As we reported with NPD's year-end data, Nintendo sold through 3.81 million Wiis in December. The Wii went through a slowdown during 2009 but surged back during the holidays. The surge was so great, that it seems supply just can't keep up. GameStop reported a few weeks back that its holiday sales were slightly impacted by Wii shortages, and more recently Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said that the Wii's been experiencing "meaningful shortages."
Now Nintendo of America has confirmed that the company is indeed having a difficult time replenishing the channel. Senior Director of Corporate Communications Charlie Scibetta told Joystiq, "In the short term, replenishing Wii inventories will be a challenge. But we are doing everything we can to satisfy consumers looking to purchase a Wii system."
As Joystiq points out, it is somewhat perplexing that Nintendo reportedly reduced production levels for the Wii back in early December, and now the company is faced with a shortage. Go figure. And perhaps what's even more amazing is that the Wii could be in such short supply after four full holiday seasons on the market.
1 Comments
February 11, 2010
This is ridiculous. Barring the cut back of supply in early December, how many times have we heard over the last two years that Nintendo was ramping up supply of the Wii to keep up with demand? Alot. And now they still have shortages? Hopefully this is just for the holiday period. Theres no reason Nintendo shouldn't have a full supply channel of Wii's packed and ready to go at any given time.