Whatever other accolades the Nintendo Wii might receive, it has already grabbed the title of this seasons Scarcest Electronic Gift. Retailers and desperate parents alike tell similar tales of Wiis being sold so quickly that sightings of new shipments are big news.
Even more remarkably, this is the second holiday season that the product has been so popular, and, if anything, the fever seems to be building. Nintendo already has sold six million Wiis in the U.S. since its launch a year ago, becoming the fastest-selling console ever.
But it wasnt as if we werent warned. Back in September, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, was quite frank about the upcoming Wii drought.
"Every time we put more into the marketplace, we sell more, which says that we are not even close to understanding where the threshold is between supply and demand," he told the San Jose Mercury News. He said inventory is "typically lasting a day" at given retailers.
GONE IN 10 MINUTES
A shipment that lasts as much as a day would be big news in Arkansas this week. The Benton County Daily Record described a Best Buy store manager as saying the Wii "is the biggest item yet" in his seven years in consumer electronics. Typically, he said, they get 500 to 600 calls daily asking about Wii availability, and people wait in their cars all night, hoping to spot a shipment. Last Sunday, he said, 75 units arrived and they "were gone in 10 minutes."
In the interview with the Mercury News, Fils-Aime had added that the company was "aggressively" making Wiis as quickly as it could, but that ramping up beyond the initial estimates is not as easy as turning on a switch. Fils-Aime said Nintendo couldnt guarantee the company would meet demand.
Nintendo is now trying another approach to meeting demand with supply. But it requires that your intended gift recipient not be too disappointed if, instead of an actual Wii under the tree, theres an envelope. Nintendo has said it will be selling vouchers via GameStop, with delivery of the actual units in January.
TAKING ADVANTAGE
For parents, this is a crisis. For some retailers, who are not content with merely transforming Wiis into cash without the need of tying up shelf space, its an opportunity to squeeze out more cash.
As the $250 game system becomes harder to find, some retailers are offering the Wii only bundled with games and add-ons, which can dramatically increase the price. Fils-Aime told Ars-Technica that the company was "not a fan" of forced bundles, in that they mask the machines price advantage compared to other consoles.
But forced bundling is not the only tactic. Ars-Technica also reported that Slackers, a chain of game stores in Illinois and Missouri, sold its inventory of Wiis on eBay for at least $150 over the standard $250 price.
The Internet can help boost prices, but it might be an ally as well, with sites such as wiitrack.com and wiialerts.com hoping to provide the equivalent of an intelligence service for parents on a Mission Impossible.
