saying them forcing shortage is like saying them hate money

does not compute

Not to mention the profit from games sold to the system buyer. Games which are often developed and published by Nintendo.

Trying to keep supply tight in the hopes of duping people into buying it just because it's rare would be a gamble. You're just as likely to drive consumers to another console or one of many other competing entertainment options. Why make such a gamble when you've got a pile of guaranteed profit waiting for every unit you can get into the hands of a consumer?

We all know Nintendo loves to take unnecessary risks... 

Not if you know anything about buisness and supply chain distribution it's not.

Sell outs long term are not good... because demand doesn't raise because of a sell out indefinitly. After a while people say "Screw it." and move on with their lives.

Sell Outs are harmfull after a couple months of sale unless you basically know exactly what your supply is going to be and are getting direct 1 for 1 just on time distribution working for you... which isn't going to be the case for Wiis.  Cause you don't need to buy an infinite amount of them.  Everyone just needs 1.

Nah, blaming the Wii's high sales on forced shortages is fanboy damage control, meant to marginalize the Wii console, and expain how the Wii hardware is crushing their favorite machine, imo.

Either way, doesn't change the sales figures, so it barely matters. 

 I was thinking the same thing as I was scrolling through the comments. There are certain products and also certain times where a company can get away with artificial supply shortages. This is, however, not one of those.

The only time holding greater inventories would make sense is if the price of the Wii was allowed to fluctuate freely. For example, if all selling was like eBay then I can ensure you that Nintendo would be holding back supply intentionally, but given that auctioning isn't the way things typically work it doesn't make financial sense to withhold supply.

I love this arguement. Thankfully most people have posted on the side of reason. Everybody likes to harp on that Wii is supported by casuals, an impulse purchase by people who in the end will lose interest and not buy many games. So Nintendo in a fit of marketing genius decides to withhold systems from these proclaimed attention-deficit people, because all-of-a-sudden these people are now die hard fans who are willing to wait months for a system rather than impulsively buying something else.......... Are we seeing an inconsistency somewhere here?

There isn't that much of a shortage. The Wii outsells PS3 and Xbox 360 put together. Trust me, Nintendo is putting out as many machines as they possibly can. That way they can make a bigger factory in order to make more Wiis.

How do you increase demand? I thought you did that by making better hardware or games or having a better price? I can't think of any other way actually.

Selling less sure doesn't make you sell more.