Powerful men have decided that you shall not get a Wii this Christmas.
As you’ve probably heard, the Nintendo Wii is once again going to be very difficult to find this holiday season. Anxious shoppers are camped outside stores right now, chasing rumors of fresh Wii shipments. The handful that are available on E-Bay are going for 50% markups. And it seems that every other day a mainstream media outlet is telling the story of another frantic parent, desperate to obtain a Wii to replace the soiled Tickle-Me Elmo doll that no longer captures their children’s imaginations.
At first glance, this isn’t a terribly interesting story - nothing more than a byproduct of the ever-growing consumerization of Christmas, another reminder that the world we live in grows nastier and meaner every day. Typical holiday cheer stuff really.
But if you venture into some of the damper video game forums around the Internet, you can find a few people suggesting that Nintendo has deliberately kept supplies of the Wii tight in order to artificially generate free publicity and buzz for their machine. They reason that since the Wii has been in short supply for 12 straight months, this can represent nothing more than black-hearted malice on the part of Nintendo – the sort of anti-consumer malice normally associated with sinister American companies, like Microsoft or Frito-Lay.
“Not so,” counter Nintendo supporters, speaking from the carpeted floor in their parents rec rooms, “for to deliberately keep Wii’s in short supply, Nintendo would be losing money in sales. No amount of free publicity could make up for that,” they add, straightening their stained Yoshi t-shirt.
Another answer remains largely unspoken, given that it doesn’t fall neatly into the “NINTENDO IZ EVIL / NOES THEY ARE GOD FTW” cadence of modern online discourse: Nintendo may simply be incompetent. The short supply of Wii’s is due to Nintendo trying to make as many Wii’s as possible, and failing, possibly via some sort of I Love Lucy style conveyor belt shenanigans.
As usual, the answer is likely a mixture of all the above. Here’s what I think. The Wii shortfall is intentional. Though only partly. Nintendo has deliberately erred on the conservative side when ramping up their production. That’s not to say that they weren’t right to do so. Supply chain experts generally agree, it’s better to be undersupplied than oversupplied. Although undersupply may cost an unknown amount in lost revenue, oversupply guarantees extra costs for inventory storage, buy-backs from vendors, etc… There’s an added, now-obvious bonus: a desirable product that’s always out of stock can inspire idiots to camp outside of a store waiting for it, prompting “Hey, check out this idiot sleeping outside in December” news stories that inadvertently provide free publicity for your product.
However, just because Nintendo’s conservative production plans were intentional, doesn’t mean they don’t regret it. They are undoubtedly not making as much money this Christmas as they could be, and if there’s one thing enormous companies love doing, it’s making money.
Actually, that’s kind of the only thing they love doing.
Let’s also consider whether Nintendo may simply have been incompetent in their production ramp-up. It’s important to realize that modern video game consoles aren’t built in some enormous factory somewhere, where the raw ingredients (silicon, children’s laughter) are poured in one end, and Wii’s come cascading out the other end. In real life, there’s a factory in Taiwan that makes a chip that gets sent to another factory in Taiwan that combines a bunch of chips into a widget, and sends that widget to another factory in Korea, where it gets combined with some more chips and the necessary blue LED’s and then sent on to another factory and so on. Any hiccup, slowdown, or break in the chain can cause delays. Supply chain management is a complex and erotic beast. Mistakes happen.
Although, if anyone should be good at it, it’s a company that has been in the business of making complicated video game consoles for 20 straight years.
Final thought: Here’s a chart (courtesy vgchartz.com) that shows the worldwide sales rates (since launch) of the Wii and GameCube alongside the current reigning sales champ, the PS2.
So after making one of the most disappointing video game consoles of all time, the biggest error Nintendo made is failing to anticipate that they’d create the fastest selling video game system (over 1 year) of all time. That kind of mistake is a pretty good one to make, and may not even be a mistake at all. It’s sort of like hiring a bunch of strippers for a bachelor party that end up getting too naked.
The more interesting question (to me at least) is when will Nintendo catch up with its Wii production? If you look at the graph, you see that the PS2 actually started selling faster after it had been out 2 years or so. Given the success of the Wii so far and it’s strong word-of-mouth advertising potential, it seems possible that demand for the Wii will keep growing. Even if Nintendo keeps ramping up their production, might they still not catch up with demand? Will we see another holiday season of Wii shortages? Unprecedented, sure. But so was two holiday seasons in a row.
___
Chris Bucholz is a writer and a robot. His personal blog, robotmantheblog.com contains a great deal of other humor articles, all of dubious quality and taste.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:43 am
I DON’T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT THIS ARTICLE!
December 11th, 2007 at 8:26 am
ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZz
December 11th, 2007 at 9:03 am
This was the worst Heroes review ever. A lot of stuff about the Wii , though.
December 11th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Wow. A rational point of view on a current topic backed by thoughtful research–and funny too. Shameful.
December 11th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Very well done - and I’m finding it increasingly ironic how it seems that I keep finding some of the best articles on a comedy web site rather than through actual news sources…
December 11th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Has making jokes about “wii” sounding kind of like “weiner” totally died since it’s become so commonplace? Like how the British probably don’t make nearly as many “spotted dick” jokes as we do?
December 11th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Seems that Nintendo has done the opposite of Sony. Sony had the best-selling console, then followed up with the worst. Now they’re paying the price for too many units on shelves that nobody wants.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Can I just point out, as a British person, that “Wii” sounds like “wee” - which depending on the context can mean small or urine. For example:
“That is a wee dog” - That is a small dog
“That is dog wee” - That is dog urine.
So, anyway….yes, making jokes that exploit the fact that Wii sounds like slang for urine (”Want to come round to my house and play with my Wii!!!!!!????”) got quite stale in the UK before the Wii was even out.
That last graph made raised a good point - Nintendo weren’t even dreaming they’d dominate the next-gen consoles, so you can’t blame them for being over-cautious.
I got a Wii 6 months ago though, so this Christmas I can mock disappointed children with my merry laughter. And my Wii.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I applaud your effort to explain your theory, but I have to disagree. You make a good point about the production portion being modular in that not all components are produced in the same factory. However, it is for that precise reason that it is so difficult for Nintendo to expand it’s production capacity. You would need to build *many* different factories just to increase production capacity by a small portion. However, let’s say for sake of argument that Nintendo decided to blow tons of capitol on constructing these new production facilities…and then the demand drops off, and their investment in the new production is wasted. This is the main reason why the only thing that can solve the supply problem is a decrease in demand itself. The big-heads at Nintendo will not risk that much capitol on hardware, of which is traditionally not profitable.
It’s a simple fact that the demand for the Wii can die down at any moment. Nintendo knows this, and as such will never do anything to improve their production capacity that requires good chunks of their capitol to build.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I applaud your effort to explain your theory Chris, but I have to disagree. Nintendo does not own many of the factories that create components for the Wii. They outsource production of different components to companies that can make them most efficiently. So even if they wanted to increase production rates, they would either have to get their current suppliers to speed up or find new suppliers who could meet the demand.
Also, what does the capitol of Japan have to do with anything?
December 11th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I think it might be a tad more involved, but the article seems right in general. As a public company, they have quarterly goals to meet. If they can meet those goals, and perhaps exceed them by a small margin, why got overboard for one incredible quarter then nothing.
Right now, they know there is demand that is not cooling, they know what their goals are, and they know what they make in profit off the system. Might they only be interesting in anough volume to hit that number?
Do the availability issues exist internationally? Can you get one in Japan, or how about Taiwan? Or is it just certain markets that seem to have a Wii shortage? I remember seeing Wii remotes being very rare for a while, then versions that were first party, but obviously imported from Asia showing up.
By taking advantage of the hype, can they keep the demand up and make their quarterly goals and look better for a while then by making a load of cash now, then not making much later?
the manufacturing can be done via contract so Nintendo would not bare the burden of the costs in adding the production this way, byt they would have to sign a contract for a given length of time. Perhaps this is another reason to keep the hype up and stretch out demand.
The lag time can also aid developers, once everyone has a Wii, they are looking for games. But the third parties are still learning about the console so the hype helps here. Not to say that some developers are taking advantage of the hype to produce substandard products (Guitar Hero III in mono?)
It is absolutely a numbers game, get use to being seen as a number. this is simply a fact of life of our economy.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I think alot of this has to do with Nintendo playing it smart this tme around. They don’t want the Wii to be viewed as a toy (like the Gamecube was), so they are targeting gamers of all ages (my parents love playing it). Perhaps the smartest thing they’ve done is prove that the consumer cares more about the fun and playabitity of the games and the console, not so much the graphics. The PS3 used HD graphics, but the high cost turned most off, and the lack of a new game selection kept most away. Sony assumed that the name PlayStation would generate enough income to support them.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
BALLHAIR!!!
December 11th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Well, when some people start realizing that instead of camping outside to have a Wii, you can have an XBOX360 or a PS3 in stores now, they’ll start buying that instead and the Wii demand will plummet. Boohoohoo, nintendo will notice that they should have had more unit available to meet demand and it will be too bad..
December 11th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
But Rusty, what if you don’t want a 360 or a PS3?
Whatever is causing the shortage, I think the demand is sort of self-sustaining…there are shortages that are publicised, that generates interest, making the shortages worse…
All this economic talk is too serious for Cracked though, so let me just conclude by saying how much I enjoy fondling breasts (a lot). Thank you.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Remember that the PS2 had record sales because of it’s increasingly enticing game library, which people seem to forget is the most important aspect of any game console. It was easy to develop for and it was easy to release a PS2 game across multiple platforms. The great game library is what kept driving PS2 sales up year after year, which made it even more likely that developers would keep on making PS2 games.
The Wii, on the other hand, has had record first year sales because of a low price and a gimmick. Don’t get me wrong, its a great gimmick and I want nothing more than to see it succeed, but it makes development very difficult and cross-platform release almost impossible. After one year how many awesome games does the Wii have? I can think of four or five that I wish I were playing right now, which isn’t much incentive to drop a couple hundred bucks for it. The slow release rate of Wii games will ultimately drag down its sales curve until it looks more the Gamecube’s than the PS2’s.
December 11th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
So… this Wii thing is some kind of entertainment machine, then?
December 11th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
A bit more simple and crude than this theory. The production lines are racist-there I said it.
December 11th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
While there have been some interesting arguments laid out on this thread, I think everyone will agree that jimbo got it right.
December 11th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Have you seen my baseball?
December 11th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
FUCK THE WII.
I mean… well, alright, I have one, and I love it but… fuck it anyway.
I work at Circuit City and I get literally at least 40 calls per shift asking me about the Wii. I end up having to tell these assholes that we have no idea when the Wii is coming in. Know why? Because Nintendo doesn’t fucking tell us!
So I get the same person calling every fucking day asking me the same fucking question, in the hopes that some new development has happened.
When we do get them in, we get anywhere from 7 to 18 of them, which is obviously not enough to combat the ravenous mob of people breaking down our door to get one.
FUCK THAT, I say, FUCK THAT
December 11th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
How does a stripper get too naked?
De-skinning?
December 11th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I may be dating myself here, but I believe Nintendo successfully defended a a lawsuit in the 90’s when they got sued for manipulating supply for the NES or Gameboy. Stores were stocked full just days after the holiday shopping season was over, but a week prior everyone was scrambling to find the product. People complained, terse letters were written, state DA’s got off of their secretaries, briefs were filed, legal briefs were submitted to the courts, newspaper stories were written, the evil masters at Nintendo wrung their hands and bathed in money. Nintendo fights the suits, essentially claiming that they have a right to limit supply for profit, its not against the law. Unethical and bad for their image, but not illegal.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Amen to that Circuit City employee. I work for a huge, non nation wide electronics store.. and we get no joke.. anywhere from 300 - 500 calls every day on it.
every day.
No shit.
Not making this up.
We have 25 people that all day… are taking calls at the same on this wretched , cursed machine.
Thats not to mention the hundreds that come in store daily asking for it. We will have a line of people in the store just to ask about it. Its almost as of they dont hear the employee tell the person in front of them that we dont have any. And we dont know when they will be back.
We could have 2 people working full time just to man a phone to answer questions about the wii and we would still be in over our heads. I hate Nintendo. I hate the Wii.
And its the same hundreds of people every single day that call. We have no clue when we are getting them… and we still get bugged every day.
Merry Christmas and god bless everyone who does not have to work in retail. If it was up to me I would drop all the remaining stock in this country in the same bottoless pit they dropped Megatron at the end of the Transformers the movie and call it a day.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Nintendo is using Wii parts to make Transformers. That’s why they don’t have enough to go around.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Is supply chain management truly, as you claim, a “complex and erotic beast”? I’ve never found supply chains to be sexy. Maybe the secret is in all that hot management action.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Hey, you should pop over to South Africa - we’ve got piles of the bloody things out here.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:01 am
We were one of the freaky people that lined up at 3am last year so our kiddies could have a Wii…and 2 DS Lites…and 4 wiimotes and nunchuks as well as 4 games for each plus all the trappins to go with everything like the wiimote skins, DS cases, etc. Did I drop a bundle? Yup. Why? Best. Christmas. Ever.
The Wii is terrific! We all play nearly every night. It is best in the winter when we are snowed in but it still gets plenty of use in the summer. Mainly, I think, it is because the games we pick are easy to play, easy to set up and easy to put down (think Wii Sports, Wii Play) We own or have owned nearly 50 titles and some are less than stellar. The first NFS was terrible but the new NFS is way better. All the Mario games are pre-ordered so we don’t miss a beat. Their gameplay is great for our 6 year old and our 12 year old. We don’t allow the M rated games in the house so I can’t judge those. Overall, the Wii is a family entertainment kit. Really, we would have paid double the price for the use we get out of it. Just don’t tell Nintendo.
And the Wii drought? It isn’t all over the US. Here in the north east, you have to marry a GameStop employee to get one but they are readily available in other areas. Or you could just be at the store at 3am like we were!
December 12th, 2007 at 5:43 am
BOOORIIING!!
December 12th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
The British can only come up with “small” and “unine” for the Wii? Come on. Touch my Wii? If the best gag you can come up with is a tiny dog, then it makes a lot more sense why America is a nation today.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
“We own or have owned nearly 50 titles…” Shannon, that’s sick. (As in disgusting.) Games are fun, but that much is just unnecessary overkill.
December 13th, 2007 at 2:22 am
I dont care what people say if Nintendo is manipulating this shortage to create hype. They are not going hold back their supplies to the point of people saying “Well, screw it, I am getting a PS3″… that would be stupid. If anyone has ever had the chance in playing this console, you know that you have something far superior in your midst than a Xbox360 or PS3. Sure the graphics may be cartoony and unrealistic, BUT… BUT.. this console is getting fat kids and their fat parents off the couch and breaking a sweat while playing some of these games. I paid $250 CAN for a system that has entertained, and got my lazy kids off the couch. THAT has been the best $250 I have spent on them this year. As long as there are new Wii games being made, I couldnt give a Mii’s ass about Nintendo’s marketing scheme.
There are far worse issues in the world to be concerned about, such as pollution causing - gas guzzling SUV’s that replaced the notion in peoples heads that possibly that wacky guy, Ed Begly Jr was right… How can a society wholeheartedly gather enough peoples attention to launch a class action suit against a VIDEO GAME MAKER because “WAH.. Little spoiled Johnny” didnt get his game???? Holy crap! Why isnt this same group of people who were strong in numbers do something about George Bush and his hard-on to OWN all of the oil in the world, so that HE can sell it.. which will be purchased by people who drive gas guzzling, pollution creating, GM vehicles??? Once people smarten up and realize that Canada, USA and Mexico are going to be come one nation, with one monetary system to compete against the highly powerful EURO, then they will realize.. “Damn! I just got raped by George Bush and the rest of the Zeitgeist movement!”
The end of the world is NOT near, the end of individuality is. This is not some whacked out conspiracy theory… this is a big cup of reality to you Walmart people who purchase cheap shit made in China, but then cry foul if someone buys a foreign car… wake up stupid!
December 13th, 2007 at 3:44 am
Sick? Hmmm….Well, it is excessive but I attribute that to the fact that we are very rural here and can’t run to the nearest Blockbuster all that often. We buy games, we trade them in if they suck. Some do, some don’t. Generally, it is about (am I going to catch shit for this!) spending some family time with the kids do their stuff and not just having them do MY stuff with me. How many games of Connect 4 can I stand?? How many tennis matches on Wii Sports?? It’s all relevant. We throw the Wii on for an hour at night or even all damn day if it snows like it is here now. They still go outside and ride their bikes. PLUS - the Wii is the Great Equalizer. A little brother can conceivably beat the hell out of a tormenting Big Brother in many Wii games because you don’t have to press ABBAAABAAAA+Z really fast. (I hated those freaking games)
I think Nintendo has gotten free press from the scarcity but I also think they are producing as many as they know they can sell and not one unit more.
Remember Sing n’ Snore Ernie? There were people paying $500 for the stupid thing when it was the hot item and it did NOTHING….except snore. How about the iPhone? Seems like damn good business to me. But “business” is a nasty word these days. We’re supposed to hate all the huge coprporate conglomerates.
Maybe Starbucks will start releasing video games and everyone will be happy.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I’ve got a Wiimote up my ass. You can get it out, but you have to use your tongue.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Wii-todd-ed one, How in the fuck did you go from video game console sales to George Bush global petroleum control conspiracy and Northern American Monetary system mergers? Also, Wii-todd-ed one IS RIGHT!!! GEORGE BUSH IS HIDING ALL THE WIIS!
December 15th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Nintendo are whores, like all companies are.
If my sister try to make me again to ask some poor tired soul (that work at any game store) if there are any Wii, I’m going to wring her chicken neck and kick her fat ass with my Doc Martin Boots. And I have bad aiming, but gonna try anyway.
And no I’m NOT going to buy it online, sister, stop buying your kids presents two days before xmas, that’s a very BAAAAAAAD tradition.
December 19th, 2007 at 12:32 am
I don’t fucking care about the WII…I’ve played all systems and I’ll stick with the 360 thank you. The WII sucks and Nintendo is too interested in “revolutionizing” the video game industry with the WII and the DS and not worried about making fun and interesting games.
I am in the process of trading in my DS for a PSP because it has more games that I want to play and no goddamn gimmick to worry about being forced to use in the process.
I don’t want and WII and if I get one for Christmas it will be returned, to use the money for new 360 games and PSP games.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
I’d just like to point out, the increase in the PS2 sales after 2 years is not due to some ninja-induced market fluctuation. It’s because they knocked $200 off the price tag.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
army employee purchase windows vista…
…
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
To Lance: You’re obviously entitled to your personal estimation of what is a “fun” game, but given how many generic sports title clones, first person shooters, etc. are on the XBox and PS, I have to call BS on “interesting”, at least if you mean something new. The Wii and the DS have a wide variety of games doing things that you couldn’t do before (yes, due to a lack of touchscreen or Wiimote, I know, I know). Yes, games like Assassin’s Creed and so on are certainly fun, but how new can they really be? Assassin’s Creed does things that you’ve seen basically in Metal Gear Solid games and other 3-D adventurers (Shadow of the Colossus, for example).
And, of course, though I suppose it’s not necessary: BRAAAAAAAAAWL!
May 27th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
It’s good to see how you stayed impartial through the whole thing…good good.
I have to say though that here in the UK the PS2 has been through the same process for at least 3 Xmases years before, I remember trying to get one in Dec 01 when all I could find was a lot of shops with huge ‘PS2 SOLD OUT’ signs on the windows…did anyone miss that?
Nintendo has maybe sold a good percentage of its soul to get the Wii and the DS where they are, but at least they get the recognition they deserve…the GC was the best console of the last gen and it has been destroyed by legions of wankers that played halo because it made the feel like a man and thought that handle on the back of the console was gay…it seems only right that now they are all finally giving a meaning to their miserable existence by perfecting every recipe of Cooking mama…