14 DAY TRIAL // Remember the Wii shortage issue? One day, when there was nice weather and the sun was shining, Gamestop decided to cloud the skies with a very upsetting announcement: that Nintendo was deliberately holding back Wii supplies. Nintendo immediately responded and claimed it was not the case, but just Gamestop's way of asking for Wiis. The thing is, more and more retailers are experiencing the Wii supply shortage with every day that passes. Yesterday it was a Japanese Den-Den town store that had empty shelves as well. What's going on here? Has Nintendo retired or something?
No. It's just that demand is flourishing, to the delight and grief of the company. Delight because demand is high and grief because they can't fill back the shelves in time. Production and shipping takes too long. Nintendo VP of marketing and corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan talked to Game Theory and said that retailers will be experiencing Wii shortages for quite some time now. This is a part of the interview I got from 1UP: "There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see a supply / demand situation last for some time ... We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can."
There you have it. Again (I must be asking this question the 1.980.599th time): Can Nintendo ever fail? Not only that Wii demand has never been greater, but the DS is still selling beautifully and every now and then, a new killer title launches making it as popular as day one. So what if they can't fill shelves in time. Don't tell me that when they do fill back the shelves, demand won't be there anymore. It will, and it's probably going to be even greater.