Nintendo Wii Fanboy

i have some friends who have pre-ordered one but still are waiting.

i (almost) didnt know anything about the wii when i walked in to a store in this small norwegian town and asked "so, have you started selling these.. Wii-thingies yet? oh you have.. do you have one now?" and the guy was totally surpriced that they actually did have a couple in stock when i asked. so i figured i should buy it, try it and sell it after the weekend if i didnt like it. well.. i liked it.

it was freaking expensive though. and the same chain of stores were caught taking out the wii sport game and selling those seperatly before christmas(!) they are total bastards.

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I've had a Toys-R-US employee laugh when I asked about the Wii. That was abou a month ago. The night I got mine walmart was expecting 18 in at midnight. All 18 were sold in an hour. And this is in rural Tennessee, so go figure.

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Sony likes to take the fact that the Wii is so hard to find and spin it to their advantage. They say that it's because Nintendo isn't doing anything to increase supply and get more units on the shelves. They also say that they're doing a great job at that and that's why PS3s sit unsold on store shelves all over the country.

However, we all know this is a bunch of crok. The reason the Wii is still hard to find is because it's popularity is like a snowball rolling down a hill. It just keeps getting larger and larger. And even though Nintendo is pushing out more and more units, there's no way they can keep up with the unprecedented demand the Wii is seeing.

And the reason the PS3 is sitting on store shelves is because......are you ready for this......no one wants them.

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I'm very glad I took a week off work to look for a Wii. Ok, so I actually took a week off work to visit out of state family for Christmas, but still. If I had to work all week and track down a Wii, I'd go nuts.

In fact, I did just that for the whole month of December - went crazy just trying to find one. Which is annoying because I've never EVER wanted a console so soon after launch before the Wii.

I don't see them in stock anywhere, but I do come across controllers now and again. Usually at the oft overlooked Kmart nearby.

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I'm in upstate South Carolina -- the systems are still sold out everywhere. I bought mine at the first launch in November, and i got an extra wiimote. I have yet to find a second nunchuk, and some stores are even sold out on the classic controllers. If I were made to guess as to when the shortage would end here, I would guess by the end of April.

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I got one about a month ago. Took me about a week of calling every Gamestop and EB Games(9 Stores total) in my hometown. Now, I have become obsessed with finding the console. So far I have found one for a friend and for my brother. i go wherever whenever, buy it and have them reimburse me for the purchase. I know Im a dork....love it or hate it.

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I waited for 3 hours on launch day to get mine. There were 59 in the Walmart I was waiting at and I was number 54. I just recently took mine to my mothers house for her birthday and she is hooked. I think I will be waiting in a line up again seeing how they are dissapearing as soon as they are stocked.

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http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/8052/nowiiyr1.jpg

always appropriate :)

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I got mine this week ordered from amazon, I had signed up with nowinstock.net to get an email alert when amazon had some and set up a gmail filter to forward the email alert to my phone. Doing this I was informed fast enough to grab one in the few minutes they were available, I was just lucky to be close to a computer at the time. With any luck this will work for any reading this.

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I got mine at Target. I just started calling all of them in town (Rochester, NY). One woman just told me, "You have to call everyday between 8:00 - 9:00AM. We don't care if you call everyday." They finally knew that they would be getting them on a Sunday and that people would be standing in line before the store opened and they would hand out numbers. So I go in line and was #9.

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I don't understand why stores don't just take names and give out their shipments first-come first-served. This lottery-style system where you get one if you happen to show up when they open the box is pretty stupid. Even if the list winds up with a thousand people on it, it would at least give people an idea of when they can get theirs. It's not like it would cost e.g. EB or CC anything to run the system that way, and I feel like it would be more fair.

Of course, I got mine from Costco on launch day, but I feel for those who are still looking.

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I live in Tennessee too, and I just raided 22 stores today with no success. I'm going to try again on Sunday, but I have to go with a friend, so we'll be looking for two Wii, and that's probably gonna turn out bad. At least I made a EB Games employee laugh by explaining to him how Sony is directly responsible as the reason I can't get one.

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I bought mine on launch day. Though I stupidly didn't preorder it on the original preorder day. I realized my stupidity and began my search in November to see if any stores had any preorders left and much to my dismay, there was nary a one. Maybe a week before launch I walked into a Gamecrazy (Chicago) and asked the question which I already knew the answer to, but figured what the hey. The clerk behind the register laughed and said no. I died a little bit on the inside, but was resuscitated...cont'.

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by my Wii angel, Jen. She heard my desire and came to my rescue. Being the manager she knew things the vacuous clerk did not. She was keeping one available in case of a problem. She told me the news, we laughed, we cried, I put down 50 dollars. Launch day came around and lo and behold no problems with the preorders... I had myself the gaming innovation that will save humanity.

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Oh, I also just bought one of a guy from Craigslist yesterday for my niece and my sister. The posting said "Practically brand new Wii w/ receipt. Played less than 5 hours $250.". I was wary but I replied and he seemed trustworthy. I took his word for it when he assured me it worked. So I drove out, made the exchange, came home tested it out and all was good! I checked the Wii playing time on the calendar and he wasn't lying. 4 hours and 58 minutes of playtime logged on the Wii. I can't wait to give it to my niece!!!

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Southern Connecticut shoreline, here.

After passing the Wiiless Walmart game display case almost every week since launch day, my head almost snapped off as I did a double-take on Monday afternoon during a lunch break.

There it was sitting in the case all by itself.

So, with great financial risk to myself, I clung like Spiderman to the case until a worker came by and scraped me off and removed it from inside it's glass prison for me.

That same evening, another anxious guy I work with was inspired by my find and hit another store in the area that evening -- and discovered TWO of them sitting there. I figured the odds of that were pretty slim, and assumed that the drought was over. Guess it was just a right-time/place thing. :)

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No, I still can't find a Wii. I have games and an extra wii-mote, but no system. I haven't been able to find even 1 nunchuk and I am starting to get really depressed about the whole situation. I agree with James about having stores keep a list and call people or better yet, just let me pay for the damned thing and tell me when it comes in. That way at least i would feel like I would eventually get one. Heavy sigh.

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I live in the Texas hillcountry where the style is cowboy hats and the local pastime is cattle rustling. Fortunately in late January, the only Super Walmart within 50-60 miles had Wii consoles in stock. Luckily, nobody 'round here cares about playing with something cowboys do in the bushes, so I grabbed one easy.

If you live near Brenham, there aren't any Wii consoles, but there are 5-7 Wiimotes, 3-4 Nunchucks, and 2-3 Classic controllers. I haven't seen them lower in number in a long time, so there is no rush.

---Germ

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Here in Chile, there's a single store with Wiis available. It still has Wiis available. Maybe it receives units every 2-3 weeks, so it doesn't sold out [Although in November that happened really fast].

It's the only store in Chile I KNOW has Wii units.
In my city, only 2-3 Wiis arrived around December... Of course, they are in some guy/girl's house right now ^^

No, I still don't have a Wii. But it's a money problem, not a stock problem, as I said.

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Had some great luck asking for help from store employees, calling promptly on their delivery days and quickly getting myself to the store location for purchase. But in the end, a call from my friend -- employed by a national electronics retailer -- enabled us to get our hands on 1 of their 60 Wii consoles they received that morning.

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Mann...I bought mine about 3 weeks ago. They are stockpiled here where I live (Germany). They are just lying around waiting for a new owner.

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hey #5 you should come up to Charlotte. I was just at Circuit City last week and they had tons of controllers for the Wii. Since I got my Wii at Target about a month ago I haven't seen them available, but I've seen lots of controllers.

Target had a sweet Wii tracker, but for some reason took it down. That's how I got mine.

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I was able to grab a Wii last Wednesday. I've been trying since January with iTrackr, but they would still sell out within 10-15 minutes of being put on the shelf. Finally, it worked and I was in the right place at the right time. We now have the Wii running through a projector. Mmmmmm Wii Tennis and Zelda on a 100" screen. Life is good.

Based on people's reaction to the Wii (and even those who aren't gamers) this thing is going to get even more popular, so I'd expect shortages for quite some time. I highly recommend iTrackr, though. Way worth the $1.99.

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I guess we can safely say that the Wii shortage wasn't a staged shortage by Nintendo to create hysteria during the Christmas shopping season. It's March and the thing's still impossible to find.

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I work at a GameStop, and I swear, we get asked about Wii shipments once every ten minutes. It gets kinda annoying, but the manager won't let us put up a sign.

In other news, we have plenty of PS3s. =P

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The other day I was at Best Buy and they randomly had a ton of Wii remotes and nunchucks in stock...too bad I didn't have any money with me.

I've had my Wii since the launch day(waited 15 hours in a super Wal-Mart in the shoe aisle) and I'm so happy I did that, because I don't know what I would be doing without that thing. I haven't seen anywhere that has had the Wiis in stock lately, though.

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Wii was the first console that I've actively sought out myself. Usually I just list it as a christmas/bday present that I want and let it go from there, but I just seriously WANTED it this time.

I would kinda like to hear an announcement from Nintendo about ramping up their shipments. I'd hate for them to wait another 3 months to make the announcement only to find that everyone gave up hope on looking for them.
Spread the Wii love people.

That and get to work on announcing some cool attachments for the Wiimote, darn it.

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Here in KC its a death zone. I haven't seen a Wii since I was tipped off to the shipment at the Target where I landed mine.

Wiimotes and nunchucks are also impossible to find, as is Wii Play.

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I got mine on CC.com about 3 weeks ago. I just visited this site every so ofeten during work: http://wii.yahoo.com/buyers-guide.

If you have a desk job you should be able to find one online using something like this.

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i just got mine this sunday at circuit city. they were sold out before they opened i got there at about 9 45 and i was number 15/18 it is crazy im glad that i got it and soon im going to start playing twilight princess

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Here where I live the country of Panama (a Latin American Country, where tha Panama Canal is) you still can get some wiis without problems, I got mine Dec. 24th. Today I have checked 5 stores and all had at least 2 wii's in stock. The price here is $299.99. What is difficult to find here is the wiimote and the nunchuck

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AUSSIE!!!

There are heaps of Wii's in Australia, or at least in Melbourne. 2 of my friends and I all got one on release day and my other friend just rolled in and bought one like 2 weeks ago, no worrys.

YAY!!!

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I was having a problem finding one where I am in Northwest Indiana. Everything is so spread apart, and I spent so much time driving that I figured that I might as well just buy one on eBay. If I had kept on going out when I could (that is on weekends and after 5 on workdays) I'd eat the extra money is gas pretty fast since everything here is scattered about. I ended up spending $320 including shipping, but it was worth not having to drive all over or call off work. Plus, I used Christmas money, so it was as if my grandparents bought it for me a month late.

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The funny thing is i got my Wii on launch and I got a second controller but i didn't find a nunchuk till about 3 weeks ago and checked every store i knew

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I was Wii-less, subscribing to the online Wii-finder feeds checking every store near me once a day. Then 3 weeks ago on Saturday night, I went into a really run down K-mart in my area to buy batteries. (I really wouldn't go there for much more.) Two feet into the store, I heard an overhead announcement, "Would the customer who wanted a Nintendo Wii come to customer service. " I ran over the 10 feet to the desk and asked if they had another. They had 4, I bought 1 and was home playing it in 5 minutes.

The clerk said on Saturday nights after 6 p.m. they put out the stock for the next week. I sent another friend there this past weekend at 6 p.m. and he got one too.

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