Wii shortages could last "for some time", says Nintendo

April 11th, 2007, 19:45 Posted By: wraggster

Although the Wii launched almost six months ago it's still tough to get ahold of a console in both the US and this side of the Atlantic - and according to Nintendo it could be many months before the stock situation is under control.

Speaking to Game Theory Podcast via CVG colleagues Next-Gen.biz, Nintendo Marketing VP Perrin Kaplan said of the stock problems: "There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see a supply / demand situation last for some time.

"We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can," she added. "The number of units that we have been able to produce has far exceeded our hardware production in the past and the production levels of a lot of our competitors but demand continues to be really high."

Despite the shortages Nintendo still managed to shift over 25,000 Wii consoles in the UK last week, trumping even Sony's newly-released PS3 which cleared 17,000 units in the same time period.

"People are being really diligent about working with retailers to locate [a Wii] but we are cognisant of the fact that a lot of fans are not able to get their hands on one yet," Kaplan continued in the Podcast. "We are asking them to be patient and to know that we are working on this as fast as we can."

When quizzed whether Nintendo could've priced the Wii $50 higher than the current $250 US price tag, she said: "there was definitely that possibility. There are so many people who are very much liking the system and while the price that it's at is very much mass market we probably could have folded at a higher price but I think that it was always Nintendo's intent to make it a product that is appealing to the mass market."

via cvg

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