There's a big benefit in having stock for the holiday season, especially for the stores giving you shelf space. If you're the only store that doesn't have Wii's during the holiday rush, guess who gets the least customers?

 The point of stockpiling fo Christimas and other times, is that's when consumers will buy "something".  If they can't get a wii, they will settle for a 360...   If they get a wii now, it will not be stopping sales of 360 later.

I think they should give major wii shipments during the release of other major releases, such as the release of Halo.  It's more important that the wii sales numbers look better than normal when Halo comes out increasing the 360 sales, than the week before... 

There have always been and will always be fashionable items that are sold out at Christmas time, whether it's G.I. Joes or Swatch Watches or Cabbage Patch Dolls or Furbys or Tickle Me Elmos. That doesn't change a thing. Falsely manipulating the supply chain doesn't change that.

Sold = sold. Wiis will not be available at Christmas unless Nintendo can contract with another assembly partner, as Foxconn is clearly making as many as they can. Bringing another partner online to build more units is the only solution.

The only thing stockpiling achieves is disorienting customers who are in stores right now, cash in hand, ready to buy your product and all the accessories and peripherals with it. Not only would Nintendo be losing money on current lost software sales, they'll lose far more money later in the life cycle as all the current titles wind up back at EB Games/Gamestop as used over the course of a full calendar year since the console's launch. At that point, we're talking about tens of millions of dollars of profit that Nintendo is just handing over to EB as a used software seller.

I don't buy it. Holding back stock would be the dumbest business decision Nintendo has made since the Virtual Boy if it were true. 

That works both ways. If they can't get a Wii, they will settle for a 360... So, since they can't get Wiis because they're being withheld, then customers may be buying 360s now instead.

And yes, that *does* inhibit future console sales for competitors. Readers of VGChartz are in a demographic that is more inclined to own multiple consoles, but we are most certainly the minority. The average family is only going to buy one this generation.

The only outcome that can occur between now and then is for demand in product to drop. In the case of the Wii, it certainly couldn't get any higher, could it?

Ask Sony how they feel about having a stockpile of approx 1.9M PS3 consoles right now. I am 110% positive that they will NOT say that they're very happy to know they'll have no difficulties meeting demand for the Christmas 2007 shopping rush. :p

I think the idea is that if they keep back a large number of consoles now, people won't be as inclined to buy a console from the competition.

Here is a possibility.

  A person walks into a store right now to buy a Wii(for any reason, and let us say Nintendo is storing extra consoles for Christmas).  They see that there are non.  They say "OK I'll just come here next week for one.".  They don't buy a 360 or a PS3 because they aren't in a rush to get anything.  Microsoft and Sony don't sell a console and Nintendo has time to make and ship one to the store where this person shops. 

  Another person has to buy a Wii for their child for Christmas(This time Nintendo has not stored up extra consoles mind you).  They see that there are non.  They begin to get uneasy because they need to buy a console for their child.  They see a 360(or PS3, you can choose), and buy it.  They did so because they didn't want to have nothing to give to their child.  Sony or Microsoft has now sold a console.  Nintendo (and the other company the person didn't buy a console from) has probably lost a sale.  The person will probably not buy another console for a while(or ever) because they just bought one.   

I think that is a good way to explain it.  I'll edit or re-post if I think of a better way. 

Let's keep in mind that we're not talking about launch-mania, rampant lines starting at midnight on Friday to get a Wii Sunday morning. The Wii is still selling out with alacrity, to be sure, but buyers who truly want one are in most cases now able to get one by visiting the stores on Sunday like a normal human being.

I think people who absolutely MUST have one for the holidays and are wise enough to plan ahead will be able to pick one up in the pre-Thanksgiving timeframe without too much trouble.

(As anecdotal evidence, friends of ours just bought one this past weekend for their son's birthday this week. They've wanted one for a while but didn't take the trouble to go out and get one until just now.)

Ahhh the Digg effect, crashing the site.

And of course the submitter mentioned the Wii, not so much the 360, but whatever...more publicity for the site I suppose.

well they certainly not form lines at midnight but there are lines very early in the morning... and have been this way for more than six months now...

@cebrian: Granted. But it sounds like the "sold out before the doors open" situation has abated -- sometimes it takes ALL DAY Sunday for the Wii to sell out. :)

I didn't say anyone could walk in there on Monday and pick up a Wii -- and yes, selling out every new shipment in a day or even two is still very impressive. I'm just saying that shipments have been steady and reliable, and if you get up on Sunday morning and check the ads it's certainly not impossible to get a Wii now. There's not a specific holiday rush at large right now, so it's not too hard to be the early bird who gets the Wii right now -- I expect it will be harder post-Thanksgiving.

It'd been awhile, so I decided to check eBay just now to see where Wii prices were at. Stock consoles, NIB, are still hitting as high as $330 + S/H. Heck, I saw a used Wii on the first page fetch $280! 

As long as the secondary market is still paying 20% over MSRP,  I don't think we're going to see many Wiis on Monday mornings anytime soon.