retool for Nintendo. But it takes alot of cash to procure new plants, new chip makers, and increase industrial capacity. And Nintendo doesn't want to do that. They aren't in a position to where they believe that sales will decrease, and the need of sales aren't ultra-critical right now, in their minds. IMO, it's stupid of Nintendo to only increase production by *around* 50% in 1 year, when each system sells at a profit, and you can't produce enough of them. They do the same stupid thing with their DS carts. But hey, Nintendo can do whatever they want. I don't buy their products, so it's not my right to complain.

Make that 80% (not 50%) in LESS than one year.

Regarding launch and Christmas, it depends a lot on which system you're talking about because there's always stockpiling before launch and most Christmas periods. Did anyone think the Wii would sell 8 million units at launch? No analyst did, that's for sure. If you look at current sales, there seems to be some stockpiling by the way. Let's wait for the end of the year and see how things turn out.

 

The point is that the PS2 didn't sell as fast as the Wii, so Sony didn't have to produce as many PS2s in the same period as Nintendo had to produce Wiis. Did Sony manage to produce more than 15 million PS2s in the first year after they introduced it?

About half as many.

I have a girlfriend who has done the retail thing for 7 years, and she observed this...

When a product is available in every shop on every corner everywhere, demand generally falls, but when the supply is just barely below demand, it keeps the demand coming.

Basically, keeping something as the "hot item" has a viral effect: people wanting it stirs other people into wanting it. Like I said, though, if you could get it anywhere, it just wouldn't have the same effect.

Now, I'm not accusing Nintendo of anything here, as I'm readily willing to believe that demand is much higher than supply, but it will benefit them greatly if supply continued to be just below demand.

scorptile said: well being sold out from day one and dmand extremely higher then u can make is the reason. the ds at first wasnt a sell out like the wii is. so they actually got a supply before it exploded with popularity.

Bzttt wrong answer, the original DS didn't catch on that amazingly though it sold ok. The DS lite pretty much exploded from day 1. to O.P.: Ramping up production is easy, if you already have facilities. If not you have to BUY them and pay more workers. That's a big investment why would you make it if you weren't sure your product would continue to sell as it has? How would you feel if you were in charge you made 1million to start, nearly doubled it and then doubled it again and then suddenly you only sold 350,000 a month? You'd be stuck with millions left over and the cost of opening a facility is amazingly high(millions)

No system ever has sold as fast as the Wii, so from a logistical standpoint I think Nintendo was simply caught off guard. You just have to go to the places that nobody thinks about. I got mine at a wallmart that was recently built and is in a relatively small town. It sucks if you're looking for one, but you have to commend Nintendo for their breakout success.

mrstickball said: Actually, Nintendo's shipments for the Wii aren't the fastest-shipping for a system on it's first full Christmas. The Playstation 2, in a 3 month period, October 2001-December 2001 (it's first full Christmas worldwide, having launched in Feb/Mar 2000 in Japan alone), shipped 8.07 million hardware units, according to VGC. The Wii, for comparison has sold/shipped 3.2m units in the same period. The Wii is nowhere near the PS2's first full Christmas....By a long shot. It has another month, but there's no way it'll sell 5m units in December alone. Most likely, it'll sell *around* 3m to 4m units, max, for a grand total of 6.2-7.2m units. Well under PS2's 01 Christmas of 8.07m units. The issue is that the Playstation 2 knew that sales would be incredible, and had the manufacturing in place for huge prodiction of the system. The Wii doesn't have that ability. "complicated hardware" is absolutely, positively no excuse. The Xbox 360, for all it's "new technology" and hundreds of component makers was churning out 30,000 Xbox 360's within 2 months of sale, per day, and MS could of done whatever they needed to get a few more factories online (however, sales started to drop slowly, so MS never needed it). It entirely comes down to the fact that to broker the deals, Nintendo would have to actually........Invest money. Something they don't like to do (the Wii was one of their lowest budget R&D'ed systems thus far). Parting with alot of cash isn't Nintendo's game. They only have so much of it, and unlike MS/Sony, they don't have 10 other ventures of which to draw funds from if need be. So Nintendo would rather let supply suffer than go through the hoops of opening up a few new factories. Trust me, there are probably dozens of plants that would LOVE to retool for Nintendo. But it takes alot of cash to procure new plants, new chip makers, and increase industrial capacity. And Nintendo doesn't want to do that. They aren't in a position to where they believe that sales will decrease, and the need of sales aren't ultra-critical right now, in their minds. IMO, it's stupid of Nintendo to only increase production by *around* 50% in 1 year, when each system sells at a profit, and you can't produce enough of them. They do the same stupid thing with their DS carts. But hey, Nintendo can do whatever they want. I don't buy their products, so it's not my right to complain.

Sorry, I've been waiting to use this one. Don't ban me. :)

kevbo77 said: No system ever has sold as fast as the Wii, so from a logistical standpoint I think Nintendo was simply caught off guard. You just have to go to the places that nobody thinks about. I got mine at a wallmart that was recently built and is in a relatively small town. It sucks if you're looking for one, but you have to commend Nintendo for their breakout success.

I recommend sears and radioshack.

The larger the town you are in, the more difficult it can be to find a Wii.  In a small town, people tend to be a little less aggressive about it.