http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14087

Reporting from the Nintendo Media Summit, Lazard's Colin Sebastian has said he believes Nintendo may be nearing its production target of 1.5 million Wiis a month, with demand still exceeding supply, and said the company is making "aggressive overtures" to attract third parties.

Sebastian said the production numbers come from both comments made by Nintendo, as well as retailers like GameStop.

"Based on our retail channel checks," said Sebastian, "demand still appears to exceed supply, and we believe that shortages could persist through the remainder of the year, including the key holiday period."

As an aside, Sebastian said new reports from Asia "suggest that Sony has reduced production of PS3s, at least temporarily, which may suggest that a price cut is less likely this year. We continue to believe timing of Sony’s first PS3 price cut is likely to accompany a stronger software release lineup as well as further cuts in production and component costs."

Sebastian said the Media Summit showed an "upbeat" Nintendo proud of the early success of its Wii and "rapid adoption" of the DS. The company reportedly also announced market study results "confirming that both Wii and DS platforms are generating a broader consumer group to the video game market, most notably an increasing portion of older and female gamers."

"We believe that an expanding audience for Nintendo platforms could ultimately benefit third-party software in addition to first party sales," said Sebastian.

To that end, he pointed to a number of exclusive Wii and DS titles from third parties confirming "casual focus," including EA's Boogie, THQ's Drawn to Life and Ubisoft's Jam Sessions. "Based on our conversations at the event, we also believe Nintendo is making more aggressive overtures to attract strong third-party support on its platforms," said Sebastian.

So ehh, wii>360 end of july? :P

Looks like it. Heeheeheeheehee.

"Crazy man" laughs last. 

John Lucas 

Good to see production up. Bad to see shortage during Holiday season. @John Lucas: You should really have those predictions somewhere. And, come up with more.

John, are you a betting man?  I bet my numbers are closer then yours ;)

Thats pitiful! Nintendo needs to be producing a least 2 million possibly 3 million a month to even have any chance of meeting holiday demand. Either this guy is wrong or Nintendo is extremely stupid with their production (which they are..DS has proved that).

From launch the Wii is the fastest selling system of all time, been sold out WW for over 6 months (uhh thats never happened... I wonder if many people want this thing?). These things should tell Nintendo that they need to flood the market with systems to catch all the demand. If they overshoot the market they can slowly back off production, and clear out any excess inventory because the Wii will keep selling. This might cost them a little more production wise, but they will more than make up for it over time with userbase, taking market share from comp, increased software sales, and more 3rd party love.

They better be bringing more factories online, because their demand is easily 1.5 million units/month right now, and they need to be setting aside millions extra for Xmas. It looks good for passing 360 in July (but NOT in America, crazy man), but they need to have about 9 million units ready for Nov/Dec. So if they're at 1.5 million/month now, they really need to crank production up. They need to get production well, WELL over 2 million a month.

One of the reasons Nintendo has been a successful business for so long is because they don't make potentially rash business decisions. I have a feeling their business guys know what they are doing better than anyone else. As for the production increase, I'd suspect they might increase it even further as they find more production partners. Plus, nobody can tell how much they've increased production overall. All the guesses are based on shipment numbers, so they could quite possibly have increased it even further specifically to build up for the holidays and for the big game releases.

I agree with Erik. 1.5 million per month is not enough. The crux is that it's impossible for Nintendo to forecast real demand (both for the summer and for the holidays) and to produce accordingly as long as they haven't satisfied pent up demand and filled retail shelves with a good 1-2 million extra systems like MS and Sony have. They just need a non-sold out month as soon as possible or there will be a lot of tears again this Christmas. Kytiara, Nintendo could have reached the 1.5 million 2 months ago if they weren't that conservative. They should have started ramping in early February.

I disagree with you on this. Lets look at the DS, it has had supply problems since lauch 2.5 years ago! How many more could they have sold if they had met demand? Obviously their business guys have been wrong with the DS production. The sad thing is they have had this experience with the DS and now they are doing worse meeting the demand for Wii.