I agree with the original poster. Nintendo really dropped the ball in capitalizing the situation.

Even when you outsource production, you make your contracts scalable and extensible. Also, production capacity does not have to stick around forever. You just write options into the contract.

They may have lacked foresight in how popular their "Blue Ocean" strategy would be. BUT... it's a year after launch and they still cannot nearly meet demand. Inexcusable.

The Wii is not a Cabbage Patch doll or Beanie Baby. Overproduction, if it even happened, would sell through in a short amount of time.

For those of you questioning people's credibility, I wonder what your own credentials are.

@ishabibble

I am old enough to have seen the market crash.
I remember that the only reason we are typing about video games on these computers -- and not just playing games on them -- is Nintendo's foresight.

They have more credibility than any of us --- and more money.

I have also run my own business, taught college classes, and worked with economic developers.

So what I say goes!!! 8*>

But seriously, it is more than push a button. And if you don't want a RRoD problem, you don't ramp up production without QC. That takes time. But it IS happening. Just not as quickly as people who can't find Wiis would like.



Mike from Morgantown

Nah I think what nintendo is doing is great.... I think what they are doing is actually helping them sell more consoles, who wanted something most people had, and you can't find it O_O

hahaha....riiiiiight...you really think there are disappointed Nintendo stockholders out there? Seriously? For reals?

re Apple,
After the iPod mini first came out in the US in Feb 2004 Apple had to postpone the worldwide launch by 4 months because of high demand. However, by Autumn of 2004 they were well in stock everywhere (and sold out again near the end of the year).

iPod shipments exploded in that time - from 0.8 million in the 1st quarter (when the iPod mini launched) to 4.6 million in the 4th quarter of 2004.

In the 4th Quarter of 2005 Apple already shipped 14 million iPods (and where sold out towards the end of the quarter).

So Apple managed a 5x production increase in the first 9 months and then another 3x increase in the next 12 months. Nintendo could do that if they needed too.

 I dunno, I have almost 6 figures of nintendo stock, how much do you have?

Oh no, Nintendo is doomed to failure! Oh no! The Wii is selling so fast that Nintendo cannot make enough! Oh no! The Wii is a failure! It could become the greatest selling console of all time, but Nintendo cannot make enough of them! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!

...They never learn...

Jeez, talk about spinning the original topic. The only one talking about failure is you.