[OmegaNemesis28]

Quote:

So sayeth the immortal Pete Burns, "You spin me right round baby, right now, like a record baby, round, round, round, round." In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has hinted that, yet again, the supply for the Nintendo Wii might not meet the demand this holiday. The Regginator (a nickname noted in the article) said that production is up 33% over last year, from 1.6 million consoles per month to 2.4 million. We've talked about Wii shortages once or twice before. "One of our competitors' projects," he said (we're thinking he meant Sony), "they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that's three months of production." By his numbers, it would actually be closer to four months, but when you're dealing with multiples of infinity all day long, math tends to get a little fuzzy. We still find it hard to believe that there's still potential shortages after 708 days, but the sales numbers seem to suggest scholars will need to create a new number system for sales calculations.

Source

Of course - predicted this awhile ago. Nintendo is going to halt production on the Wii to keep it the "hot/rare" item for as long as physically possible to draw out every last $. I absolutely hate it - but, one has to admit, it's worked so far - it's smart.

 

[Spart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 Source Of course - predicted this awhile ago. Nintendo is going to halt production on the Wii to keep it the "hot/rare" item for as long as physically possible to draw out every last $. I absolutely hate it - but, one has to admit, it's worked so far - it's smart.

I think it's an incredibly cheap money making tactic. But that's business for you. The honest ones always die.

 

[OmegaNemesis28]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spart I think it's an incredibly cheap money making tactic. But that's business for you. The honest ones always die.

agreed

 

[jigglylizard]

What I dislike about this whole thing is that other console makers will almost surely follow suit in the next gen consoles.

 

[Twinnuke]

Not Sony! Sony's all about going as big as possible! Until they can slim their consoles down that is of course. I wonder what a set of PS3 Spinners would look like on an escalade?

 

[nathris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jigglylizard What I dislike about this whole thing is that other console makers will almost surely follow suit in the next gen consoles.

I doubt it. Nintendo is doing this so it doesn't have to do a price cut, and so people don't realize what a useless piece of hardware it is. The 360 and PS3 don't have to worry about that because people can spend more than a few days with their consoles without getting bored.

Nintendo can't keep this up however. The 360 is already $70 cheaper than the Wii, and its only going to get cheaper. Eventually people are going to start questioning why Nintendo is still charging $270 for the massively underpowered Wii.

I think they are running out of steam. They may survive the holiday season on hype alone, but you can only release the same crap so many times without the public cluing in.

 

[version2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 Nintendo is going to halt production on the Wii to keep it the "hot/rare" item for as long as physically possible to draw out every last $.

Basic economics: Lower supply creates a higher price. Evidently Nintendo has hired an economist who's figured out that the most optimal way is to increase profits is to decrease units produced, rather than produce more to satisfy a larger demand.

Economically speaking this shouldn't work. Supposedly the most optimal profit is in "the middle," where supply and demand meet.

It's been a little while since I've taken economics, maybe I'm not thinking straight. If demand increases over the December holidays and supply is not increased, doesn't that raise prices? So Nintendo can sit back and enjoy higher profits for the same items. But in this case, it seems Nintendo might be lessening supply...

 

[OmegaNemesis28]

Quote:

Originally Posted by version2 Basic economics: Lower supply creates a higher price. Evidently Nintendo has hired an economist who's figured out that the most optimal way is to increase profits is to decrease units produced, rather than produce more to satisfy a larger demand. Economically speaking this shouldn't work. Supposedly the most optimal profit is in "the middle," where supply and demand meet. It's been a little while since I've taken economics, maybe I'm not thinking straight. If demand increases over the December holidays and supply is not increased, doesn't that raise prices? So Nintendo can sit back and enjoy higher profits for the same items. But in this case, it seems Nintendo might be lessening supply...

It doesn't raise prices because Nintendo can produce thousands of these cheap stupid consoles at rapid speeds but choose not to because they are garunteed to sell.

If they rapidly produce the Wiis - it won't be a "hot" item anymore, because people will all have one and be like "WTH is this piece of junk - 1 good game on it worth playing?!" That is Super Mario Galaxy - about it.

Honestly, to replicate the Wii hardware wise is like less then $100 I think. Originally, the 360 was in supply when it came out. The PS3 was here and there. If Sony and MS can produce their consoles perfectly fine, Nintendo should be able to double that.

 

[Vegnagun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 It doesn't raise prices because Nintendo can produce thousands of these cheap stupid consoles at rapid speeds but choose not to because they are garunteed to sell. If they rapidly produce the Wiis - it won't be a "hot" item anymore, because people will all have one and be like "WTH is this piece of junk - 1 good game on it worth playing?!" That is Super Mario Galaxy - about it. Honestly, to replicate the Wii hardware wise is like less then $100 I think. Originally, the 360 was in supply when it came out. The PS3 was here and there. If Sony and MS can produce their consoles perfectly fine, Nintendo should be able to double that.

Super Smash Bros is pretty awesome

 

[OmegaNemesis28]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegnagun666 Super Smash Bros is pretty awesome

It is - but it got old REALLY fast. Its only useful when you've got friends around and they play console games but not PC games.

 

[SyncMaster753]

a fully assembled Wii cannot cost nintendo more than $100 to make.....

but i'm satisfied with the console itself,

my only gripes are:

-Inability to directly save to SD card.......
-Browser needs to be updated to be able to stream new Flash videos........
-Console firmware essentially reboots the console in-between major channel changes.....unnecessary
-Online can keep friend codes (if you've heard the little swearing kids/insecure teens on halo you know why they're there) but it at least needs a lobby system to make it more seamless....

One mistake i think nintendo have made again though is releasing all of their AAA titles too soon.....

LOZ-TP, MP3-C, SSBB, SMG...........these should have been staggered a little more
(even though i thoroughly enjoyed all of them)

simple changes could make the Wii a-lot more appealing, but it seems like nintendo thinks there is no pressure on them to make changes.

sigh

 

[thegreatsquare]

I think I'm going to pick up four of these. I need one for Fatal Frame and three to sell on craigslist at $100 markup at xmas so I can have mine for free.

 

[ryboto]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 It doesn't raise prices because Nintendo can produce thousands of these cheap stupid consoles at rapid speeds but choose not to because they are garunteed to sell. If they rapidly produce the Wiis - it won't be a "hot" item anymore, because people will all have one and be like "WTH is this piece of junk - 1 good game on it worth playing?!" That is Super Mario Galaxy - about it. Honestly, to replicate the Wii hardware wise is like less then $100 I think. Originally, the 360 was in supply when it came out. The PS3 was here and there. If Sony and MS can produce their consoles perfectly fine, Nintendo should be able to double that.

I don't think having a larger number of the consoles would reduce the "hot" factor...it's been out a while, everyone I know who wanted one has one. I don't see how it could help them to sell less. Sony and Microsoft don't have the same kind of demand for their consoles, unless it's changed recently. I'm sure Nintendo would love to have ample supply, not a surplus, the console still sells at it's original release price, they'd be silly not to try and capitalize on that fact.

 

[version2]

Yeah, I'm really mixed about the economic choice of this action.

 

[VulcanDragon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 Of course - predicted this awhile ago. Nintendo is going to halt production on the Wii to keep it the "hot/rare" item for as long as physically possible to draw out every last $. I absolutely hate it - but, one has to admit, it's worked so far - it's smart.

Um, what? What did you read in that article that made you think they are cutting production? He clearly stated that production is up by 33% per month. GameSpot ran a story on the same interview where he went further, stating that the units available on shelves during the holiday season will be 50% higher than last year:

Quote:

The executive also offered some somewhat obvious advice on buying a Wii. "Look at retailer circulars. Go to their websites. We're flowing products into stores on a very regular basis. Once you see it on the shelf, you ought to buy it. While we're bringing 50 percent higher level of supply into the market this holiday, we don't know if the demand will be even higher than that."

I honestly cannot guess how you read this article and inferred "they are keeping supplies articifially low"?

 

[DuckieHo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 Of course - predicted this awhile ago. Nintendo is going to halt production on the Wii to keep it the "hot/rare" item for as long as physically possible to draw out every last $. I absolutely hate it - but, one has to admit, it's worked so far - it's smart.

Got any?

 

[Domino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twinnuke Not Sony! Sony's all about going as big as possible! Until they can slim their consoles down that is of course. I wonder what a set of PS3 Spinners would look like on an escalade?

I can't wait till you get over 5000+ XBOX360 games on a small little chip that you plug into your screen. Hey, they did it was the old systems, time to do it with the new ones

!

 

[Firestorm252]

whilst i'm not gonna bite at the console fanboyism i'm feeling off this thread...

not terribly surprised. whatever makes a company money, eh?

OT-----------------
also, still loving my wii.

between RE4, SSBM, MySims, and soon Metroid i've got a full plate for what little console time I get ^_^

 

[lordikon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegnagun666 Super Smash Bros is pretty awesome

I like Zelda, Metroid Prime, and WarioWare as well. Wii Tennis is casual but fun sometimes. I also like the Virtual Console games that are Nintendo exclusive like Super Mario RPG, and Paper Mario. Of course, those technically aren't Wii games, but people may want a Wii to play them nevertheless.

What you guys aren't taking into account is that not everyone cares that their console isn't in HD, so when you say the Wii is a crappy piece of hardware, you're saying that because of the graphics output only. The Wii does a HD (or at least built in memory), and it has Wifi built in, which the 360 doesn't have and charges about $100 for the adapter. Also, the online stuff for Wii games in insanely basic (because it is for kids), but it is free unlike Xbox Live. So while the Wii is not "as good", because most of us are older and want something more hardcore, the Wii is still a good piece of hardware.

 

[BizzareRide]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmegaNemesis28 It doesn't raise prices because Nintendo can produce thousands of these cheap stupid consoles at rapid speeds but choose not to because they are garunteed to sell. If they rapidly produce the Wiis - it won't be a "hot" item anymore, because people will all have one and be like "WTH is this piece of junk - 1 good game on it worth playing?!" That is Super Mario Galaxy - about it. Honestly, to replicate the Wii hardware wise is like less then $100 I think. Originally, the 360 was in supply when it came out. The PS3 was here and there. If Sony and MS can produce their consoles perfectly fine, Nintendo should be able to double that.

You make one hell of a point there. +rep

Considering the other consoles are infinitely more advance and complex in terms of hardware, yet they manage to be in demand.