Yavin

I've been seeing a lot of Wiis lately ... [that's what she said]

I walked into my local Best Buy an lunch time today, and they had about 60 Wiis (at least) piled behind the customer service desk. Earlier in the day, I strolled into an EB Games and they had about 8 sitting on the shelf behind the cash. This same EB Games location had another 8 Wiis last week as well. And last week I walked into an HMV at the end of the day and they had about 10 Wiis behind the customer service desk as well. This is in Toronto, Canada, by the way.

Are people actually seeing Wiis becoming available in their stores as well?

KurrptSenate

I don't think thats indicative of the entire market, but I'd say supply is on the rise

Draven

Haven't seen any on shelves yet (ever), but to be honest I haven't really been looking lately either. I figured the shortage was continuing.

shumway

I have seen Wiis on only a couple of occasions here in Texas. Most of those times, they are gone by the next day. The only time I don't think there was much demand was in a very small town on Father's Day weekend. I'm sure it's really dependent on the area you live in.

Michael Corvin

Still nothing around here. I saw about 4 in a case at Wal-Mart about 3 weeks ago. First and only time since launch that I have seen them.

DVD Josh

And demand is on the wane.

Michael Corvin

I would say the 350,000 people every month would say otherwise.

RichC2

Our local stores got a shipment in this morning, everybody had loads of them...

...til around lunch. Now they're all gone.

DodgingCars

No wild Wiis yet, but I suspect that as November approaches (holiday season), Wiis (like DSs last year) will again go into hiding. If you can't pick one up this summer, I suspect you won't pick one up until January or Feb.

Michael Corvin

I agree. I bet they show up on shelves late July-Sept. before they go missing again.

PixyJunket

I got hit by the DS shortage last year. Lost mine in January.. and went to about twenty places before finding one at a Blockbuster Video. Score! Of course, it had a dead pixel.. and they didn't have a return policy. Oh well.. I have to break out a magnifying glass to see it, it's not even a full pixel.. actually, I'm not sure what it is.

KurrptSenate

they'd call that a "stuck" pixel


I know the PSP has a program to fix it, but I'm not sure about the DS

DodgingCars

Strangely, last Christmas is when I got my first one. Somehow my wife got one.

DVD Josh

I'm not bashing the WII. I'm just saying that might be one of the reasons for the supply surplus.

Michael Corvin

Oh, I know. Actually, I think Nintendo ramped up production. There was an article about six weeks back alluding to it. Can't remember where I read it though.

DodgingCars

That... and no matter how popular, demand has to slow eventually.

SunMonkey

Nintendo covers stuck pixels under its warranty for the DS if it bothers you. They have about a week turn around for "repairs."

AudioWizard

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/...ap3872523.html


Want a Wii? Come Early and Get in Line
By BARBARA ORTUTAY 06.29.07, 2:13 PM ET

By 9 a.m., the line outside Manhattan's Nintendo World store was snaking down the block.

More than 100 hopeful Wii owners came from as far as New Jersey - some as early as 6 a.m. with kids and grandparents in tow - to get their hands on the gaming console best known for its wireless, motion-sensitive controller.

It's been more than seven months since Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ) launched the Wii, but the consoles are selling so well that supply still hasn't caught up with demand. You can get one, sure, but be prepared to call around and arrive promptly when the shipments do.

"I had to get permission from work," said Regina Iannuzzi, 23, in line since 6:20 a.m. on a recent morning. She'd been looking for a Wii, a 25th birthday present for her brother, for two weeks. Every place was sold out.

Like sleeping in? Wiis are also available online, but at a hefty premium to the console's $250 retail price. A slightly used one from an Amazon.com (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) seller called "Hard-To-Find-Stuff" recently listed for $595 plus $3.99 shipping. Another cost $398 from a different seller.

"The PlayStation 1 was certainly a big introduction, but I don't recall any game system more than six months after its launch still having this kind of demand," said Chris Byrne, an independent toy analyst.

Back in April, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata acknowledged an "abnormal" Wii shortage. Since then, the company has increased production "substantially" to help meet worldwide demand, said spokeswoman Perrin Kaplan.

But Nintendo also has to manage its inventory, said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard (nyse: LAZ - news - people ) Capital Markets.

"Unfortunately you can't ask a contract manufacturer to make a million a month, then 5 million," he said.

Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people )'s PS3, which launched within days of the Wii last fall, is readily available in stores and online, but sales have been lagging behind the Wii. Cost could be one reason for this: the PS3 retails for up to $600.

More than 2.8 million Wii consoles have sold in the U.S. since the November debut, according to the NPD Group, a market research company. That's more than double the number of PlayStation 3 consoles sold. And Nintendo plans to sell 14 million worldwide in the current fiscal year, which ends next March.

"You see it and you want it. Kind of like the iPhone," said Robert Marcus, waiting to buy a Wii with his wife and three young sons.

Nintendo's selling point for the Wii has been that it's for everyone: not just hardcore gamers or young men with impeccable hand-eye coordination. Its intuitive motion-sensitive wireless controller lets players mimic movements for bowling, tennis or sword-fighting instead of pushing complex combinations of buttons.

Twelve-year-old Gabriel Benitez, in town from Florida visiting his grandmother, stood in line outside Nintendo's flagship New York store.

"We finally got enough money for it," he said, glancing at his grandmother who was waiting with him. "The last two stores were sold out."

Gabriel likes the Wii's wireless controller and the mini-workout he gets while playing a game.

"I just hate what you have to do just to get one," he said.

It's not just kids who want it.

Rein Auh, 30, never owned a console, but he decided to buy a Wii so he and his wife could have some fun and get some exercise. He spent $350 at the Nintendo store on a Wii and some extras. Walking out of the store, he looked back at the crowd of people still waiting.

"It's kind of crazy," he said. "I mean, it's been 7 months."

For its part, Nintendo says demand for the consoles has absolutely exceeded expectations.

"We are trying to move them as fast as we can," Kaplan said.

Demand for video games usually soars around the holidays and tapers off for the rest of the year. Not with the Wii.

"People are looking at it as something they really want to have in their home," said Byrne, the toy analyst. This means people aren't just buying them as gifts, and the shopping frenzy usually reserved for the holiday season has stretched into the summer.

Toys "R" Us gets regular Wii shipments in all its stores around the country, but demand is so great they sell out immediately, said spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh. On the toy store chain's Web site, the consoles have usually been "temporarily not available."

On a Sunday morning in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood, the Toys "R" Us opened an hour early for Wii buyers only. Though nothing like the bustle of Manhattan, a small line of teenagers, 20-somethings and families formed outside as a clerk handed out numbered slips of paper.

Inside the store, like two weeks earlier at the Best Buy (nyse: BBY - news - people ) across the shopping center's parking lot, the systems didn't even make it to the shelves before they sold out.

At some point, of course, supply will catch up with demand. But some analysts don't see this happening until next year.

"I don't think by the holidays," Sebastian said. "But maybe by the middle of next year, perhaps they can add another production line."

rennervision

How come if I search completed Ebay auctions for "Nintendo Wii", I see hundreds that ended with no bids? (These are auctions with starting bids of 99 cents to just one penny!)

Groucho

By this time next year, Nintendo will have gone the way of Sega.

Joe Molotov

Are you sure it was Ebay? Are you sure it wasn't just...nothing?

Groucho

"They see what they want to see"

DodgingCars

I did my own test:

1. $337.00 - 37 bids
2. $309.00 - Buy It Now
3. $337.00 - 38 bids
4. $300.00 - no bids
5. $316.00 - 1 bid

On the first page, 5 completed for the console. 1 had no bids..

Where are you looking?

Link

dvdsteve2000

They have been available around here for the last 6 weeks or so (Pittsburgh suburbs). K-Mart, WalMart, Target, etc... always had a couple (at least) consistantly. I haven't not seen one at those stores for quite some time.

C-Mart

My fiance found them at Costco, bundled with Zelda and and extra Wii remote for $300 (quite the deal), but by the time she called me to ask if my friend wanted one (that she had grabbed off the shelf already) they were out of all the rest of them. I don't know how many they had originally. For the record my friend did want it, so she picked it up for him.

Kind of funny, as he had put off actively looking as they were so hard to find.