Shortage conspiracy?

[Gaffer]

O.K., so we're coming up to the anniversary of the birth of the Wii (HapPy 1St BdAy ).

You all know what happened at launch? Well, seeing as I mentioned birth, unlike the PS3 and 360 launches, which were akin to (for example) a 5th normal pregnancy, short labour, quick delivery, pop "out it comes" and then "home you go",.....the Wii launch was similar to (for example) a complicated 1st delivery, that was breach, that then proceeded to section, and then had post-delivery complications afterwards .

Could anyone find a Wii for love nor money around launch day ------ no.
Did that continue to the spring -------- yes

Funnily enough, despite the more plentiful supplies over Summer and Autumn......along comes winter and we're at it again .
I myself am AMAZED that Nintendo have had a whole bleedin' YEAR to sort out their supply issues and I find myself in a kind of a Time Warp where Dec '07 mirrors Dec '06.

Then along come "teh internets rumorz" to try and unsettle the boat even further.....
...."Nintendo has the stocks, but it's holding them back to intentionally create the huge demand"
or
...."Nintendo has the stocks, but it's diverting them to the US and converting to NTSC" (yes, I know, a lot of these rumours are daft )
or
...."Nintendo has deliberately told continental EU outlets to not supply consoles to the UK - so no internet shopping from France/Germany for us"
etc etc ad infinatum.

It's things like this that have fuelled the MASSIVE re-sale prices over on Fleabay. Go and have a look and you'll see them all averaging around £230, which is an markup of around 28%......and that's only an average - some go for a LOT more.

On top of this, you have greedy shops only selling bundles (usually complete with crap games or useless peripheries in an effort to shift stock) at inflated prices.

Back to ebay, there are even shop staff blatently selling off their shop stock in an effort to make bigger profits (one particular lady has about 100 units from Argos that she is slowly selling. It's unlikely she wondered into her local and bought 100.....more likely she works there as staff and has simply decided to make more profit on the 'bay).
Then you have dodgy "you are bidding on an envelope only" 1:30 chance "raffles" that people are buying for £200 a pop .....MADNESS I tell you.

All of this has created a bigger demand than anticipated.
Unlike most conspiracy theorists however, I personally think that once an item is sold to a shop, Nintendo has it's money and so couldn't give a monkeys what happens to it further on. It doesn't particularly care about ebay prices.

So I personally don't think it's a conspiracy on Nintendo's part. If it had the ability to supply the demand it would do as it personally gains nothing by creating a backlog and it would love to have a Wii in every home....but now that there is a shortage, I do think everyone's out to make a quick buck (remember, the profits they make on Ebay/through bundles don't find their way back to Ninty).

Interestingly, we still have no idea of why Nintendo has fallen short in it's supply yet again.

So where do you stand? Conspiracy on Ninty's part? Or (as I believe) simply poor business planning that others are capitalising on? Whaddyareckon?

[stephanii]

I just think that there isn't as big a stock problem as people think.. that it's caused by people buying to sell on ebay for profit when they already have one themselves.

[beve-snailey]

Hmmm. I reckon Nintendo have genuinely been taken by surprise by the demand at the moment. I say that because I really can't see what they stand to gain from artificially holding back, I'm sure they'd love to be selling to every desperate parent currently being gouged senseless.

I know the shortage adds a lot of hype and increased media attention, but so would headlines like '25 billion Wiis sold in 4 minutes'.

I do think that the situation has been considerably worsened by the ebay thing though. Apparantly normally sensible human beings have now turned into mercenary Wii hunters, elbowing unfortunate parents with Wii hungry children out of the way so that they can stick it on ebay probably to sell to the very same parent for a £100 plus mark up.

In some cases people are just selling reservations for a Wii, literally making a big profit by ordering a Wii they have no intention of buying and arranging delivery to the poor suckers house. Shady.

Part of me hates this kind of behaviour, this kind of situation seems to bring out the worst in people. But the other part (the part that occasionally reads the Economist) says hmmmm it interesting watching Wiis find their equilibrium price, supply and demand in action. Nobodys forcing people to pay more than £179 on eBay, thats the whole point of auctions.....

But I certainly wouldn't want to be a parent facing a disappointed child on Christmas morning, thats for sure.

[Lepruk86]

It's peoples fault... well prepared parents would have a Wii tucked away by now for xmas.. over hte summer stores had loads of them on shelf... Every where you went you could happily and casually walk into a store and see a Wii sitting there for the standard RRP.

Ninty are trying their hardest to meet demands... but the demands are insanely high... A lot of people say things like *well, microsoft and Sony are able to keep people stocked up* and to those there are two factors...

1: Sony and Microsoft are MUCH bigger companie's so they can afford to produce more of their products faster and
2: They just aren't in the same demand... I tell ya I haven't seen a *fad* like this since the days of Pogs...

Take me for example... I knew I wanted another Wii this year so I purposefully went out October / Novemember (can't remember now) and found one very easily I might add. (It has been torture knowing that my parents have had it all this time yet having to wait til xmas..) :p.

So yeah this is down to bad planning by parents. No conspiracy: Just simply last minute shoppers in desperation, and those prepared to capatilise on said desperate parents.

[Gaffer]

Good points there. Unfortunately, the Xmas rush in town is testament to how much parents don't prepare early enough .

@beve-snailey: Do you really think Ninty are still genuinely surprised? I can understand them being surprised on launch (who'd've thought it'd be so popular?) and maybe even through to Jan '07......but to continue being "genuinly surprised" throughout spring......and then this winter when it re-occurs to yet again be "genuinly surprised"?
That's the part I don't get. I can't bring myself to believe that Ninty didn't see this coming exactly.
The question then remains: Why didn't they do something about it during the summer (like the parents should've) and why isn't their current stock supply up to scratch?



.

[Lepruk86]

Europe always gets screwed for the most part anyway.. but simply they just don't have enough facilities to make any more than they are making; and to build more so that they can make more would be counter productive as it would end up costing them a bundle of money so just isn't worth it.

[Reidy]

Originally Posted by Gaffer74

Then you have dodgy "you are bidding on an envelope only" 1:30 chance "raffles" that people are buying for £200 a pop .....MADNESS I tell you.

what!? that's £6,000 by my maths!!! **** it, i'm gunna sell mine if that's the case!

[Gaffer]

Here you go, £215 for a raffle ticket

or £155 for a bit of paper only

or maybe £160 for an envelope?

On the one hand, people don't read before they bid (I wonder how many of these will be honoured?) and on the other, it does seem like the world has indeed gone mad .

[Unwiired]

$1.3billion excpected to be lost, although there is some hope. I blogged about Gamestop and their reservation service here. One major snag though.

[wii_willy_winker]

If nintendo could make them quick enough there would not be a problem, i cant honestly believe Nintendo would hold back stock which they can sell just to sell loads at xmas, it doesnt matter when Ninty sell them they still get the same money whatever whenever or however they are sold. Like someone above said they have lost out on a potential 1.3 billion in sales because i just dont think they expected such eagerness from punters to get there hands on a wii. Ninty have financial analysists who try to forecast the market before they make the consoles, so they dont get left with gazillions of wii`s getting dusty on shelves. They simply got it wrong as do most companies from time time and i bet a few heads will roll because of this almighty **** up, such is life.

Someone on here was blaming the parents for not buying the wii`s in the summer as stock was plentiful but

1) Thats 6 months before the present will be given, parents dont know what there kids want a month before xmas let alone 6 months before!

2) How on earth is a parent who doesnt even have a clue what a wii is expected to forecast that a wii is going to be sold out months before xmas when nintendo themselves were caught out!

The villians in all of this are the ebay sellers who buy them at rrp and sell them for every last dime pound or euro they can get. Yeah you cant blame them for making a quick buck, but you can if you wish to and i wish to! I counted one seller on there and he had sold over 40 wii`s and i bet he didnt reserve them all at argos or gamestation or game! He is most probaly someone who owns a game shop and instead of selling them out the front he sold them out the back door on ebay.

I shouldnt even care because i have a wii and the truth is i dont really care but it is actually quite a big issue and i just thought i would put my 2 pennies in.

If my kid wanted one and i couldnt get one unless i paid a hundred pound over the odds then quite simply he would get something else for xmas! Im sure he would understand and i would treat him to an extra game when i could get him one!

When i first used ebay years ago it was all about getting a bargain, bargains are becoming harder and harder to find on there nowadays.

Meh!!