Nintendo: Wii shortages are hurting our business

Just days after it revealed its raincheck plan for its Wii console, Nintendo came clean about recent supply shortages causing the company a lot of trouble.

The Redmond, Washington gaming company seems to have been grossly unprepared for the heavy demand its Wii console has generated among consumers. In turn, those supply issues are causing headaches among executives trying to plan the Wii's future.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Reuters in an interview Monday that without a clear understanding of the demand, his company is having a much tougher time planning out its strategy.

Possibly worse yet is that its DS consoles seem to be selling just as well, and some retailers have told Nintendo they are concerned they will not have sufficient supplies to last them through the holiday shopping season.

An astounding 1.5 million of those consoles alone were sold in November, continuing the Wii's dominance as the most popular gaming device in the industry according to data from NPD Group.

What you will not see from Nintendo is any kind of "bundling." Fils-Aime said that retailers have pressed for such offerings, but the company has refused because they believe customers should choose what they want and that it artificially raises the price of an already price-competitive console.

The first priority for the company is to deal with its supply and demand issues, and get it to a point where like the Xbox 360 and PS3, any time a customer walks into a retailer they would have a good chance of walking out with one of the much-sought after consoles.

After that, the company would be able to plan for its future, such as add-ons and the like. But it seemed from Fils-Aime's comments that he's not exactly sure when that planning would begin.