But if you are Nintendo, you don't want to let the thunder shake up the market one bit. And with Wii Fit out of stock and in demand, Nintendo would be smart to strike with lightning where the thunder might be.

(couldn't resist)

Remeber, PS3 fans think this is the title to strike at the Wii. Look at Leo-j's infamous "My biggest prediction yet" thread. The one that got him permabanned. Look at Crazyman's predictions. 7 to 8 million MGS4 sold before year end because of bundles? This is the PS3 owners big summer hope. It's PS3 exclusive. Part of war is killing the enemy's morale. How do you kill Sony morale? Blame WiiFit.

Why would someone who was waiting for MGS4 to buy a PS# walk in a store see a Wii and go "OMG, I should get a Wii instead." This is a pointless strategy because anyone who was wanting a PS3 for MGS4 will have maybe a 1% chance of changing their minds. Why, well anyone who was already interested in the Wii would have bought it or sought one out when Wii fit or any of the other hyped titles came out.

honestly does it really matter if they do, or don't? GTA4 launched and Wii had a huge sales week, but yet all people talked about outside of this site was about GTA4. True gamers regardless of weather they are casual or Hardcore care about the games, not the numbers. this is a concept that seems to be completely lost on this site anymore. A great game is always going to get more attention than sales numbers as it should. the day it doesn't is the day this industry is is dead. Nintendo can sell a million consoles that week, but if MGS4 is a great game then it will recieve the limelight and adoration. For years nintendo fans were about great games, but it seeems this generation they have turned to caring more about sales numbers. it's kinda sad to watch.

My point is they don't need to boost the shipment to beat PS3 during MGS4 week.   It will beat it just fine anyway.

Think about that.  What's more devastating to morale?    The enemy stocking up to defeat you?  Or the enemy defeating you while not even trying?

 First off, who cares? What would that prove? That if Nintendo would have actually put all those units on the shelves instead of stock piling them so their cock looks bigger than Sonys people could have had their Wii earlier and they would have still sold roughly the same amount of systems? Or does it prove that Nintendo does create artifical vacums of supply through out the year so when anything looks to steal their lime light they dump a ton of consoles on the market and all the sheep say, "Wow!! They sure sold ALOT of consoles" instead of "Wow, where did all those consoles come from, why werent they on shelves last week? Why are you not putting your whole inventory thats not being stock piled for the holidays on the shelves... isnt that same thing as creating artifical demand?"

Second off, again... Who cares? They did the same thing the week of GTA IV's launch and you know what everyone out side of this little internet fantasy land was talking about? GTA IV. The Wii could have sold 2 million consoles that week, and the News, Game Shows, Talk Shows, Radio Shows, Co-Workers, School Mates and even Family Members would still be talking about GTA IV.

To answer the question, yes they will. Its what Nintendo does. They sit and have their console "Sell Out" for the months leading up to GTA IV's release at roughly 400,000 units a month, and then they nearly DOUBLE their available product for that one month, then its right back to... Ooooh, we really are trying to stock them up as fast as possible, we just cant make them fast enough.

They're stockpiling wiifit and wii's to counter the launch. Its obvious from the hugely supply constrained wiifits

A big part of the problem with Wii Fit is that people are buying 5+ from stores, since almost no stores are limiting sales.  And there are thousands of Wii Fits on ebay every day, closing about $150.

Errr, actually rubangB had it right O.o,

It's done as a counter measure not an offensive, the idea isn't to say GTAIV, MGSIV, FFXIII or any other game doesn't exist, but that the Wii does exist.

The worst thing that could happen is people say "meh" to Wii, but if you look deeper at the picture you'll see that it's the cult crowd for that software that Nintendo is keeping aware of the Wii; ever wonder what they could have up their sleeve?

This week of sales is a slightly below average, but normal week for the Wii.

I don't how it could be seen as stockpiling in any way.

If it was at fifty thousand, like the week before GTA IV, I'd call that stockpiling, but 150k is just a slight supply constraint, and getting back into the swing of things after a huge game, and huge shipment come out.