It's either it will work to a companies advantage or not. So shortage ploy is really a risky marketing trick.

This story exists at all because Nintendo was accused of the same tactic waaaaay back in the NES days on big titles like the Super Mario Bros. sequels (2 and 3).

The story goes something like this:

Once upon a time in a magical place known as Redmond, in order to inflame demand and drive young boys into a ravenous, nigh-rabid, frothing state of potential Mario-deprived desperation, the insidious marketing machine at Nintendo would put out the word that the game might be hard to get because demand was going to be through the roof (which, of course, it was). Then, in true Rube Goldberg-ian fashion, the potential Mario-bereft child would embark on a series of tantrums/threats/homicides to make sure that they got to the store that very day or they might face an eternity without Super Mario Bros. 3 and, by extension, there was the implicit threat that their parents would rue the day (and maybe the night) with incessant cries of childhood dreams gone to wreck and ruin.

Now, naturally, there was likely a grain of truth to this. After all, this was the cartridge era and, unlike the optical media world of today, you couldn't just ring up the factory and order another 500k copies and get them in under 2 weeks, tops. Back then it took 6-8 weeks from the time the game 'went gold' 'til you could find it at your local TRU, Service Merchandise (anybody else remember those?). So there was the chance that, if you missed a low-run title, you missed it 'til you could get one on eBay a decade+ later. Of course the further implication was that Nintendo, being evil, would have a vast Mario-palooza at their warehouse in the Pacific northwest, bursting at the seems with untold millions of copies guarded by Israeli Mossad agents with shoot to kill authority that they would then drip-feed the market--not unlike chumming the water during a shark fishing expedition--to further send the rumor mill (and the Mario boys) into paroxysms of teeth-gnashing, Mario-less, terror. I guess that all this sheer evil-ness will allow Hiroshi Yamauchi to live forever by supping on the spent tears of almost-jilted Mario-fanatics.

Over time, this apocryphal tale has morphed into legendary status and *anytime* Nintendo can't meet demand for *anything* this story is trotted out by anti-Nintendo folk across the Internet in an attempt at...something? To tar Nintendo? To stick it to the 'man'? To get back at Daddy cause he never really loved me? I dunno, but for whatever reason fanboys do what they do (outside of generating a lot of heat and light on a soon-to-be-forgotten thread on some random message board across the vast intergalactic void that is the Internet or--in Kotaku's case--to drum up some traffic) It's basically a zombie that won't stay dead no matter how many times you shoot it and bury it (I guess they keep missing the brain or something).

The only 'shortage' that Nintendo creates is a shortage of contracting out more suppliers of the product that goes into and then builds the Wii. Which is because of how conservative N is. First reason would be as you contract out to a wider range, almost by definition quality goes down. But even more important is how deadly afraid N is of oversupply. Thus the supply doesn't jump by leaps and bounds each quarter, but by measured increases every 6 months or so.

Nintendo maintains high demand for Nintendo Wiis by having limited supply. Look at the variations in Wii sales in Americas from week to week. It is like a yo-yo. I guess that Nintendo Wii shipments arrive every two weeks.

Production rates of Nintendo Wii manufacturing are increase up to 2.4 million Wiis manufactured per month and that amount is likely to increase. I guess it will be soon over 3 million Nintendo Wiis being mass produced every month. 

 The last part of the first sentence is correct, at least in the Americas.  Who knows?  Perhaps on week one Wii shipments go off to Other, week two to the Americas.  (Since 1/13, both places have sold about 2.4M Wiis.)  Then in shipments to the retailers, twice or three as much goes out the door as the product arrives, as what the retailers receive the next week when the other part of the original shipment is released.  

With Other, that first release to stores is enough to make it thru the first week,  and carry over to the next, saying that for the most part, Other is sated at this rate.  For now.   But that first release doesn't carry over to the next sales week in the Americas, with the second week's release being woefully short.  Showing how much more demand is there.

Keep in mind that retailers also hold back supply for sales and flyer ads and releases themselves, so the fluctuations aren't all just from Nintendo.

And to retailers, there is an advantage. They can sell at any time, so they can hold back to help create demand.