Wii shortage

It's five months after the launch date, but Wii's are still nearly impossible to find at retailers or from legitimate online sellers at the retail cost of $250. The Freakonomics blog thinks that Nintendo and game developers are being hurt by the shortage, and that retailers are getting the benefits. My take is that everyone is a winner, except busy consumers who don't have time to wait in line at their local Best Buy at 7:30am on Sundays.

My Wii, by the way, was recently ordered from Amazon - they only sell them in small increments and I was able to get in an order -- at cost, and with free one-day shipping, since they've already missed their shipping date. All well and good, but where's my Wii?!


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No customers benefit from production shortfalls (except the arbitrage-y ones).

Ingen Angiven | Mon, 04/23/2007 - 5:43pm

i don't understand the inability to produce more. were their sales projections (and therefore production schedule) way off base as to the demand? i'm not up on the gaming industry, so please pardon me if this is a silly question.

liam | Mon, 04/23/2007 - 7:33pm

The Wii sold wayyy better than anyone predicted. And there's nothing worse than producing too much and having your product sit quietly on shelves. (See, e.g., PS3.)

crazymonk | Mon, 04/23/2007 - 9:12pm

I don't understand why they couldn't have significantly ramped up production in the intervening months?

Ingen Angiven | Tue, 04/24/2007 - 3:22am

They are coming

http://consumerist.com/consumer/nintendo/nintendo-ramping-up-production-...

And I love my Wii. Sure, there is a lack of great games, but the vitural consule is great. I have been playing old school Techmo Bowl and Kid Icarus and I love it so.

New York Anthony | Tue, 04/24/2007 - 9:18am

Don't be shy NY Tony, tell them also about how much you've been playing "Cooking Mama."

Elissa | Wed, 04/25/2007 - 7:15pm

:P I made squid pasta with my wii mote and it was good.

New York Anthony | Thu, 04/26/2007 - 5:00am

btw, the BEST wii game is called "wario world." i think that is what it is called. it is insane, a great party game. check it out!

Jessica | Thu, 04/26/2007 - 5:35am

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