14 DAY TRIAL // The only time when any company feels sorry for creating an extremely popular product is the moment when they run out of it. This seems to be happening to Nintendo, as they're dealing with an unprecedented hardware shortage, or at least that's the case of the acclaimed Wii. Sony's taking advantage of this problem, selling tons of PS3 units, also thanks to the latest price reduction.
The Japanese console maker has sold 100,000 PS3 units in just seven days, finally being able to compete with the likes of Microsoft or Nintendo. While the situation may be OK in Japan and other Asian countries, the UK and US can't provide enough Wii consoles for the gaming device-hungry public. There were some speculations that Nintendo wasn't making all of their units available on purpose, in order to generate demand, but the claims were denied by one of the company's representatives.
Things are more serious than they seem as even large chains like Woolworths have mentioned that the shortage will continue at Christmas time, when it will probably get worse. They've also advised the people who desperately want to buy a Wii to keep their eyes on the retailers' sites, mostly because all of the just-arrived units tend to sell immediately. The Wii's huge popularity is also reflected by the numbers, considering that 17.5 million units will be shipped till March 2008. Does Nintendo have a plan B or are they just allowing their competitors to get their hopes up before a potential Christmas surprise?
It's strange to see that the PS3 is capitalizing on the Wii's units shortage, specially since there haven't been that many Sony next-gen titles roaming around, while Nintendo strikes gold every time they release a title. Goes to show that price reductions beat the hell out of blockbuster titles which boost a gaming device's sales.