Nintendo Wii Fanboy

This holiday season will be the third for the Wii. GameStop (or, at least, one executive) has assured us that supplies will be much better this time. We've even seen Wii systems sitting in stores occasionally. Despite all this evidence, we've got a gut feeling that it's going to be as frustrating as ever to go buy a Wii.

What's your guess? Will it be easy to find a Wii this winter, or will buyers be out of luck -- or worse(?), subjected to the dreaded bundle? Will the raincheck make a return appearance?

Those purple folk at the GAME Group (a prominent games retailer) have released European sales details for the first half of 2008, and it's looking pretty good. Group sales are up 54 percent, with like-for-like sales up 28.4 percent. Like-for-like is such a dumb term. Reminds us of these things.

Anyway, despite the strong performance of the group as a whole, the constant shortage of Nintendo products has left a gap in the big fat bricks of cash they're raking in. Well, the UK and Ireland are doing okay, but international performance isn't as high -- "particularly in Spain." Those wacky Spaniards and their neverending lust for technology! Total international sales were up 43.9 percent, with like-for-like (arrgh!) sales on the low end of the scale at 16.9 percent.

GAME will be opening 60 new stores before the end of the year, so if you aren't familiar with that big, neon purple logo, you soon will be.

Superstar game industry analyst Michael Pachter told the LA Times that Nintendo's smaller North American supply of Wii Fit units can be blamed, just like everything else that has anything to do with business, on the value of the dollar. "The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere." Then -- seemingly to make sure blogs quoted him -- Pachter added, "They know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now." The article states that about 500,000 Wii Fits were shipped to the U.S., versus "as many as 2 million" to Europe.

We think that if the disparity is indeed strategic, it has less to do with the decreasing value of the dollar, and more to do with two other trends: Nintendo of Europe's increased friendliness toward nontraditional "expanded audience" games, and European gamers' acceptance of exorbitant game prices. It's not so much that $90 is low for Wii Fit -- it's that they can get away with selling it for $140 in Europe.

Last month's reassurances over UK shortages of Wii Fit did nothing! Far from "coming in all the time on a weekly basis," stock of the fitness title seems to have dwindled down to an all-time low, leaving an entire nation starved of Wii Fitness and the streets awash with angry stay-at-home mums and overturned cars. This week's UK charts tell the whole story -- Wii Fit sank from third spot to outside the Top 40, and to fifteenth in the Wii's own chart. That's below Game Party.

Anyway, this dramatic fall from grace has led to Nintendo having to make further reassurances about the situation, with the company promising that supplies will be replenished as quickly as possible. "There are pockets of stock shortages in areas of the UK", a Ninty spokesman remarked to GamesIndustry.biz. By "areas of the UK," we trust he means "the whole damn country."

Wii Fit must be easier to produce than Wii consoles. Nintendo hasn't been able to rectify the console shortage that has stretched since the Wii launch, but they have gotten their act together in terms of Wii Fit production.

Nintendo U.K. told GamesIndustry.biz that "stock is coming in all the time on a weekly basis." We're surprised that Nintendo is even pretending to be able to keep up with demand, with Wii Fit as enormously popular as it is there. The true test of their production capacity will be the U.S. launch oh May 19th.

Aside from his prediction that he thinks Wii Fit will sell 3-4 million this year, Michael Pachter has grabbed another estimation out from within his bag of tricks: Wii Fit will keep Wii shortages going as it will increase demand for the console. Pachter cited Nintendo's plan to market the crap out of Wii Fit, stating "the increased buzz will drive increased demand for the already difficult to find Wii hardware." Well, we know the UK is crazy over Wii Fit, but Nintendo shouldn't have as hard a time filling demand over there as they have had here in the states.

On Pachter's part, this is a pretty safe play to make. The preorders at Amazon are going through the roof and with Wii Fit being on Good Morning, America recently, we're sure the public is very receptive to the product. We're still not sure about that price tag, though.

Seeing as how the console released in November of 2006, you can probably understand why we're frustrated in having to report on the inability to freely and easily locate our desire out in the world beyond tubes. We want everyone to be able to enjoy the console, so why can't Nintendo churn out enough? Why has it taken them this long to satisfy demand and why has demand been at record highs throughout the console's short lifespan?

Gamestop might know, as they recently stated in a report that they expect console shortages to last for another 6 months. We're betting that the retailer's forecast is fairly conservative, as it's easy to imagine another 6 months of early mornings trying to hunt one down. The console has been hard to find since its launch, so another 6 months doesn't seem like much of a stretch to us, at all.

This is just the expectations of Gamestop, though, so should Nintendo emerge from the dark mist like some knight in shining armor, we would most definitely take our own foot and place it within our own mouth. But seeing as how Nintendo hasn't figured out how to satisfy demand issues yet, we're going to have to assume it'll take a while to get healthy Wii stock on shelves.

If you've been keeping a keen eye on monthly NPD data, you might have realized that Super Mario Galaxy sales have been dipping in the U.S. And by dipping, we mean plunging.

Before you have a stroke, or perhaps get your fighting gloves on, just look at the numbers. While January's Galaxy sales were by no means modest (172,000 for the month), they were a huge drop from December's (1.4 million) and November's before that (1.12 million). The game also fell from it's comfy position at second place, ending up in the sixth spot for January.

So, what gives? Is it just a matter of holiday madness (not to mention, other games stepping up), or is there more to it than that?

Fortunately, there are analysts around to figure out this kind of thing, so that we don't have to. Jesse Divnich from the simExchange logically reckons that the low sales for Galaxy correlate to the low sales of Wii hardware. Because Wiis have been in such short supply, people haven't been buying them, and thus haven't been buying Galaxy either.

Damn that hardware, always keeping Mario down. Hopefully once Nintendo stops diverting Wiis to Japan, we'll see Galaxy rise again. Yet, by then, there will be only one thing on the minds of Wii owners -- you guessed it, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Although Galaxy won't be able to compete with the new game, we hope there's enough room for both to succeed in the charts.

In what must be the biggest threat to Japan since Godzilla, reports are coming in that retailers might not be able to meet demand for Super Smash Bros. Brawl come January 31st. According to Canned Dogs, Lepton (a games retailer in Japan) bemoans that the store is only getting 154 copies of the game from Nintendo. That's not even close to meeting the 800 preorders that the retailer has received, let alone walk-ins. Lepton is even paying over retail price to get Brawl from other sources (meaning they'll lose money by selling the game), so that the store can honor more of its preorders. Because the entire country seems to be facing shortages, though, Lepton has only been able to come by 100 extra units, even at inflated prices.

The initial Brawl shipment for Japan is reputed to be only 300,000-400,000 copies, which is not much for a popular title in a country with 5 million Wii gamers. Import retailer NCSX is also reporting a small supply, and has stopped taking preorders as a result.

Does this mean we'll see riots in Japan on the eve of February, incited by frustrated gamers longing to get their hands on the Wii's most anticipated game to date? And, is it possible that North American gamers will face similar shortages when Brawl releases here in March? We can only hope the answer to both of these questions is, "no."

[Via Japanator]

Like many game nerds, this blogger did the unthinkable and left the house today, in search of the newly-released No More Heroes. And after warnings from friends and fellow bloggers that supplies were slim, I lamented my decision to work at my job before trying to secure a copy of the game. After three stores, I was finally rewarded with an opportunity to wait in line and pay fifty bucks. It looks like GameStops got only enough copies to cover preorders, which makes us think that Ubisoft lacked confidence in the game's sales potential.

If you went out for No More Heroes yesterday without a preorder (or even with one!), did you succeed in acquiring the game? Were there other purchasers in line ahead of you? Which stores did you try, and how many did it take? I want to look at my own little adventure in a positive light, as an indication that the game's selling.

Next-Gen has compiled a fairly accurate list of some of the worst -- or at least, dumbest -- events to befall the industry this year. From Gerstmanngate to Jack Tretton offering to buy any PS3s hanging around on shelves (boy, that one was embarrassing), the year's greatest flubs are tied up here in one neat package. And success aside, even Nintendo is not immune.

Despite their banner year, Nintendo made a few miscalculations of their own -- namely, in their lack of Wii supply. While it seems that every effort was made to ramp up production, the shortages cost Iwata and co. a fair share of that giant pile o' cash they're lounging upon. But the real head-shaker came with the Wii's Guitar Hero III and the Case of the Missing Audio Necessities, which popped in at number three on the list. Thanks to a tipster, we first noticed the sound problems in late October, and while a fix has been promised, owners are still waiting on replacement discs, which will be available in "early 2008." Now that's a blunder.

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."

[Via MaxConsole]

One year ago, pretty much everyone failed to predict the success of the Wii. It looks like that may be happening on a smaller scale this week, as online retailers appear to already be out of Zapper/Link's Crossbow Training packs. The ones that aren't out of stock have yet to receive their stock, showing a release date of tomorrow.

As of right now, EB/GameStop, Amazon, CompUSA, Sears, and Wal-Mart are "backordered" or "out of stock." Buy.com, Target, and Circuit City list it as coming out tomorrow. Toys R Us, Outpost.com/Fry's, Best Buy, Micro Center and KMart refuse to acknowledge the peripheral's existence.

Basically, it looks like if you want one of these things, you're going to have to go outside. Try (the physical locations of) Wal-Mart, CompUSA or Sears where, if the in-store prices match the online prices, you'll be charged the MSRP rather than the premium $25 price some retailers are sticking on there. Of course, shark guns remain cheap and plentiful.

Nearly a year into the release of the Wii, the shortages continue. Some areas enjoyed a little short-lived respite, but with the holidays around the corner, it seems that once again -- for a variety of possible reasons -- getting your hands on a Wii is about as common as spying a leprechaun in the wild.

As a Nintendo fan, does the continued demand for the console surprise you? Certainly, during the holidays, it makes sense; during November and December, it can be difficult to find a toothpick, much less a hot commodity, but it's not like this is new. Did you expect things might taper off a little? Nintendo seemed to expect it, even if you didn't, at least now that we've all gotten over the initial shock that came with everyone demanding a Wii.

The end of Wii shortages, that is. While we have no hard evidence to that effect, the anecdotal evidence is piling up -- we've heard from several people lately that their searches have finally come to an end. At last, they have joined the fold of Wii owners. New Wii owners, we welcome you. But is this the case everywhere? We'd love to hear from people who are still searching, or those who know others who are ... or, if you've recently hit the Wii lottery, we definitely want to hear about it.