They could saturate the Wii's on the shelf if they wanted to. But why would they,The Shortages is what is causing this system to sell like hot cakes (and its a fun system)

I love Nintendo and have been a loyal customer for 20 years and now my kids can enjoy the games I did at their age, the new ones we both can enjoy , thank you Nintendo for now getting us out of our chairs and into the game , this radical design of the Wii still amazes me , thank you Nintendo for thinking outside the box and making gaming fun again , they will make it through this and what a great problem to have , I bet the other guys are screaming "why didn't you think of that?" - lol , simply amazing.

I believe its totally possible for them to have underestimated the demand for this product. What with the other 2 console makers out there, they didnt think that the demand would be so much more compared to the other two consoles. Perhaps theres a problem with one of the chips that are needed for it and the company that makes them either can't make enough, or the chip needed was a specialty thing where they contracted it and they have a hard time ramping up to the speed needed for demand. Sure, while some suplly constraints may be good for the company, Nintendo realizes that the demand is so great that if it was artificial, it would be foolish to continue, so I believe them in this instance. If it was SOny on the other hand, well, their just plain evil with their rootkit music cd's, among many other crapola they try to push to the consumers.

All these console manufacturers do this intentionally every year at Christmas to drive up sales. Then they play stupid and pretend some problem caused it.

Care to explain why there were shortages months ago? Your logic is full of holes.

How the eff did a Wii topic degenerate into a Sony vs. MS, Blu Ray vs. HD thing? C'mon guys, sheesh.

Anyway, I've been reading into this trend for while and I don't 100% understand why Nintendo didn't ramp up production of their Wii back in later summer/fall. They've been leading the pack for a while yes? It wouldn't have been difficult to predict high demand for the unit for the holiday season. So, I'm not calling any conspiracies here, but what is the reasoning behind NOT ramping up supply? ... and that's a genuine question. Is it that there's a shortage of some part, or did they just not think they'd be faced with this kind of demand?

Apparently you're new here...every topic that involves a games console devolves into a PS3 vs. MS, or BR vs. HD DVD arguement...

You will notice it is the $ony trolls that usually start the whole thing. The word Wii and 360 is against their religion so they must attack.

LOL... wayyyy too true.

"It is a gamecube, do some investigation, gamecube in a new box, with a new controller."

What's pathetic is if you actually believe that, than a completely inferior console is kicking the sh*t out of the PS3 and actually makes money with every console sale.

---------------------------------

Sony is bleeding from every orafice with every fire sale, price drop, etc.... I love it. Just a mere console sale cost them hundreds.

---------------------------------

It looks like the news of HD-DVD's movie sales catching up and staying with BD's numbers are keeping him up nights.

Ummm Joey (Dave) and all of your aliases .... Blu Ray isn't even close to HD-DVD's features until profile 2.0 so don't pretend PIP and a couple interactive menu features that don't exist on a single movie to date is something to be proud of.

Jackass.

Only slightly over 13 months after launch ... and your excited about this? You are pathetic.

Good luck getting a Wii for the holidays, I got mine :) ... Sound familiar?

I wonder how long until Beta"News" reports on the Divx/BR1.1 update on the PS3. Way to be on top of things BN!

Maybe Ed is having a hard time spinning it as a bad thing.

Please, just go away. The only mention of PS3 in this article is completely true.

If you whine this much, you may as well just find another site. Try a Playstation forum or something.

Let's try and predict his pathetic spin..

Here is my guess...

"After a year of trying Blu-ray camp finally catch up with HD DVD's features."

not true bd still hasn't caught up to hd-dvd's features, let's not forgot hdi

LOL... OK here's mine.

"Sony's PS3 copies XBOX 360: Now supports divx"
By Ed Oswald

Sorry for bringing this story late to everyone, but I had to go to the bank, again, to deposit my MS check. Anyway...

Sony's latest firmware update allows for divx and BR 1.1 spec. BUT the PS3 is still in last place... and still doesn't have Halo. The PS3 can do Picture in Picture but that doesn't matter because it wasn't the first and still doesn't have Halo.

Analysts in my head predict that Sony's latest update will not help the PS3 or Blu-Ray this holiday season. MS is beating in total sales with 13 mill to Sony's 7. Forget that the 360 has been out for a year longer and this is their 3rd holiday season. PS3 doesn't have Halo.

In summery, MS is my GOD. Sony is the devil and still doesn't have Halo.

Oh look... Another check! I'll be right back!

Davey and Davey Jr. both of you are beyond repair. Now there is a conspiracy against Sony? Man, I want some of the same sh!t your smoking.

Whatever you say Hollywood_

Keep being fooled.

Jr. ... Weed or PCP?

"After a year of trying Blu-ray camp finally catch up with HD DVD's features."

Let's try and practice proper English for once, shall we?

Hollywood__,

"...Weed or PCP"

Are you looking for something to replace your Jenkem addiction?

If you don't like the site why don't you leave. You are like a dog beat it and beat it but it still comes back. You are such a jacka$s Dave.

Funny I thought the fool was you Dave.

"...If you don't like the site why don't you leave."

Leave? No way Hollywood__.

Beta"News" needs me, and Joey, and "Dave". Without us stories like these will get 25 comments tops. With us, stories like this get 100+ comments. Look around the main page... it's true.

What a sad little world you live in where one can only be allowed to comment on things that everyone else agrees with... or that Ed wants you to agree with.

Maybe the jack@ss is you. You don't like what we have to say, don't read it. Or better yet, don't comment on it. So if I'm a jack@ss, then so are you my friend.

"Funny I thought the fool was you Dave."

Don't worry Hollywood, everyone is wrong some of the times. At least you know now.

"Without us stories like these will get 25 comments tops. With us, stories like this get 100+ comments."

So what...are you saying that you 3 are not only Sony shills, but Betanews shills too?

Seriously though, if you have a differing opinion...bring it. Debating the facts is fine; but what good is it, when you decide to take unfounded swipes at the person who wrote the article, just because they don't glorify the object of your fanaticism to your liking?

Shouldn't that be "After a year of trying, the Blu-ray camp finally catch up to SOME of HD DVD's features."? Don't forget, BR still doesn't have the ability to take advantage of any web-interactivity, like HD DVD does. And exactly how many movies are out, right now, that take advantage of profile 1.1's features?

It's about time that BR can do PIP without needing a second encode of the film with the window over top of it.

To be fair, though, I prefer the PS3's Divx implementation to the 360's...

the king of grammar has spoken :)

hi dave/steve/ben

or dropped on his head about a dozen times :)

And some people are wrong all of the time. *Looks at Davernz33*

Whoa! That's where the the smell of a$$ is coming from. Close your mouth for a second Davernze33, so that I can breathe.

Agreed, his smug is damaging my breathing air.

I would much rather see 25 comments than 100 comments filled with the Sony cheerleaders BS.

Slapdown ...

seriously ... I bet hes sulking in the corner right now.

to sulk would be to admit defeat, and how can you lose when you bend the laws of reality to your choosing

One of the reasons for a shortage in production a few months back was a lack of available drives by their supplier. This has had a chain reaction up to and including this holiday season.

Not saying this is the explanation to the story above, just something that hasn't been mentioned.

They also forecast demand 5 months in advance, so clearly they gave too much weight to competition when making their calculations (gamma ratio etc. All depends on what method they used to forecast).

Regardless, it's incredible how much demand there truly is for this console. Some economists may come on here and say it's well below its equilibrium price - but either way it's good to see the small guy kicking Sony and MS's asses.

Who in their right mind would want a Wii when you can get a superior PS3 for a game system?

It looks like some 14 or so million people would rather have a Wii than a PS3. So much for you begin smarter than anybody.

Almost 17 million actually. Thats in just 1 year... something tells me that that PS2 record will be broken is less time that it took the PS2 to achieve 100 million REPLACEMENT PS2's.

3DO was very powerful and revolutionary, guess what happens to them?

Wow even better. I would love to Sony get beaten this time around. If MS falters there is the big N to catch and I don't see that happening anytime soon. Kudos to Nintendo for making a game system that appeals to the masses instead of a bunch of fanboys.

I suppose the people who want a Wii are the same types of people who would rather have an IBM PC jr computer instead of a superior Windows Vista computer with an Intel Core 2 Quad Core CPU. This pretty much sums up how inferior the Wii is to the PS3.

1. The Wii is less expensive.
2. The Wii makes the game play more interactive
as opposed to the mindless button mashing
that everyone is accustomed to. The
"superior" graphics of the PS3 mean nothing
if the game play sucks.
3. The PS3 is just not family friendly for those
that have younger children.

Sega Saturn as well...

but then again there's a LOT of people who calls Vista is s***ty.

Not me, I use Vista with QCore and I still got a wii.

Hey, com'on wii is cheap.
It's like worth as much as what I eat in three days.

*laughing*... let's see, shall we?

Lower price point, better selection of ORIGINAL games, major innovations in terms of getting people off their a$$e$ and actualy participating in something... If nothing else, the lower price point and more kid friendly games is enough to purchase the Wii over the 360 or PS3.

Funny, I don't see anyone claiming that the Wii was superior to the PS3 in any way except for the items mentioned above. If you are referring to merely graphics and pure horsepower, well of course the PS3 is better but it has a higher price that the cost wary family may not be ready to put down on an entertainment unit. But of course, the Sony fanboys will never concede to that.

Like I have mentioned countless times, the PS3 may be a powerful system but the games are just not there. Who really cares if you have a race car if there is no track to race it on. There is nothing on the PS3 that is out right now that the 360 can not do. And as far as the Wii goes I will take an average looking game that is fun to play over a visual master piece as they call Lair any day. Again what good is a killer system if it just sits there playing downloaded games. Some games are starting to come out that look intersting but not enough.

well if your running vista x64, ten yea, I think i will take the jr, cause this crap really isnt that much more superior...

Hmmm...let's see...

Cost, innovation in game play, a library that has a little bit of something for everyone (rather than just the hardcore gaming crowd), virtual console, true backwards compatibility with the Gamecube...and the best reason: it's just plain fun to play.

and the Dreamcast...

The only reason that there aren't very many games for the PS3 is because developers are either lazy or too cheap to create top quality games with great graphics and sound.

The only Sega game systems worth buying were the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis (without the 32-bit add on). Sega should have taken the money used to create the Saturn and Dreamcast hardware and put it towards software for other game consoles.

And the Atari Jaguar.

Ha ha. That one was pretty good.

Bingo! It also looks like it's going to be that way for a while too. Developers would rather make more money with the systems that are selling more. I'd be lazy too if I knew I wasn't going to make as much money as I could be making.

Funny how the Dreamcast has a very large fan base to this day. Very popular after how many years. I guess their goes your little theory of the Genesis being the only good system by Sega. In fact I saw someplace recently that a new Dreamcast game was released.

Call it what you will there is still a void when it comes to games. Unlike you the rest of the population buys a video game system that has games. Last time I checked that is what a video game system is for. I guess Sony expected crap games so they covered their as$ with an average at best blu ray drive.

*laughing (yet again)*

Developers have nothing to do with it... we would code some amazing games for any of the consoles were we allowed to. It's the game studios that dictate what gets produced and what doesn't. The fact that the PS3 doesn't really have any good games is due to the fact that the studios aren't seeing the attach rate climb at all. What good is it to put millions of dollars into a game when the console that you are targeting has a horrible attach rate and has done even worse in overall sales.

At least with the Wii, studios know that the attach rate is climbing and chances are that a good game produced for it will bring in profits.

Finally, as for being lazy or cheap? The PS3 SDK is what causes most of the tension in developers. Sony has made the PS3 SDK so difficult to work with that simple things like rendering a rag-doll effect as opposed to a canned animation is extremely difficult (and yes, I do speak from experience).

its not difficult, it's advanced

I dont think Nintendo would be making billions in profit by drip feeding supplies to customers!!!!!!!!!!!

Well make more and the problem will go away.

Count me as one of those who looked into the Wii late last year, visiting various retail shops, then just gave up. I just assume I'll pick it up used a few years from now...

Check ebay :)

I got mine at Target. If I remember right I think they get the shipments on Sunday or Monday. But don't quote me on that.

Why would I pay $100-$200 more for a device I have no warranty with/don't know history of?

"Nintendo: Wii shortages are hurting our business"

LOL, are people idiots? This is just another press release to bolster the Wii sales.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS. YOU DRIP FEED SUPPLIES, PEOPLE THINK YOUR PRODUCT IS DESIREABLE, IT MUST BE RIGHT?? "YOU CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE"..

Wrong.. Nintendo realised the Revolution was not very revolutionary at all, merely a revamped Gamecube, with a new controller. Desperite times, so the marketing plan of all marketing plans came into action, limit supplies, just enough to meet demand, but no more, just before xmas, make supplies dry up, make people frenzy and kill for your goods, who cares how crap it is...

You have to be an idiot to fall for it.. I mean come, on, it's been a whole year, and Nintendo still can't seem to manufacture the Wii, despite having no problems filling the shelves a few years back with it's near identical predecessor..

I don't see Nintendo selling Wii for $1K, I see it selling to retail at it's normal price. I don't see how Nintendo is benefiting here. If they charged more, perhaps, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Your such an idiot.

Nintendo makes money off software sales just like your beloved PS3 does.

Of what gain is it to Nintendo to not sell more consoles, which in turn means less software sales?

"and Nintendo still can't seem to manufacture the Wii"

Thats interesting
www.vgchartz.com

Somehow your implying that they aren't outselling your beloved PS3, but in fact they have sold MORE THAN DOUBLE the amount of PS3's sold.

What an idiot you are just mad that it isn't the PS3. Calling this a game cube shows your ignorance. But we do find you funny so keep it up Dave.

Don't forget that Nintendo also makes a profit on hardware as well. The Nintendo heads have made it quite clear that they intend to manufacture/sell hardware in such a way as to still make a profit off of it. Remember that the Gamecube was a profitable piece of hardware for Nintendo (though I really don't know how!?!).

Nintendo does things differently, unlike MS and Sony, who both takes a loss on hardware sales to hopefully make up for it in software licensing. Wasn't it just this past year that MS' games division actually started turning profit?

And IMHO, I think this Wii shortage is actually due to Nintendo's inability to properly forecast hardware sales. Who knew it would be this popular a year later? And yes, they can just "build more factories", they definitely gots the dough. But once demand drops off, you're gonna have wasted $$$ opening all the extra factories that you're now gonna have to spend more $$$ in closing...

Drip feeding supplies, you say? If you call a console that has been able to demolish its competitors month in and month out while Nintendo continues to produce and subsequently sell out of 1.8 million units a month drip feeding, then you might have a point. However, I don't think any sane individual would consider 1.8 million on a monthly basis drip feeding, unless you believe that the NPDs are in league with Nintendo, where they would somehow only make it appear that Nintendo was crushing its over-priced competitors on a monthly basis? Sony implemented your plan with the launch of the PS2. Look into it.

just noticed not a single ps3 game on any of the vgchartz lists... it must be hard for dave to wake up every morning trying to come up with some reason why his ps3 is the greatest thing ever...

I think the biggest reason they don't expect demand is so damn hight. Just look back in the generations after SNES, they don't sell much.

This apply to PS3 as well, Sony think PS3 will sell better than PS1 and PS2. If not as well, at least match it. Of course, we know the biggest problem with PS3 is games, which it has next to none. It's only been out a year.

It is a gamecube, do some investigation, gamecube in a new box, with a new controller.

It really is as simple as that. Why would Nintendo have production problems a full year later, unless of course they realised that having empty shelves and monitor stock VERY closely, meant large sales, with no substance.

You should be thankful, less space used on shelves for the Wii gives plenty of room for the PS3s to pick up dust. Poor Wii's don't even make it off the UPS truck and their already sold... as for the PS3... well, you know.

"Remember that the Gamecube was a profitable piece of hardware for Nintendo (though I really don't know how!?!)."

Interestingly enough, the GC is still making Nintendo profits. For a pure gaming machine targeted at the younger audience, the GC is unbeatable. Very few games are rated above T and most of the games are simple enough that a 3 year old can play them. Add to that the fact that GC is deam near indestructable (my 5 year old has dropped it, hit it, scratched his disks all to hell, jumped on the controllers, etc and the damn thing keeps going. Did I mention that we have had this GC for going on 6 years now?!?).

Hell, they don't even bother locking up PS3s inside the glass cases anymore (no need). There's stacks of them sitting on the floor in the isles of our local Best Buy.

People camp in parking lots waiting for the UPS truck to come to Gamestop and EBgames in hopes of landing a Wii. They sure are not there for a PS3. People in my office are looking for Wiis with no luck. Others are buying the 360 not one has mentioned that they bought or are going to buy a PS3. So sad.

Funny you mention the toughness of the system I actually ran mine over with the car and it still worked like normal. My wife dropped it and didn't see it on the pavement until it flew out from under the car after being run over. I was amazed that it still worked. The case had some pretty serious gouges but besides that all was good.

And it's still outselling the PS3 by quite a bit. That's the sad part.

lol, exactly... my son dropped it "by accident" from our second story landing... after about a 15 foot drop, the damn thing still works and works flawlessly! Talk about the zombie gaming machine, you just can not kill a GC!

Personally, I think the sucess of the Wii is great. I am very happy to see the smaller Nintendo come from behind with the Wii and knock the much larger Microsoft and Sony on their tails with a very creative and very innovative new product. Nintendo gambled wih the Wii and gambled big. That gamble paid off huge for them.

It is good to see the "little guy" win big, in a way NO ONE expected through gutsy innovation and creativity. I think the sucess of the Wii, even with the shortages, is a big wake up call for the video game market in general. Microsoft and Sony had completely forgotten what true innovation was until the Wii reminded them.

For all intents and purposes, the Wii is the iPhone of the video game industry. Nothing like a little "disruptive technology" to shake things up and make things interesting again.

Now the fun part really begins: watching how Microsoft and Sony will respond to the run away success of the Wii with their next generation of game consoles.

I bet there is a TON of re-thinking/re-designing going on inside of both Microsoft and Sony as they try to figure out how they are going to repspond to, and try and catch up to, the Wii.

+1

(no reason to echo everything you just said, I think you said it perfectly)

Not that I disagree with what you said but the iPhone isnt revolutionary. The marketing of it is, but the phone isn't.

Give me GPS, slide out keyboard, more than 8gb memory (or allow miniSD), removable battery among other common features a phone of that price would come with then I might call it revolutionary.

another M$ drone Apple hater. There is no phone like the iPhone....not even close. The iPhone is a _very_ revolutionary device.

POS

Another Apple zealot. Sign..

Wait, I withdraw that, he IS always an Apple zealot.

lol, you're serious?

Except for the neat touch interface the technology seems to be limping 3 years behind on all fronts. Maybe v2 will cut it but then again I still want a real keyboard.

You're an iPhool.

The iPhone is just another shining example of Apple charging more for a product that does less.

Where's custom ringtones? How about instant messaging? Flash in Safari? Multimedia texting? A way to save old text messages when the memory gets too full? A user-replaceable battery? What about an easy way of transferring hundreds of address book entries from another phone / SIM card? How about fixing the volume on the built-in speakers for a change? It's pathetic trying to show someone a YouTube clip and they can't even hear the damn thing...

Most of the features that the iPhone lacks should be incredibly trivial to implement... features that phones half its price have been able to do for years.

Apple products have never been about what you can do... it's how you do it.

By the way, they should package little bottles of glass cleaner with that piece of crap. It would see daily use. Better yet, they could just sell them separately... guaranteed to sell for $30 if there's an Apple logo on it.

Can that I phone connect to an Exchange server? Didn't think so. A professional will pass on that piece since most organizations use Exchange. You'll hate that since you cry when ever the MS name comes into play. Like it or not they rule the corporate business model.

Funny I didn't recall any mention of MS in his post pit$ingo. What a troll.

+1

Second that

Um has no one here heard of the Voyager From LG? Touchscreen and Full keyboard, i think it's much better then the iphone!

LOL, you cannot be serious ?

Actually, not quite. Smart Phones have had touch screens for years... and still do more than the iPhone.

Pitdingo2??? What happened to your other account? Did you forget your password or something? It was AppleIsMyGayLover remember? *No offence to gays. Sorry.

that account no longer lets me post. i can log in, but that is it. I guess M$ Beta News does not like anyone speaking the truth about the crappy M$ cloned products out there.

Trolls will be trolls. You always dance on cue lol

Thats what you get out of anti-Apple trolls. They always have a blind eye to reality. Ever heard of Time's device of the year? lol

bwahahahahaha, now that is probably the stupidest and most ignorant fanboy comment yet. lol@fanboytard

SAP is implementing iPhones into their core apps... Guess you got owned on that. Sucks to be you.

Just goes to show that Apple haters will do anything to spout their fanboy agenda...

This is a Wii thread. You must have MS wayyyy up your azz to keep dancing around like a monkey like that lol! kepp it up...i love it. You are my entertainment. Dance monkey dance!

i heard it was lame in person, but i've definitely been eyeballing it. i need something to replace my bunk outdated sidekick 3 and it damn sure wont be an outdated slide or lx

Speaking the truth I guess that leaves you since you are about as clueless as they come. Well next to Dave, wait that is you.

News to me. Sucks to be you, what ever there jagoff.

exchange support will come with the sdk i bet. pop, imap, webmail > exchange

Does not make it any good.

Fanboy comment?!? I'm sorry to say that's a fact. Smart phones have had touch screens for years. Have they not? So what excatly does that make me a fanboy of? Palm, Microsoft and all the manufacturers of smartphones? Ok, whatever you say.

if i were them i would rather have the issue of to much demand vs no game support or major failure rates like the other guys....

Nintendo should be *happy* as a clam that their products are actually flying off the shelves. Sony and Microsoft would be *happy* if their items were doing the same thing...

I dont exactly understand why they are having such shortages. The console is very simple vs more complex systems that have high end components like the 360 and PS3. The Wii is a very low budget computer with a pretty plastic casing, thats it. Its not like it uses exotic processors like the triple-PPC processor of the 360 or the cell processor of the PS3. The Wii ATI graphics chip is generic at best and costs next to nothing. They should be able to crank out Wii's at a rate even faster than low budget computers.

Coz they probably skimping on everything to max profits :)

True...

Try sacking the PR people. Spend their wages on more manufacturing equipment.