I pity you guys living in huge countries, there's never been a single supply issue in my memory here in Norway and all three consoles are plenty in stock everywhere.

they know what they are buying: something that plays wii sports and has motion controls...u don't need to know every aaa game out there to make an informed decision...many of them don't care about aaa games as they are usually more involved and 'hardcore' games...they care about the game that fancies them on the store shelf

casual gamer is what gave ps2 the huge win...u can't underestimate the casual gamer....and wii gets people that go beyond casual gamers...the 100s of millions who haven't owned a console in at least 10 years


incorrect re: being able to meet any demand...they don't make the parts, they have to have suppliers make them...u can't say they should be able to meet 5mil/month demand or 10mil/month demand


data shows that no 1 or 2 or 3 new ips moves the needle...even gc with biggest franchises (mario, smash, mario kart, zelda, pokemon, res evil, etc) couldn't make a move

ps2's slogan: "live in your world, play in ours"...very casual-focused and casual-friendly

ps3's slogan: "unleash the beast"...very hardcore-focused and not casual-friendly

and then u have the crying babies and the black tentacles coming out of the ps3...very hardcore-focused

Like Mummelmann said, Wii is widely available in most of Europe. If you're out of options, you might consider importing one.

With the weak dollar, that would cost him about 400 dollars, not including possible customs fees (I don't know how it works in USA).

250 € = $380 for the Wii alone.

"ncorrect re: being able to meet any demand...they don't make the parts, they have to have suppliers make them...u can't say they should be able to meet 5mil/month demand or 10mil/month demand"

Even that is easy in a wonderworld called capitalism. You go to the supplier and tell him to make more and until when you need it. Then he will tell you a price and either you are willing to pay that or not. Because of this easy principle almost no electronic device in existance is sold out longer than a couple weeks or months. Cars and Planes need longer sometimes but for a console that is made of chips and plastic parts the biggest problem may be to get a new process line for your chip running. Since the Wii doesn't use any cutting-edge 45nm processes or whatever there shouldn't be many unsurmountable problems. So its more of a monetary question.

"and then u have the crying babies and the black tentacles coming out of the ps3...very hardcore-focused"

You know I think there are way too many analysts on this page. "This IP will not move the needle", "That is too hardcore-focuses". In the end it is the games (and the price) not the advertisement or whatever. That only helps. You will see some gravity shifts depend on that.

Do they count shipped consoles as sold consoles on these tracking sites? Or are the figures based on sold to retail chains.

so advertising and BRANDING doesn't matter to consumers, yet ps3 will do well because of the playstation and sony BRAND?


almost no electronic device is sold out anymore because 90% of electronic devices are sold by multiple manufacturers...the wii has no direct substitute and its demand is sky high

u don't know about what's going on behind the scenes...it could be that for one of the manufacturers of one of the chips in the wii that manufacturer is near capacity and will have to open a new plant to make another 1mil/month for Nintendo to increase to 2.8mil/month...and for that they will charge much more, raising the cost of the wii to more than 250/console

perhaps that is happening with multiple manufacturers to where it would cost them 400/console to produce if they ramped up production to 3mil/month right now...we just don't know

sure u can get anything with enough money, but do u really expect them to go from making 50*1.8mil/month profit to losing 200*1mil/month? not a wise business move

this site tracks sold to consumers, not shipped and not sold to retailers

for wii, it's almost same thing...ps3 and 360 have some amount in the channels more than have sold (maybe 1 mllion? i dunno)

Last year, at the end of 2 of the quarters, I recall the PS3 had 600-800k units in the retail channel. I don't know about the 360 since there was never enough data to calculate it.