Fils-Aime: Nintendo won't be able to meet Wii demands this Christmas

Posted Oct 01, 2007 at 02:17AM by Charles D. Listed in: Interviews, News Tags: Christmas, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America

It looks like Nintendo of America President Reggie "Regginator" Fils-Aime won't be able to keep his promise to deliver Wii consoles to good little boys and girls all across the country this Christmas.

He openly admitted in an interview that Nintendo won't be able to meet the unquenchable demand people have for its top-selling Nintendo Wii console. For the second year running, the console will most likely be sparse on store shelves once the holidays hit.

Current supplies in most retail stores don't even last by the end of the day at the rate consumers take the consoles off their hands. Fils-Aime explained that the main problems lies in the aggressive demand for the console and not their inability to produce enough units.

He added the following to support the statements:

The issue is not a lack of production. The issue is we went in with a curve that was aggressive, but the demand has been substantially more than that. And the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on.

But Nintendo fans have the choice to look at the glass either half-empty or half-full. Sure, Wii supplies are scarce but this also means that Nintendo's console market share just keeps on getting bigger and bigger.

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5 Comments

by FreePlay - 2007-10-01

» New motto: "Nintendo: Because We Just Can't Do It Right"

"The issue is not a lack of production."
"the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on."

Self-contradicted within three sentences. Wow.

Re: waffleking77 - 2007-10-01

» wow

I love the first two sentences you gave us, wheres the 3rd? In any case, what hes saying is that demand is higher right now than they can supply for. It's not the production, its the demand, and he cant just magically pull Wii's from thin air.

Re: Advertising -

Re: Starayo - 2007-10-01

» No, you see,

He means he contradicted himself in the space of 3 sentences.

Anyway, go away, troll.

Re: Charlybob - 2007-10-01

» Someone misunderstands and they're a troll?

I thougt the same thing as waffleking at first, Free play didn't exactly phrase it as well as he could have.

Waffle does have a point though, the wiis cant be made from nothing. They need expensive production lines to build, and they dont want to make more because the rush for them is dieing down now, it would be a waste of money.

by Mister Common Sense - 2007-10-02

» the truth

Nintendo knows they're not going to last this generation with recycled gamecube hardware in a new plastic case with gimmicky motion sensing controller they didn't even invent, so they have to create artificial demand to make the Wii seem like a "must have" gift for the holidays. People will think "wow I managed to find a Wii on a store shelf" and instinctivly buy it!

There is no reason whatsoever for this shortage lasting over a year, and Reggie's excuse makes no sense.

How many Wii games were meant for the Gamecube? How about ALL of them? Amazing how Nintendo has the power to delay last gen games for release on their "next gen" system (with identical hardware specs) costing $150 more that look exactly the same! The only reason a game like Zelda TP was released on Gamecube (instead of Nintendo making people buy a Wii) was because GC owners would be pissed after waiting so long!

Most Wii owners I've seen rarely use them! It does nothing but play last gen quality games, near worthless internet browser (at only 480p), and overpriced emulated console games.

Do yourself a favor and buy a real next gen game console that supports high definition for only $30 more and you can find in stores easily!