Here you have definitely engaged in a fallacy. You're assuming that, as supply and demand come closer together, it's due to falling demand. You've ignored increased supply. If falling demand were a cause, it's unlikely that the sales would be so strong in the traditionally slow summer months.

That's very true. And although I haven't seen a signifigant increase in supply, I also cannot show you the numbers to demonstrate that demand has dropped relative to available supply.

You could just assume Nintendo is fine, and that there are no worries on the horizon. All is good. Go about your business, etc. This whole thread is just supposition, really. No point in discussing it until... ex post facto? Perhaps a VGChartz 20/20 hindsight history forum would be exciting. ;)

Unfortunately, when those supply/demand numbers are readily available, it'll already be too late for this topic to be of interest. Forums are interesting due to speculation, not hindsight.

I'm "speculating" that demand for the Wii has been, until recently, far in excess of supply, and now supply/demand are much closer. I haven't seen a signifigant increase in supply, so I can only assume that demand is, for some reason, dropping. I am only speculating on lessened demand due to observation -- the supply numbers are readily available.

On a somewhat related note ...

Years ago, I remember reading an interview with Miyamoto where he discussed how the N64 and Gamecube controllers came to be the way they were designed. Miyamoto (essentially) said that he first thinks of games he would like to make and how he would like these games to play, and then he designs the controller in order to make these games possible. To a certain extent, this is why the games he created for these systems seem so perfectly matched to the controller.

Until Miyamoto (and other designers) have run out of ideas on how to take advantage of the Wiimote, Nunchuck, Wii Fit Balance Board, and the Wii MotionPlus I don’t think they will be all that focused on creating new peripherals.

It has been my belief that the Wii has been selling so well simply because a lot of people couldn't find them, so as soon as they are released into the stores people (many of whom really don't know anything about videogames rush out and pick it up as soon as possible. eg. I was working at a fast food restaurant a few months ago and there was a woman working there that didn't really know anything about consumer electronics but she knew that people talked about ipods and wiis and that made her think wiis were really cool, so she really got it into her head to be sure to buy a wii. Of course, you also have people like Ellen Degeneris hyping such products as Wii Fit, etc. to the non gamer crowd which accounts for similar sales).

The fact that Nintendo kept Wii's out of stores during crucial selling periods the holidays of 2006 and 2007 (learning from all the hype that was generated for the 360 during the '05 holiday season when there was a shortage of them in stores and people were paying thousands of dollars to be able to get one for Christmas) served to generate a lot of hype as well for the Wii during those selling periods which were only met in the after the holiday months when more Wii's appeared in stores which explains how well it has been selling in recent months.

However, I do think that as soon as Wii supply meets demand on a regular basis and more people have the chance to see what it's really all about and compare it to the other consoles on the market, then it won't be doing so well and will be losing steam. And I believe that is happening at least in my area of the world, because I went from November 2006 to to June 2008 without seeing a single Wii on the shelf at my nearest Wal~Mart. However, recently there have been quite a few there even in the middle of the day.

These guys get better with every post. A year ago it was all about the bubble bursting. How'd that work out?

Haha, wow, this is like flashback night or something. I haven't heard some of these 'fad' and 'impulse buy' arguments since 2007. I'ts hard to believe that people still can't get over the Wii's success.

But that Gamecube library argument was completely new to me.

You really are too funny.

What made you think that supply and demand where much closer if not seeing Wiis in stores when you used not to see any? And wouldn't these Wiis be an indication of a significantly increased supply?

You will say "But I think these Wiis are because of falling demand not increased supply" to which I will respond that you are on a videogame SALES website so you can easily see their increasing weekly sales in America which shows the increased supply.

And if you don't trust VGChartz's numbers you can look at NPD's monthly numbers as it doesn't get more official than that:

January:    274k (low supply due to airfreighting Wiis to make them available in december)

February:  432K

March:      721K     <-- Holy cow, almost double supply from the preceding month

April:        714K    <-- Woot, less than March? I guess you were right and supply wasn't increased (oh, the sarcasm)

May:         675k     <-- less than 700k, low supply and Wii fad over CONFIRMED.

June:        666k     <-- Wii's true nature revealed for the selling beast it is

If you believe that Nintendo can sell 600k+ FOUR STRAIGHT NON-HOLIDAY MONTHS is not a sign of increased supply then your delusion seems hopeless to me.

But maybe I am wrong and selling such numbers in hte US on a regular basis outside of november/december is par for the course for video game consoles but if it is the case I would very much like you to back that assertion up with some tangible data (and remember, the plural of anecdote is NOT data).

Do you really think that having supply coming close to demand after 4 months of unprecedented sales is a sign of falling demand or were you just uninformed of these exceptional sales? And if you were unaware of those why do you bother posting on a SALES website without doing a minimum of homework first, recent SALES being the absolute bare minimum, so as not to appear like an uninformed noob and getting owned left and right for your ignorance?

Go now and use the tools of this website to read up on past sales and their trends and don't forget to look at alst gen's hardware sales too and compare them to this gen, for a wider context. If not, don't be surprised of you get headshot by more knowledgeable posters.

PS: sorry if I am really harsh in this post but by coming on this website and spouting nonsense that is easily disprovable with a minimum of research without leaving said site is rather insulting to us and to those that make this site so I really think you asked for it. Do your research and post your opinion based on it and the response will be more respectful even if I disagree with the conclusion; don't and you will get no respect, at least from me (respect is earned, not freely given) though I doubt you care.

More than 30 millions people have had a chance to see what it really is about and it doesn't seem to have significantly slowed sales down. How many consoles need to sell for that purported effect of yours to happen? 50 millions? 100 millions? I know: 130 millions; that's why the PS2 sales slowed down, because "more people have the chance to see what [the PS2 is] really all about and compare it to the other consoles on the market" and it is "losing steam".

If your theory was right, sales should have plummeted in both Europe and Japan where people CAN find them in any shop selling video games (hell, whe have used Wiis selling for LESS than retail price, talk about a crazy concept).

But have they? In Japan the Wii regularly sells twice what the combined PS3 and 360  sell. In Europe it sells about 30k over PS3+36- sales, at a level that is comparable to and even regularly higher than the supply constrained American market.

It really boggles my mind how some people manage to stumble on a website full of sales number that they can use to test their theories and yet still manage to totally overlook that ability and go directly for the forums where they spout nonsense that was disproved months ago.

Oh, well, I guess the waiting game until the next batch of new users posting months old wacky theories starts now, though I somehow expect the both of you guys to keep us busy with your old flat-earth/wii-is-a-fad theories until then.

Hmm... lemme think...

Nintendogs Wii?

Virtual Garden Simulator with Miis that is slightly similar to HOME yet at the same time totally different? That along with Wii sports resort should get Wii through 2009.

... That took 2 seconds to think up, I am sure Miyamoto will think of something!

I just realized this is the wall street journal article! I was reading the paper only a few minutes ago and I saw the article in the business section. I didn't read much of it, but it sounded like th WSJ thinks the Wii will be fine.