Whether or not you've been able to find Wiis in stores as of late, the holiday season is a completely different beast. Even now, in July, company president Satoru Iwata can't promise that there will be enough Wiis stocked to meet demand this Christmastime. If Wiis are scarce, this will be the third holiday season in a row that people in the U.S. and UK have had difficulty locating the console.
Iwata promises that the company is doing everything in its power to avoid this situation, and is on schedule to develop 2.4 million units for 2008 by the end of the year.
We can imagine only that some other Nintendo stock (we're looking at you, Wii Fit) will be a nightmare to find this holiday season, too.
Not that it wasn't a great year, don't get us wrong, but as far as new games go, the year is ending without a single new release available. This means that we're forced to look to any holiday gifts we may have received or, well, something far worse: no games at all. This is the last weekend of 2007, how are we supposed to end the year without any new games to play?
Enough about us, how will you be sending out 2007? What will you be playing? Any new Wii owners ecstatic to have their first weekend with their console?
Nintendo did some good things for popular online retailer Amazon.com this holiday season, as its Wii console sold at a rate of 17 consoles per second. Of course, this only pertains to when the console was actually available for purchase, which wasn't all that often. This all contributed to a very lucrative holiday season for the retailer, which experienced its strongest sales on December 10th. Then, it sold 5.4 million items, which comes to about 62.5 items per second.
It may not be the Wii version of Guitar Hero, but it's certainly something worth recognizing, regardless. Turns out, some savvy folk decided to sync a loose collection of colored Christmas lights to the colored fret buttons in Guitar Hero, allowing for quite the display. It reminds us of those other Christmas lights.
We know there must be a few new Wii owners out there taking a break from their video game playing to research their Christmas console. While there are a number of routines you can practice to ensure your system's longevity, please remember to keep these three things in mind:
If you expose it to the light, you may hurt it
If you get it wet, it will multiply
Most important, no matter how much it begs, never, never let it eat after midnight
If none of this makes any sense to you, or if you just want to relive your 80s youth, peek past the break for a video explanation.
Well Mr. Cat, we'd like to take some time to see how most are celebrating their Christmas. Is that okay with you? Great!
With the Wii so damn tough to hunt down still, we figured we'd ask how some of you lucky folk to receive one, as well as those of you who already own it, are utilizing it in your holiday celebration. Hit up the poll below and let us know!
For a lot of you out there, today is Christmas. It's a big holiday here in the United States, where Wii Fanboy HQ is located. Many strive for the Norman Rockwell holiday, with family and food and fun all around. As we spend much of our day with our families, we're going to take a more relaxing schedule today regarding the site, so you won't see the full onslaught of Wii news from us. So, check us out as much as you can today, but also give your family the attention they deserve.
From all of us here at Wii Fanboy, we wish you a happy and safe holiday. Thanks for reading and taking the time to be a part of the community we have tried to build here. We appreciate everything you bring to the site each and every day.
Posted Dec 24th 2007 7:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Nibris has released their long-awaited Sadness... Christmas card. Proving that somebody does something relating to Sadness occasionally, Nibris sent this Sadness-themed Christmas card to GoNintendo. "Merry Christmas and Happy Sadness," it reads, as a grey thing leans on a giant ball ornament with the Sadness logo. At least we think that's what's happening -- there's either a 'noise' effect applied to the whole image or it's just a really easy Magic Eye picture.
If this was the game, it would be out now. Maybe Nibris should change their plan and release Sadness as a small collection of holiday greeting cards, instead of their overambitious plan to release a video game.
Ah, can you smell that? That's the sweet, sweet aroma of a thousand eBay scalpers' plans going up in smoke. Yep, it looks like the bubble has well and truly burst for those hoping to make fat profits from the Wii on eBay, at least here in the UK. Scottish tabloid The Daily Record reports that the consoles are now going for as little as £147 ($290) on the auction site, a full £33 below the retail price.
A heart-warming bit of news for sure, though those Brits who drove/caught the train/swam to France may be regretting their decision now.
We're always happy to hear about someone getting in on the Wii experience for the first time. New adopters who might have been turned away from gaming at one point in the past or are in on the activity for the first time warm our heart, because it shows the impressive power of the console. But, what was that we said about hunting one down?
Columnist Mark Morford works for the the San Francisco Gate and recently did something he's never done before: got up at the crack of dawn to track down a Wii. He got in line at his local Best Buy to get a system and, sure enough, he got one. It wasn't just for him, but for his little sister. Such a selfless act can only make us appreciate the fellow more.
What was great about this particular story is that despite it being so close to Christmas, and the Wii's unavailability still, the line was full of friendly and calm people. There wasn't any of the crazy Black Friday stampeding or selfish shoving in line, but people who had come to experience something wonderful. Playing is believing, sure, but these stories make us believe in something else: humanity.
Have any of your experiences in hunting down a Wii been different?
Posted Dec 7th 2007 11:15AM by Eric Caoili Filed under: News
Unable to meet current demand for the Wii this holiday season, Nintendo UK has decided to step back its advertising, replacing its promotional spots for the console with ads for the Nintendo DS instead. Despite ramping up its production and manufacturing a reported 1.8 million Wiis a month, Nintendo still has yet to overcome its stock shortage troubles in Britain.
A spokesman for the company remarked, "We have been running the campaign all year round, but we want to take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand." Essentially, it'd be cruel to wag the system in front of consumers who have no hope of buying a Wii anytime soon. Nintendo plans to reinstate its marketing push "when the Christmas rush is over."
'Tis the season for giving and so forth, so here's a cockle-warming story regarding one child's altruism.
Upon discovering his father was helping to assemble a toy collection for foster children, nine-year-old Brandyn Waterford decided to make his own contribution. However, rather than donating the usual motley collection of tattered cuddly toys, dog-eared comics, and crappy, half-baked games, Brandyn honorably surrendered his Wii, a birthday gift from his parents, to Agape Villages Foster Family Services.
"I decided to give away something I really like so another kid could have a really good Christmas," said the young benefactor. Awww, bless. Group hug, everyone!
Wired has posted a guide to getting a Wii before Christmas, and -- spoiler -- no matter how you do it, it's going to involve misery. Sorry, people trying to buy Wiis! There are holiday Wii giftgivers among the Wii Fanboy staff (naturally), so believe us when we say we sympathize. Whether getting to a store early Sunday morning to buy out someone's place in line, or reconnoitering the store to determine their shipment schedules, the message is clear: the Wii may be the cheapest console available, but you'll pay for it in time.
Or, the article reminds us, you can pay for it in the more traditional manner: by paying for it. We hate the idea, but you could always suck it up and pay the premium to buy a Wii from some jerk on eBay.
At the very least, Chris Kohler's guide gives you hints about which stores to avoid (the specialty game retailers we generally avoid anyway). It's worth perusing if you're a Wii hunter.
Ah, Christmas -- the holiday that seems to start earlier and earlier every year. By the time we're all old enough to start talking about how much better games were in "our day," the Christmas season will be starting around July. But this time, it's hard for us to complain about early holiday merchandise, since it's all covered with Mario! A GoNintendo reader spotted these -- as well as a sweet Christmas tree ornament -- at GameStop, and we just couldn't resist the idea of Mario stockings hung by the chimney with care.
In an interview with The Mercury News' Dean Takahashi and Mike Antonucci, Nintendo of America president (and t-shirtsubject) Reggie Fils-Aime assured us all that there'd be tons of Wiis forthcoming this holiday season.
"The good news is we're flowing more and more product into the marketplace, and the amount of Wii hardware that will be in North American stores will be unprecedented-- substantially more than the launch, substantially more than has been seen to date," Reggie told "Dean & Nooch."
But don't start clearing warehouse space for Wii forts yet, Toys R Us employees: "The bad news is that given the level of demand, and given the fact that the more we put in, the more we sell, it is still gonna be difficult to get hands on the Wii."
Which, of course, means that you still need to do a bunch of legwork to get a system. Reggie suggests calling retailers, figuring out shipment dates and times, and basically the same kind of stuff we all had to do to get our Wiis over the last year.
We know there must be a few new Wii owners out there taking a break from their video game playing to research their Christmas console. While there are a number of routines you can practice to ensure your system's longevity, please remember to keep these three things in mind:
Ah, can you smell that? That's the sweet, sweet aroma of a thousand eBay scalpers' plans going up in smoke. Yep, it looks like the bubble has well and truly burst for those hoping to make fat profits from the Wii on eBay, at least here in the UK. Scottish tabloid The Daily Record reports that the consoles are now going for as little as £147 ($290) on the auction site, a full £33 below the retail price.
Unable to meet current demand for the Wii this holiday season, Nintendo UK has decided to step back its advertising, replacing its promotional spots for the console with ads for the Nintendo DS instead. Despite ramping up its production and manufacturing a reported 1.8 million Wiis a month, Nintendo still has yet to overcome its stock shortage troubles in Britain.
'Tis the season for giving and so forth, so here's a cockle-warming story regarding one child's altruism.
