Nintendo Wii Fanboy

I walked into GameStop and got one on the spot in Chapel Hill, NC (although I don't live there anymore). This was about a month ago. I think I was fortunate, as the store had just received a shipment with some Wii's. Needless to say, I'm quite happy! Games and accessories are usually well-stocked.

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I was kind of on the edge about getting a Wii. I had gotten a PS3 for Chrismas and have enjoyed Resistance, MotorStorm, and Heavenly Sword, but the main reasons I got it were for Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy 13.

The reason I was on the edge about the Wii was because most of their games seemed to be minigames. Sure they had Zelda, but what else? Trauma Center? But Paper Mario sealed the deal for me and I wanted one. I called ALOT of stores in my area and asked alot of employees and they all either said no or check on Sunday. I remember one call on Saturday at a local Kmart:
Me: Do you have any Wii's?
Kmart: Yes, we have one in the back.
Me: Can I come and buy it?
Kmart: No.

But I ended up going to another Kmart 20 minutes before it opened and they had recieved a shipment of 9 Wiis. So it only took me 5 days to get a Wii fortunately. I keep offering advice to my friends, they all have 360's only, but they all want a Wii to because they all love Super Smash Brothers.

I still never see a Wii on a store shelf. But they have all the Wii Remotes and accessories. For the games, I have almost everything easily, which kind of surprised me because I thought Metroid would be nowhere. Although Mario Partty 8 took some time to find.

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Last weekend was the first time I had ever seen a store with one in stock (DC/Metro area). It was at a Target, but on Sunday, which I believe is when they get their shipments.

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I don't know anyone who is still looking for a Wii; those who wanted one got it and those who didn't want one are playing at it the houses of those who did get it. Though I do know of one person who did sell his Wii...

When I went to Best Buy the day after MP3C released there were 3 (three) stacked Wiis behind the counter (along with another stack of Brain Age 2 bundles). Those are the only systems I've ever seen in stock since I got my own back in January. The accessories are abundant, it's like there never was a shortage of those within the first three months of the Wii's release. And games are in good supply, as they've always been.

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I have still yet to see one on the shelves. I am in the Edmond/Oklahoma City, OK area.

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I still haven't seen a Wii in stores since I bought mine at launch. Best Buy is doing a big sale today, minimum 18 per store according to the ad.

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I just strolled into Future Shop and bought one of their 30 or 40 Wiis in the middle of the day.

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I got mine at Costco a few days after they came out (and a few days of constantly cycling between calling stores). But now I see them pretty regularly in target, gamestop, eb, etc., both in Cleveland and in New Jersey

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In the DC area they sell out within the day. I know a guy who's looking for one although he should get a cell phone first. I had taken NWF's advice when a Best Buy in the area had Wii in their Sunday flier back before Mother's Day. There are more Wiimotes, accessories etc available than before.

Now to head it off. This is not an artificial shortage. If Nintendo has been able to manipulate a shortage for 10 months, outselling the competitors worldwide, taking profit off everything; then damn it if they're even smarter and more powerful than the competitors.

The Wii is not simply two GameCubes duct-taped together nor is it simply a dressed up GameCube waggle-fied. Wii is actually thinner than the GCN, fits DVD sized games, has Wi-Fi, has a flash drive to store saves and games, has an online store, has a web browser, has complete backwards compatibility to GCN, has a market shifting revolutionary motion-sensing controller, has a memory cache in the Wiimote, has a speaker in the Wiimote, has rumble in the Wiimote, has a near infinite catalog of old games from many systems including former competitors, takes much less electricity wattage than the GCN, and has more powerful specs including memory cache for textures.

As for the manufacturing, say I want to create a life-size replica of the Titanic, the world's largest oceanliner, or a aircraft carrier. I would need so much steel, wiring, carpeting, light bulbs, plumbing, circuitry, fire suppression, and many technical details. In fact I would need so much steel it would be best to go for off the shelf instead of custom blend but still maintain quality otherwise it would cost twice to ten times more expense. I would need so much steel that it would easily dwarf entire nations' exports of steel so I have to buy them over a number of years from all the countries. And that's just the steel I need all sorts of other materials from carpeting and wiring to make the ship habitable and have a large work force for everything and keep up the quality or it'll just sink.


A simpler analogy is say I want to fiyah mah lazer. First I have to charge my laser to fire anything. Now demand for my laxer is very high so I have to keep firing. But if I don't stop firing so I can charge, I CAN"T fire them. I have to stop firing, charge, then I can fire again. If I don't charge I can't fire effectively. Nintendo is overwhelmed by the money printers they can't scramble enough chargers to fire their lazers.

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I'm from Spain, I follow us every day, Nice Blog.

Here we have several problems with some games like Paper mario or Resident Evil 4.

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I heard about SPM having problems in PAL. There's a suggestion to change to German for those freezing parts and then you can save and change the language back.

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@hvnlysoldr:
Shoop da whoop! ...that's actually not a bad analogy either.

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I walked into the Best Buy in Tallahassee, FL this morning and they had more Wii's that I had ever seen in one place. There was a huge pile of what must have been at least 100 systems in a little arena that they had set up for people to try out the system. It was a sight to behold.

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In Argentina it's easy to get Wiis and accesories, but the price is very high. Only some legit games are available: everybody uses pirated ones.

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Have never seen one in the South Bay Area in CA... (San Jose and surrounding areas).

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Living in upstate NY, I have yet to see a boxed Wii in ANY store with my own eyes.

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Since i wandered in on Boxing Day to pick up Wii Component Cables, GameStop has always had a stack of 2 or 3, since i went back for Sonic, Super Paper Mario, Pokemon, Strikers Charged, and MP3

Everywhere else in my area, i can't find them at all. Just today at K-Mart they were stocked with everything but Wii (but then again their demo station is still PS2-GC-Xbox and brags about The Thousand Year Door and Gran Turismo 3)

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i live in Southeast asia and the Wiis here are plenty. You get to pick between Japanese and US Wiis. Of course, most people are trying to avoid Japanese Wiis since, this country is an English speaking country.

Japanese Wiis are sold for around 300 US dollars with an extra remote and nunchaku and US Wiis are sold for around 450 US Dollars with a remote and nunchaku. Luckily I bought my US Wii off an auction site for 300 US dollars.

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We kept going back and forth to Game Stop, but they never had anymore. Of course the answer was no. Eventually we found a Wii at Wal-mart about 2 days ago...finally!

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I got my Wii on launch night, fortunately.

I live south of Boston and I can say that the stores here (Best Buy, Gamestop, etc) are usually always sold out of the console.

Controllers and games, however, are not a problem (with the exception of new releases sometimes).

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In Russia you can find a wii anywhere. In every computor related store. No one buys unchiped consoles here. Non-pirated games are too expensive for the most of us.

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I live in India and shipped the wii from Amazon UK last month. There is absolutely no supply of wii games here :( And don't know any international store which ships wii games to india :( Playing wii sports and the great VC games for now.

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I live in NYC and I've yet to see the Nintendo World store sans Wiis. Can't say that I've seen too many at the other stores but NWS is the way to go for anyone close to NYC.

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A friend of mine picked up two at a Gamestop in St. Louis on a Friday. They told her that they'd received the Wii shipment earlier in the week, as usual, but obviously still had a few in stock...

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Since mid-June, it's been fairly easy to get a Wii in New Brunswick, Canada... although you might have to check at more than one store because they still sell quickly. Games and accessories are rarely a problem either, although Wii Play will occasionally be out of stock.

Even better is news that most early Wii games have dropped significantly in price. Various titles that used to cost CAD $50 and now selling for $30 - a perfect price point for games like Rayman Raving Rabbids, Godfather, or Prince of Persia. Now if only Zelda would drop to $30 as well...
:)

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My friends finally got one. I got one at Mid-Night (November 19th, 2006) and my friends got one like 2 weeks ago. I see them in stock alot (Tulsa, OK) so I don't think there is a problem getting one here.

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@ ZagZagovich

(I know i'll hate myself for this later, being an afficionado of all things Russian myself, and having hated this routine, but...)

In Soviet Russia, Wii finds you!

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I live south of Atlanta and at the gamestop i worked in they are getting shipments every week. I've had friends find one by just going to the big stores every week and asking.

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Well, I've never seen a Wii on a store shelf in my life. Luckily, I put my name on a list for a Wii at Game Crazy a week or 2 ago, and 1 day later they called saying they'd got my Wii in. Game Crazy is AMAZING!!!!

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There were currently 8 Wiis in Wal-mart this morning. Looks like the Wii craze has died in the area.

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I'd have to say that where I live, stores have anything and everything... everythings pretty much a go, 69 degrees in weather, rainbows, everythings fine in wonderland... wiis galore.

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Pretty much good on everything in the Seattle area except for more quality games like MP:3...

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West coast Canada, Wiis are easier to find than before, but they still seem to sell out fast.

2 months ago, I saw Wiis at Future Shop & Wal-Mart. I went back to Wal-Mart the next norning to pick one up... all gone. I was kicking myself.

Wal-Mart has the best Canadian price; $15.00 less than MSRP. I haunted Wal-Mart a few days a week for about 2-3 weeks, finally came in on a day they got a shipment.

Since then, I have seen a few on the shelf at Zellers once. But I bet they get sold out in a day or 2.

As for accessories, the nunchuk used to be very scarce, but there's currently quite a surplus. (official) Game Cube controllers seem to be very rare right now though.

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I live in the Philadelphia area and Wii consoles are very rare. They do get them but they usually sell out as soon as the store opens. I know at a couple Circuit Cities they have to still hand out tickets when they get them in. Also the point cards seem to be in low stock since everytime I go to the store they only have 1 or 2 left. Besides that they have a lot of accessories and games in stock.

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Have only seen one or two Wii's since launch (got two myself, one for me and one for the family). I'm in the Baton Rouge area in Louisiana. I look around for them atleast once a week. The go quick and silently. Still know people looking around here so I keep an eye out.

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@FratKabula

There are plenty of places to get wii games in india. If your in delhi, go to khan market to or aurobindu market. The gift shop in khan market stocks PAL games and maya stores in aurobindu stocks both NTSC and PAL games.

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I saw at least one Wii in stock at Target last week (I think it was Thursday but I'm not positive). I've also seen them in stock at Costco on two separate occasions (but on visits to Costco in between those occasions, they didn't have them; it's pretty hit-or-miss). Other than that, they're still not generally available here (Albany, Oregon). I got mine back in January, off eBay, and I'm glad I did -- waiting until September would've driven me crazy.

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I think the supply is just fine :) (Sydney, Australia!)

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I'm in the Kansas City, MO area, and the only time I've seen them in the wild was at this run down Wal-mart back in April. Luckily, I was able to procure one at the beginning of August at another Wal-mart outside of town. They're still pretty f'ing hard to find as I've yet to see any since I got mine.

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Every time I go to Gamestop, peogle are just begging for a Wii, but the cashier keep saying they are out of them.

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As someone who works at Best Buy, all I can say that the shortage of the console is frustrating. It has been nearly a year, and I still see customers that have been trying to get one since launch come in every sunday trying to get one. (Saint Louis, MO). It used to be funny. Now it's just kinda sad. When I heard the big N bumped up production, I thought we'd get better shipments, but our shipment sizes have gotten smaller.

What's worse is the fact that we have so many of the accessories/games/point cards that it is rediculous.

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Here in the D.C. area they are still sold out everywhere. I was fortunate enough to get mine on launch day from Amazon, but otherwise I'd still be waiting. I know some people have been able to get them Sunday mornings at the Targets, Best Buys because that seems to be the delivery day. I've yet to see a Wii on the shelf anywhere, though.

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I grabbed mine at Zellers in the Toronto area about 6 weeks ago and it was no problem finding one. They have a pattern of getting two units in every Friday like clockwork. They are usually long gone by Saturday but in the past week or so I've been noticing them still there by midweek (they could be from another shipment for all I know).

Now all I need are some good "Wii" games....not VC stuff (I have 20 console systems so I own most of the VC stuff on the original systems) and no GC stuff (that's what my GC is for) and no crappy ports to just put a game out there.

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Don't think we've ever had a shortage in Australia :)

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We have about 5 wiis in stock in the Ponca City, OKlahoma Wal-Mart. They're not selling, or they have great in-stock here!

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no offense, but that previous "aircraft carrier/steel" & "laser" comparison was the most convoluted analagy i have ever read. Confusing, long, unnecessary. keep em short and sweet.

took me a while to find wii system in Washington D.C. area. Ample supply of games and accessories though. Done.

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I was just at a Best Buy south of Boston, and I saw four Wii's in stock. They were just there on the shelve, not locked up. I wonder why. I've been able to find games and accessories easily for about 6 months or so.

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I got to witness someone's ignorance and frustration first hand on Thursday night at a local GameStop. The guy was walking around the store and went to the cashier asking for a Wii. She looked at him like anyone else would, as a crazy person and explained that they never have them in "stock" and that they sell out within hours of arriving. He said he "had to" get it for his daughter, for her birthday. I just laughed to myself. My otherwise nice wife also laughed at him and said she took back everything about me standing in line on release morning. The guy then proceeded to ask the cashier / manager where he could get one. The girl just explained the situation and it was like seeing someone get told there is no Santa. It was definitely not the best news the guy heard that day. He has apparently been living under a rock since November, poor him.

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A few months back I was in NH and tried to help a friend find a Wii. We had to call/visit about 20 stores to finally find one. I've never seen one in Eastern PA when I visit there, nor in NYC with the exception of the Nintendo Store which had about 100 as of 2 weeks ago.

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I live in the Bronx....

Costco has a ton of wii bundles!!! i've never seen so many wii's! For those of u that hasnt gotten a wii yet... go to costco!

also every store has wiimotes and nunchuks. Game supply is also good.

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