Remember When You Couldn’t Get A Wii

By Joe Haygood | February 28, 2009

So I was cruising around town this evening because the missus had the day off from work.  It was a lot of fun, and because our coffers had a bit extra in them this week, we did what most responsible adults would do, spend it at Target.  While walking around and picking up a good deal on The Bourne Identity on 360 ($14.98), Darkstar One ($4.98), and skipping on The Last Remnant ($29.98). 

My bargain hunting also took me past the Wii aisle where I saw a stunning site.  There on the bottom shelves stood about 12-16 Nintendo Wii’s just staring at me.  I kept looking around for the throng of people that would steamroll me at any minute to crash the cage and take them home to a ton of waggling fun.  But the throng never came, and it finally dawned on me that we might have found the cresting point of the Nintendo Wii’s wave of domination.

It is not just Target where Wii’s are starting to stack up on shelves.  You can walk into Walmart, Gamestop, Best Buy and pretty much any other retailer and grab a Wii with nary a comotion.  Three months ago, the Wii was still a big box made of gold and dreams, while here, near the beginning of March, it is a box of has-been and been there, done that.  Most of us realized the Wii would not continue to steam roll from launch to end of production, but the turnaround seems so swift from when there were none, to when there were plenty.

Now I was not a Gamecube owner, but something about this reminds me of something people told me about Nintendo and that console.  If I am correct in what I was told, the Gamecube was severly overproduced after a shortage at launch.  Then the overproduction stripped demand by leaps and bounds, leaving Nintendo with huge stockpiles of Gamecubes.  That happened right after launch, where with the Wii, we are seeing it after nearly two years of intense demand.

So what is the cause of this sudden decline in want and need of this crazy little console?  One might look at it as a point of saturation.  Remember when the iPods fueled a ton of demand for Apple?  It was because the market loved the new device and no one owned it.  After a couple of years, sales started to flatten, and at one point decline for sales of iPods.  Apple reached a saturation point of its audience at the time.  The Wii could only sell its console to so many elderly, kids and normal people that woulc say they are non-gamers.  Nintendo reached a point where they filled all the rows of their auditorium and everyone else decided to go home.  Competition could be the other issue as well.  Microsoft has been pushing the hell out of their $199.99 bundled Xbox 360, and with the solid library of games, and an upgrade path that can grow with the gamer, it is a very enticing option.  Finally, it could just be the fad of owning a Nintendo Wii is starting to peak.  There was a time early in 2008 when all the stars were out and about talking up the Wii and how great it was for them to own.  Fast forward and that kind of sentiment from the rich and famous is rarely, if ever, mentioned.    My sister-in-law went on her quest for the Wii after playing it at our house last year.  She also had friends that owned one, and she was determined to get one.  After a few weeks of use, it has sat in her entertainment center becoming one with the dust.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I know that up to this point, Nintendo has printed money with the Wii.  They have made crazy, insane amounts of money, to the point that I am sure that Reggie and Cammie roll around naked in their offices on floors and furnitures made of real money.  But now that the ramped up production seems to have caught up and surpased demand, are we about to see a changing of fortunes in the console race?  No one knows for sure, but it does seem like things have started to get a bit more interesting.

http://www.aeropause.com/2009/02/remember-when-you-couldnt-get-a-wii/

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and so the wii is d00med articles begin (for this week....next week is fully boked as Ps3 is d00med)

to add an interesting twist

did Killzone 2 lead to wii sales going into the NEGATIVEs as CRAZZYMAN PROPHESIZED!!!!!??

Article full of anecdotal evidence FTW!

Even if it was true that demand was decrasing significantly, that wouldn't be a problem. Nintendo has plenty of warehouses they use to stockpile Wii's for the holidays, and in the meantime they can reduce production if necessary.

So the Wii sells alot and I mean alot more during this time off the year then last year and the year before that and the demand is slowly going away??


Umm think not.


Supply nothing more nothing less.

Yes, I remember. Shit, I was suppose to get a Wii in 2006. All sold out, so I got 360. 2007, I was going to get a Wii again. Fucking all gone, so I got a PS3.

Fuck you, Wii. I don't want you anymore.

Ha! Wii is now being supplied enough so that they're readily on shelves = Wii is doomed! If that's the case, weren't the PS3 and X360 Doomed from 05/06?

Sales are up year on year, software sales are excellent, it gets rated as the 'consumer item that makes us most happy' in a recent survey, and yet it is doomed...

Japan is the only place the Wii is having trouble, and it's still selling better there than the competition...

I havnt seen to many wii's in my area...huh..ill have to look around again.

Well I'm sure when people realize that there are Wii's in stock they will be gone within an hour. Always seems to happen.

Clearly VGC, NPD and Nintendo themselves are lying through their teeth about sales figures. Also, Nintendo is obviously lying about producing more Wiis to meet demand. Duh!

So...you are angry that the Wii is popular enough to not be available whenever you wish? And that now that they are supposedly available, you don't want them? You gotta pick your battles kid...I mean, otherwise you won't sound believable at all.

Yes sir! I, too, find your anecdotal evidence of visiting one store to carry more weight than NPD reporting that Wii shattered the all-time record for console sales in January. We are clearly reaching the end of this fad. Please, lend us more of your wisdom!