Retailers Forcing Wii Bundles onto Customers

Since the Wii has become such an elusive item this Christmas season, retailers have adopted this aggressive marketing move, pushing software onto buyers. What it means is that if you're lucky enough to find a Wii anywhere, it's most likely going to be bundled with games or accessories, forcing you to cough up more cash than you were prepared to.

In an interview with Reuters, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America had this to say in response to retailers' exploiting Wii shortages: "Retailers have already been given feedback that we are not big fans of that. We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want," he said.

Still, according to the same source, Nintendo doesn't plan to take any action (for the time being) against the retailers embracing such practice: "We don't have to remind retailers of the strength we have right now. We are simply making an observation and that reinforces our point quite nicely with retailers," said Fils-Aime.

The man also points out that retailers pushing more products onto Wii buyers are hurting Nintendo's marketing plans, also pointing out that he had high expectations for Nintendo's recent Wii addition, Super Mario Galaxy:

"We at Nintendo America are focused on getting to the point when any consumer can walk into any of our retailers and find a Wii. Then we can plan, on an ongoing basis, the rest of the business," Fils-Aime said. [...] "Galaxy will have extremely long life and will have extremely large numbers throughout that entire life," Fils-Aime said. "Mark my words, look in six months and no one will have any remembrance that it 'only' did one million copies in its first month."

Of course everyone has to agree that retailers do what retailers always do: speculate. Until Nintendo says "NO MORE!", there's nothing you can do but spend more money if you want one. Heck, some will even buy the most expensive bundle happily, if they're desperate enough to Nintendo's Wii as a Christmas present for the kids.