Luckily I got mine at launch. But I was talking to a Walmart employee yesterday and he said they get about 15 a week since they are a small store and they are sold out within 10 minutes if it's in the ad circular. They rarely even make it to the glass box cause people are actually appearing constantly to buy them at midnight like a launch all over again.

  It's been more then 5 months. No console ships over 6 million to retailers and keeps selling out like it's launch day. This has to be something that only happens in middle America.

I guess it's safe to say the "gimmick" isn't wearing off anytime soon. But this sales seems.... odd. I bought systems at launch befor I've NEVER seen anything like that. Is there any precendent to this? Nintendo seems to realize now that they aren't producing fast enough and several new factories came into production tis month but WOW.

Has any console done this befor?

Wii has been at 13% avalibality now for 2 days.

We will see if it is a monday sale or something. We might be seeing right now market saturation.

(I actually expected it to drop back down to at least 8% today) 

A big factor is that there is significant demand in all 3 regions while it was a near simultanious launch. 

+1 "core killer" Zelda Twilight Princess

+1 "non-core killer" Wii Sports. 

+1 insane amount of positive press the system has recieved

+1 The Wii remote makes it easier for non-gamers to pick-up and play compared to traditional gamepads

+1 Very small, compact and stylish look resembling the Ipod

+1 Virtual Console for former gamers to get back into games

+1 Price 

+1 Extremely positive word-of-mouth among casual and non-gamers, which is completely new for them for a launch system 

hi myahon

the N64 was sold out for a while, but I believe that all cleared up right after holidays

360 was sold out for a while too, but they also shipped 1/3 the consoles nintendo has in that time... so yeah, Wii is pretty much the first to have this much hype.

 Yup. Basically every reason the Wii has been selling good.

 Actually it dropped to 9% last night, and then went back up to 13% today, which means stores have been sitting on stock waiting for the weekend

PS2 and 360 were hard to find, but there were shipping problems. This is the first time I can remember a system being sold out so long after launch and during a non-busy time of year.

Wii is the Future of Gaming.

It's to be expected. You're looking at the greatest selling console EVER in the making. And yes I'm talking about past the PS2.

Look for AT LEAST 20 million sold, SOLD-THRU by December 31, 2007 11:59PM AKA the end of the year. Seems like rose-colored delusion but by the end of the year you'll realize it's not.

This is just the beginning of the WiiDS Phenomenon, folks. You ain't seen NOTHIN' yet. 

John Lucas 

bold claim... are they even making 20 million this year? much less selling that many.

My personal belief is that the Wii is America's newest, cheap toy that everybody must have. I also believe that the software will catch up with the Wii's success and the sales will stall. Right now, the Wii has very little in the way of "innovative" gaming to make the concept a truly successful one. Once consumers understand this, they'll move on to another toy. That's not to say that the Wii will forever remain a toy, just that right now it's nothing special.