Evidence to suggest Wii demand is being played by Nintendo

Two leading UK publishing companies have posted the exact same article regarding Wii's selling for £500. Word for word the stories are exactly the same (with a different title) which suggests that someone has been distributing a press release on the matter, could that someone be Nintendo?

[Shadow Flare]

I've got a strong feeling that Nintendo is purposely holding back the wii consoles to give the appearance of being sold out everywhere. And this heightens the hype and demand for the console. So when it gets to christmas time, i reckon Nintendo will supply shops with a huge wupply of wii's that they've been holding back and they will sell tons

I mean, how freaking hard is it to make a wii console? It's a gamecube. If Sony can pump out enough ps3's that have tons of the latest tech inside them, then im sure nintendo could whip out nintendo wii's like it's nobody's business. I can't believe there has been such a short-supply. So basically i think nintendo is holding back wii's on purpose to increase demand, and then supply shops with a huge amount of wii's at christmas so they will sell tons. Just a theory

[Neurotoxin]

Whilst i agree that would be clever marketing by Nintendo, the flip side is they could lose potential customers buying the more readily available consoles. IF they put out false information about the actual amount of Wii`s available at Christmas then people will buy elsewhere.

My Dad bought a Wii 3 months ago, now he wants to get a PS3. On my advice he`s going to sell it over christmas. I expect him to get what he paid for it, even though it is second hand. Anyone spending £500 pound on a wii needs their heads examined. After Christmas you could buy a Wii + 360 or PS3 for the same price.

".....This is madness......"

"THIS IS CHRISTMAS....."

sorry i couldn`t help myself ;).

[unsunghero28]

Maybe I'll get a lot of disagrees for saying this, but that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Nintendo's not stupid. They're not going to intentionally lose customers to the competing consoles just so that people think the Wii is in higher demand than it really is. The truth is that they probably don't care when a Wii is sold- closer or further from Christmas- as long as it gets sold. Which, chances are, it will no matter when it is put on the shelf.

THAT logic is a perfect example of 360/PS3 fans who just can't accept that the Wii is beating their console(s) of choice.

[ItsDubC]

If the Wii is a GC, then surely you can list the internal components that are the exact same in both the Wii and the GC, right?

I can list some components that AREN'T the exact same, namely the CPU, GPU, motion-sensing control processor, Bluetooth chip(s), RAM, wifi chipset... wait, aside from the Wii's GC controller ports and memory card slots, are there ANY components that are the same in both the Wii and GC?

[Shadow Flare]

You're just nit-picking. Yeah i know the wii isn't specifically a gamecube. I know the graphics are slightly better. But for all intensive purposes...it's a freaking gamecube. It's as far away technologically from a ps3 as theMART is from having a social life. Point in case, the wii can't be difficult to manufacture, no where near as difficult as the ps3 is. So why can't they produce more consoles? I could even go as far as saying why the hell did the wii launch when the ps3 did? Gamecube was long dead/dying before, why didn't they launch along with the 360?

[PS360WII]

Well if you look at it in a long term sort of way you can see Nintendo is doing what they think best. You mentioned Sony is able to make enough PS3 to be fully in stock at all times but that's because 2 gens running they have sold 100 million. They know they need to make tons and tons of PS3 for some day they will sell...

Nintendo is doing business as usual and as everyone knows in the past 2 gens they haven't sold a boat load. Taking that in mind they produce what they seem fit for they don't want to overproduce and get left with a mass storage of bulk. 1.8 million a month is what they are making and have been making for some time now. How is it there fault that they didn't know they had THE product to buy two seasons in a row?

[Shadow Flare]

Yeah ok, i understand that but 2 letters, D S. The Nintendo DS has been very popular for a long time. Why? Cos Nintendo aimed at the casual market with it. The Nintendo Wii is again aimed at the casual market even more so. Nintendo knows that the casual market is where the big sales are, so they must expected high sales.

But ok, 1.8 million consoles a month. Ok, that's alot. But it's still not enough. So....make more! We know that Nintendo is a rich company, they seem to make money even if they're losing. So just buy more factories Nintendo and make more! I'm sure there are more complications to the story than that, but really, Nintendo is losing sales this way. They have the money so make more consoles

[ItsDubC]

The hardware differences between the Wii and GC may be what is slowing production - particularly the motion-sensing processor within the Wii. I can't really think of a time before the Wii's release in which those motion-sensing chipsets were in such high-demand, and all of a sudden 1.8 million of them are being pumped out per month.

I have no doubt that the PS3 is more difficult to produce than the Wii but I think Nintendo fears over-producing the Wii like they did w/ the GC.

Again though, this is all speculation.

[wiizy]

i bet if you dig a little deeper ...you'll find some sony money behind that article...please 14 million system in less then a year...there are shortages plain and simple...nintendo wouldnt have a chance to go 4 million ahead of the competition and not take so stop that fanboyish nonsense

[wiizy]

1400 system in 10 mns...enough said.

[gamesblow]

FACTS:

Wii is a gamecube in a new shell, with a new craptastic controller
Wii is dirt cheap and rightfully so... it's last gen hardware
Wii isn't in shortage. Nintendo is holding them back on purpose
Wii isn't hard to make... Nintendo made more than enough gamecubes last gen... This is all smoke and mirrors.

[rubarb23]

fact: wii sucks c0ck!

b!tch ass system sux. next gen = ps360

[ChickeyCantor]

" Wii isn't hard to make... Nintendo made more than enough gamecubes last gen... This is all smoke and mirrors.
"

GCN didnt sell you dumb@ass.

ugh there is no hope for the 2 of you, you will be great slaves to the anannukis.XD

[greenenvy]

i think the numbers are real and it is that popular, especially all over europe....

but i think nintendo plays it up as much as it can, to make it appear nintendo is the fastest selling....

its all public relations......all the time. and it works.....nintendo is dominating.

they just still don't got any games i need.......... >:-)

[MK_Red]

While I blame Nintendo for shortages and some other problems, I don't think the demand is fake. A lot of families want to have Wii for Xmass.

[carl ps3]

£500???????? Get a 60GB PS3 for £349.99(U.K)!!! It will last you longer to!!! ;-D

[scarlett_rg]

They're making 1.8 million Wiis a month (that's 41.6 Wiis every minute). (They sold 1400 in 10 minutes... that's 140 sales per minute.) And thousands of people are going home upset and Wii-less every day. There is NO WAY Nintendo would intentionally hold back so much supply that so many people won't be able to get one.

And it IS Christmas time (for those ignorant enough to suggest that they'll flood the market at Christmas time).

I'd like to know why there's 360 and PS3 fans in this thread bashing Nintendo. I'll tell you why... because they feel dumb for saying for so long how the Wii will die, and how it sucks. Meanwhile they're secretly frustrated that demand is so high that they're not able to pick one up for themselves!

Oh, and the "evidence" in the article is such fabricated BS that it's ridiculous! Keep grasping at straws fanboys. Keep grasping at straws.

[Thugbot187]

I think they are just trying to keep demand high, so the excitment doesn't die down. Think about it, when most people go in the store and you hear they have one Wii in stock you want to jump on it and buy it like it's some mythical creature. Honestly the Wii hasn't had only 5 games get a 9 and above while the rest average 5 and below....

[Darkiewonder]

It's a fact.
and they rather spend the billions of dollars in ads to make sure they get people to get interest in the Wii/DS even if there isn't any in stock.

[spectyre]

I to believe Nintendo is purposely tanking Wii production to create a shortage. It has been in demand for the last year and while it may be understandable at launch, there is no reason not to get your production increased to meet demand.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing... in fact it is quite a marketing phenomenon. And if history teaches us anything, the should make sure the shortage lasts because once they are plentiful, interest fades.

[Salvadore]

I have a strong sense that Nintendo are holding back the Wii's, but at the sametime it very irrelevant since Nintendo would lose consumers by using this method.

[BrotherNick]

This is where people should get past their pre-conceived biases and look for actual proof. I'm not saying they are or aren't, I'd just like more proof.

[Kwertie]

This happens a lot in the media. A good example is the tabloids. I forget which ones but it's probably The Sun and The Mirror, or Daily Star and sometimes they have identical articles, pretty much word for word too. I would guess it's something to do with it's produced by the same company or has the same writer or something