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Think the reason why the Nintendo Wii shortage that plagued America was due to Nintendo not being able to keep up with demand? Well, you would be wrong. According to the Dallasnews.com, the real reason why we have seen low quantities of Nintendo Wiis here in America is due to the weak dollar.
With a weak dollar, foreign companies that sell their goods in the U.S. for dollars and then convert those dollars to their native currencies get a smaller profit than if they sell their products in countries with strong currencies of their own (such as Europe with the euro). In other words, Nintendo makes a bigger profit on Wiis sold in Europe than on Wiis sold in the U.S.
You can’t really blame Nintendo for shorting us here in the states. A companies main goal is to make money. If I could make more money somewhere else, sure enough, I will be there. But good news, now that demand has lowered in Europe, we should be seeing many more Nintendo Wii consoles on store shelves.
There is a big shortage of Wii’s in Europe as well. I tried to get one last month, called all local electronic stores and none had any in stock. Only display models (>_>). And still none. I’m getting desperate by now
Makes no sense. There are still PS3s etc. that those can choose from. I wanted to get a Wii as my son is into the Nintendo games like Pokemon but he can live with his DS games if it means he can get some EA sports games on another system (and so can I for that matter).
Yea, there is still a shortage, but a lot of Nintendo’s stock went to Europe. Especially now that the holiday season is over, you should be seeing it let up
The reason why PS3s are still around is that no one wants to pay for a console that is lacking the industry backing. In a year or 2 once they have better titles under Sony’s belt for the PS3, we will start seeing higher sales numbers when compared to the XBOX 360.
why not just raise the price to where your profit is significantly comparable to the profit from selling units in Europe? I mean, people are going to go pay $500 for one on eBay, so why not bump the price $50-100 to cover that “lost” profit. This makes everyone happy except the scumbags who buy one every time they see one at wal mart, even though they already have their own, just to sell on eBay and profit on it.
You think Nintendo would be smart enough to realize that despite a weak dollar, these scalpers are pretty much “stealing” THEIR profits. Increase the price, increase the number shipped to the US and this will increase your own profit and it will decrease the number of jerks trying to make a buck because they just sit at home in their mother’s basement playing their Wii and go to wal mart and Toys R Us every day to see if they happened to get any Wii’s while the rest of us are at work and can’t get there.
That’s B.S.
The wii has been in short supply much longer than the dollar has been this weak. That analyst is probably just miffed that he couldn’t get one for himself. The REAL reason is that Nintendo was hesitant to obligate themselves to more contracts with manufacturers because they took such a huge loss on the GameCube. They didn’t want it to happen again, so they didn’t over-commit themselves this time around. Turns out, they didn’t realize they had such a winning gimmick on their hands. Rumor has it that the shortage will subside with the North American release of Wii Fit. They’re planning a big media campaign, and it would be stupid of them to advertise something that nobody can find.
The dollar was in recession before the Wii was released. Recent news and concern is just magnified as the dollar continues to get worse. Companies have been planning for this “recession” before it became big news. So I think this story does have merit.
I don’t think the Gamecube was as revolutionary as the Wii. In history, the Gamecube will be known as Nintendo’s mis-step between 2 great systems, the Super Nintendo and the Nintendo Wii. No one could of predicted the success of the Wii, but I think Nintendo knew they had a hit on their hands from day one.
I totally agree with Patcher as it’s hard to believe that Nintendo couldn’t meet demand, especially when it actually means losing money.
Shortage? What shortage? In the store at $249 maybe, but any day you are willing to fork out $400 you can get as many as you want. I just say NO to Wii.
0 units sold = $0 profit I’ve worked in marketing for over 10 years, Making your product impossible to find is NOT good business.