kber81 said: C'mon people. What's the point of stockpilling? What's the difference if sale is steady. Why selling 800k a month for 11 months and 2 million in December is better than selling 900k for a whole year?

Easy. Right now they want everyone to think the Wii is so amazing it sells out constantly and must be a great product to do so. When christmas rolls around, they want EVERYONE who wants a Wii to get a Wii. They want everyone to be happy. Added to that, they want to try and have stock in stores after the holiday season so people will be able to go to their local stores and pick one up.

kber81 said: C'mon people. What's the point of stockpilling? What's the difference if sale is steady. Why selling 800k a month for 11 months and 2 million in December is better than selling 900k for a whole year?

I think the reasoning is that the customers are different. The people looking for it today are fans who will buy it no matter what however the Christmas customer is not a fan at all. If the Christmas customer doesnt see a Wii on a shelf they will simply never buy one or worse buy a competitors console. The fans will buy it regardless so even if they dont get one by Christmas they will buy it next year. The result is you make sales to people outside your regular customer base.

 

The reason for stockpiling is simple: something like 3/4 of all console sales typically happen during the holidays.

Why would Nintendo want there to be NO Wiis on the shelves? Then everyone would buy a 360!!! Hardly anyone is buying PS3/360 right now compared to Wii, but during the holidays, EVERYONE will want a new console! That means Nintendo better have a boatload of consoles for each country.

I'm going to give the same response to this thread as I did the last one, when someone claimed a week ago that Wii sales were declining in Japan. If you look at the actual numbers, for more than just a couple of weeks, you'll see that the Wii numbers constantly fluctuate up and down based on supply - but over the long haul, they are quite stable on average. To demonstrate, using all numbers from here at vgchartz:

Aug 11: 86.5k
Aug 04: 91.9k
Average (2 weeks): 89.2k

July 28: 95.2k
July 21: 97.9k
July 14: 91.1k
July 07: 83.2k
Average (4 weeks): 91.9k

June 30: 96.8k
June 23: 90.7k
June 16: 96.9k
June 09: 100.1k
June 02: 93.3k
Average (5 weeks): 95.6k

May 26: 87.6k
May 19: 103.8k
May 12: 124k
May 05: 131k
Average (4 weeks): 111.6k

Apr 28: 134.6k
Apr 21: 88.8k
Apr 14: 58.9k
Apr 07: 54.0k
Average (4 weeks): 84.1k

Mar 31: 54.7k
Mar 24: 58.8k
Mar 17: 65.3k
Mar 10: 70.2k
Mar 03: 81.3k
Average (5 weeks): 66.1k

Aside from the month of May (a bit of an outlier due to heavy supply), Wii sales have been holding pretty steady at a weekly average in the 85k to 95k region. However you feel about the recent "decline" to "only" 90,000 units per week, sales are still vastly higher than they were earlier this year in March and April.

If you want to look at this and say that the Wii is no longer in demand, or in decline, feel free to go ahead. But the data does not back up those assertions in the least.

The Wii is obviously losing and the PS3 is obviously winning. I think that's clear by this recent trend. :p

BenKenobi88 said: souixan said: Videogirl said: I don't think stockpiling the system is such a good idea. Because of its competitive price, the Wii is more an impulse purchase kind of product, when people want a Wii they should be able to get a Wii, if they don’t the urge might ware off and they might reconsider it and go for a another system instead. Maybe stockpiling seems like a bad idea for the Christmas season, which seems to start in October since Bush took over America, but it is in fact a great idea. Videogames sell almost as much in the 2-4 months around December as they do the rest of the year, and how they do during the Christmas/Holiday season may determin how the public views them for the rest of the year.   "Maybe stockpiling seems like a bad idea for the Christmas season, which seems to start in October since Bush took over America" Wait...what? Are you implying that since Bush was elected President of America, Christmas starts earlier...?

No, I'm implying that since Bush got elected President of America, the dollar was weakened vs every currency and average pay went down. On top I am implying more people buy on credit to which the stock market is also in poor shape(check it out) In addition sales have dropped vastly so stores start holiday promotion much earlier. That's what I'm implying, not placing blame simply using him as a marker for the statement I wasn't going to go deeper into it but that's the basic idea and any news channel will/should tell you basically the same stuff.

 

It was a simple statement meant as satire I'm sad that people don't think before they attack the statement which IS absolutly true. Christmas promotions seem to start 1 month earlier then they used to. I'm seeing back to school stuff in July, never used to see it till August. I saw Christmas displays last year DURING halloween, never used to see them till at least around Thanksgiving...I'm sure there's many factors in this but I'll be damned if a President who uses mass ammounts of money fighting a war isn't at least somewhat of a mark to why the dollar is being devalued(he's borrowing it..)

mrstickball said: Ummm.... Because there are always fluctuations in shipments and sales of every system, expecially when they sell out? A 10% deviation from any given number isn't significant enough to extrapolate any issues with falling sales. It could be upto stockpiling (but for what?), shipping problems, or production ramp-ups....Or just no real reason at all.

This is just it here.  If anyone knows anyone who works in a factory you know they arn't just magical wii production machines that produce a steady amount each month.  Sometimes more machines break down then are expected, or you get really random problems like parts not making it on time, or a power company shutting you down because you're using to much power etc and they underproduce, heck sometimes you get a good month going, everything falls into place and you overproduce. 

It's probably just do to how many Wii's are being made.

Average pay went down? Where? Everyone I know has made more money each year since I got out of high school 12 years ago.

The weakening currency is partly his fault and largely the fault of the stupid illegal Federal Reserve. It's not even a government entity but it controls our money and is no longer backed by gold like it used to be.


Oh, and sales aren't really dropping as evidenced by Sullas great post.

kber81 said: C'mon people. What's the point of stockpilling? What's the difference if sale is steady. Why selling 800k a month for 11 months and 2 million in December is better than selling 900k for a whole year?

Because if you sell 2 Million in december the media is going to jump all over it extra hard?

souixan said: No, I'm implying that since Bush got elected President of America, the dollar was weakened vs every currency and average pay went down. On top I am implying more people buy on credit to which the stock market is also in poor shape(check it out) In addition sales have dropped vastly so stores start holiday promotion much earlier. That's what I'm implying, not placing blame simply using him as a marker for the statement I wasn't going to go deeper into it but that's the basic idea and any news channel will/should tell you basically the same stuff. It was a simple statement meant as satire I'm sad that people don't think before they attack the statement which IS absolutly true. Christmas promotions seem to start 1 month earlier then they used to. I'm seeing back to school stuff in July, never used to see it till August. I saw Christmas displays last year DURING halloween, never used to see them till at least around Thanksgiving...I'm sure there's many factors in this but I'll be damned if a President who uses mass ammounts of money fighting a war isn't at least somewhat of a mark to why the dollar is being devalued(he's borrowing it..)

This is probably a bad idea to continue this discussion, however...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/economy/

"Real After-Tax Per Capita Personal Income Has Risen By 11.4 Percent – An Average Of Over $3,400 Per Person – Since President Bush Took Office."

"Real Wages Rose 1.3 Percent Over The 12 Months Ending In June. This is faster than the average rate during the 1990s, and it means an extra $782 in the past year for a family with two average wage earners."

Of course, this is taken from the White House website; you may have a source that contradicts that, but it's what the government says.

As for currency valuation, obviously the dollar has fallen against some currencies, most notably the euro.

Your stock market claim makes no sense since just a couple weeks ago the market was at an all-time high.

As for Christmas, it's the stores making their own decisions to start Christmas sales earlier and earlier, put decorations up earlier and earlier, and it's not dependent on the economy. This is a long-term pattern that has been in place long before Bush entered office and will continue after he leaves most likely. Once upon a time you wouldn't see Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving, but now you see it before Halloween. I guess September isn't too far away...Columbus Day Christmas sale or Labor Day Christmas decorations anyone? It's ridiculous, of course, but your assessment of blame is equally ridiculous.

EDIT:  Forgot you also made a ridiculous claim about consumer spending and a claim about debt (specifically credit card debt).  Although the crazy debt levels in the U.S. are plain, your "sales have dropped" tack was pretty nuts.  Go here:

http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann05.pdf

2003-->2004 consumer spending up 6.3%

2004-->2005 consumer spending up 6.9%