Nintendo Wii: Starting to smell a rat?

MSNBC is reporting a top Nintendo official as saying buyers still may not be able to get their hands on a Nintendo Wii come Holiday season.

“There is no guarantee that we are not going to have ’out-of-stocks’ this holiday season,” George Harrison, senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications for Nintendo of America, said in an interview.

There has been much said on both sides of the debate as to whether Nintendo is intentionally limiting supply to keep the hype going throughout the world going as far back as March 2007.

I'm no production manager guru, but I am beginning to think this whole Wii shortage excuse is just a wee bit short of logic and honesty from Nintendo.

Harrison added that the company was ramping up production, but that parts manufacturers were still trying to gauge how much they need to produce to keep up with demand.

“We’re trying to figure out what’s the reasonable monthly level, and as we’ve seen every time we ship product to the market, whether it’s in Japan or here in the U.S. or in Europe, it sells out in a matter of days,” Harrison said.

This guy is really thinking the public is flat out stupid.

The Wii has been available for sale since November of 2006. It continues to sell out almost immediately when new shipments arrive, but he says, they are having a hard time figuring out what is a reasonable monthly level and how much to produce to keep up with demand? This is the same excuse they have used since Nintendo's production schedule started to get questioned long after the 2006 Holiday season had ended which is typically when the "hot" item is plentiful on store shelves.

It's now July and Nintendo expects the business press and the public in general to continue to swallow the elephant pill they don't know how many to produce?

I'm going to end my rant with the following quote from Harrison that I think best explains the whole situation that Nintendo is doing.

“If you see one, buy it. Don’t assume that you can come back later and find one.”

There it is folks, Nintendo's Wii strategy. Continue to make small production runs to make consumers buy it on sight because they won't be able to come back later and find one.

Nintendo, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but..., eh, you know the rest.

Disclaimer: I already have a Nintendo Wii sitting in my living room.  I've had it since launch so this isn't sour grapes, just calling it like I see it.

Comments

[jasen G]

Amen brother! Did they get some out of work ex-strategist of President Bush? If we hear the term "stay the course" all kinds of hell is gonna break loose, and I am gonna be worse than Samuel Jackson emceeing a bingo game for the hard of hearing! I got issues, I know I know, but knowledge is power.

[Aaron J. Walker]

Thanks for the comment Jasen.

It still amazes me how most sites are treating Nintendo having issues with supply as fact rather than fiction.

Apple didn't/doesn't have a problem with meeting demand for the iPhone. And I believe they had a bigger launch day than the Wii.