We know many of you out there are still Wii-less. Despite being able to pump out 6 million units worldwide in its first four months of release, the Wii demand is still overwhelming Nintendo and retailers everywhere. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, recently had these words to say in an interview:
“Nintendo manufactured, through the end of December, four million units worldwide. And to put this in perspective, the ramp up you need to have from a manufacturing standpoint to make four million units, and to make them flawlessly — our defect rate is miniscule — that’s a huge challenge. Yet, because of the demand, because of the buzz, we could not satisfy consumers worldwide.
We work with our retailers to supply them on a regular and ongoing basis. Some retailers make decisions to hold product to support their circulars that typically drop on Sundays. But I’m now looking at a report that says in 93 percent of retail outlets, there are less than three hardware units available. That is a huge issue and something we’re working very hard to fix.”
If there’s enough demand to help Nintendo reach 6 million units in four months whereas another competitor has taken 16 months (and two holiday seasons) to reach 10 million units sold, who knows where Nintendo will be at once they finally satisfy all the demand.
Kotaku
