Perrin Kaplan says the Wii shortage to "last for some time"

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http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/11/perrin-kaplan-expects-wii-shortages-to-last-for-some-time/

"There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see a supply / demand situation last for some time," says Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's VP of marketing and corporate affairs.
Click to expand...

I guess if you're still looking for the Wii during this shortage, you're going to be looking for a little while longer.

Or maybe this is Kaplan logic? So that would mean that the Wii will finally meet demand very soon. ;)
 
"Some time" means "the rest of 2007", if you--oh, you didn't ask me? Well, here I am rambling anyway.

See, 'conventional wisdom' said that the shortage would begin to end this month, be pretty much over by Memorial Day, and the Wii would be easily attainable until the upcoming holiday shopping season. Now, however, it seems that their manufactured/manufacturing issue (circle one) shortage will be sustained long enough so that by the time they'll supposedly catch up with demand, it'll be the aforementioned Q4 and the demand will ramp up all over again.

The average Nintendonut would look at my sacrilegious posts on this site and firmly state that I don't deserve my Wii, 'cause I'm a nonbeliever and play my 360 exponentially more, but here I am, a heretic and a Launch Day owner. And I ain't givin' it back, you overzealous fucks.
 
I'd like to know if people are still showing up early to stores to get one.

Also, I'm still surprised by the prices on Ebay, they've come down slightly, but just slightly. I wonder how long it is going to take before these stop selling out. Do you really think it could make it until the holiday season and still be selling out (thus making it until after Christmas before it ends)? That would be something to see.

Also, Super Paper Mario has exceeded my expectations... lovin it...
 
Well, Perrin has been known to not know her ass from a hole in the ground in the past so take it with a grain of salt.
 
[quote name='Corvin']Well, Perrin has been known to not know her ass from a hole in the ground in the past so take it with a grain of salt.[/quote]

she should be fired.
 
Yes, I'm sure a continued shortage at this point works in their favor in ANY possible way.

I thought the drought not being remedied in Q2 shouldve been a sign to the jollydwarfs of the world that there was a real problem, since everyone was suggesting that they were withholding stock FOR Q2.

Little did I imagine that they would explain the continued shortage as part of their master plan.
 
[quote name='panasonic']she should be fired.[/QUOTE]
If the above is true, she needs to be shown where her ass is, not given salt grains or fired. I feel bad for her. I'm pretty freakin' stupid, but at least I know where my ass is.

And I'm surprised that the shortage has extended this far. It's not like Nintendo's using ridiculously expensive/rare components, and it's not like they didn't see this demand coming (they've had over 6 months now to play catch up). Part of me wonders if Nintendo is playing shenanigans. I doubt it--what's to be gained from shenanigans--but why would they drag their ass like this on meeting demand?

Shenanigans.
 
[quote name='dothog']If the above is true, she needs to be shown where her ass is, not given salt grains or fired. I feel bad for her. I'm pretty freakin' stupid, but at least I know where my ass is.

And I'm surprised that the shortage has extended this far. It's not like Nintendo's using ridiculously expensive/rare components, and it's not like they didn't see this demand coming (they've had over 6 months now to play catch up). Part of me wonders if Nintendo is playing shenanigans. I doubt it--what's to be gained from shenanigans--but why would they drag their ass like this on meeting demand?

Shenanigans.[/quote]I think this is more of a production capacity issue (if it is a technical issue) than a parts shortage or anything that is usually the cause of 360 or PS3-like shortages. If the Wii assembly line is moving as fast as it can, that's all you can do unless you make additional Wii assembly lines, which are sort of wasteful unless the demand won't ever abate. The fact that it's old tech and you have a boatload of it means nothing if you can't fit anymore of them on the line:

"We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can. The number of units that we have been able to produce has far exceeded our hardware production in the past and the production levels of a lot of our competitors but demand continues to be really high. People are being really diligent about working with retailers to locate one but we are cognisent of the fact that a lot of fans are not able to get their hands on one yet. We are asking them to be patient and to know that we are working on this as fast as we can."
Click to expand...
So it's possible they are "artificially" extending the shortage by just not increasing capacity beyond what will be useful to them in the long-term. So more a result of inaction rather than intentionally holding back stock.
 
[quote name='evanft']I wouldn't mind finding her ass for her.[/QUOTE]

enjoy ur 50 year old woman

perrin4.jpg
 
They will never fire her. The woman will be with the company until she dies. She was playing a GBA while giving birth to her child.

Now who's hardcore?
 
[quote name='Apossum']enjoy ur 50 year old woman

perrin4.jpg
[/quote]

Close your eyes and make believe and you can be anywhere...
 
Based purely on the fact that she said it and the aforementioned Kaplan logic, I predict that in the next 1-2 months Wiis will be readily available.
 
oops... I think I was confusing Kaplan with Beth Lewelyn (sp?) who is much more fuckable, as far as Nintendo executives go.


It sounds to me like Nintendo is manufacturing as many Wii's as they can. To make anymore they would have to build an entirely new factory or assembly line, which I would imagine would cost tens of millions of dollars if not more.





[quote name='Apossum']enjoy ur 50 year old woman

perrin4.jpg
[/quote]
 
ahh the laws of supply and demand. you have to love it. well i guess ill be playing my friend's wii a little longer until i can actually get my own.
 
[quote name='dothog']And I'm surprised that the shortage has extended this far. It's not like Nintendo's using ridiculously expensive/rare components,[...][/QUOTE]
One theory is that the accelerometers in the remote and nunchuk are the bottleneck in production. Up until now, that kind of device has never been used extensively in mass-market products (I think the ones in cars are a different type of device). With the Wii, Nintendo needs two accelerometers per console, plus one for every extra remote and nunchuk. After 6 million sales, they've probably needed close to 25 million accelerometers, which could easily be far more than they've ever need to produce in the past.
 
[quote name='rohlfinator']One theory is that the accelerometers in the remote and nunchuk are the bottleneck in production. Up until now, that kind of device has never been used extensively in mass-market products (I think the ones in cars are a different type of device). With the Wii, Nintendo needs two accelerometers per console, plus one for every extra remote and nunchuk. After 6 million sales, they've probably needed close to 25 million accelerometers, which could easily be far more than they've ever need to produce in the past.[/QUOTE]
Who knows, maybe that's it. I wasn't suggesting that it had to be the parts, I just figured that's all that is left seeing as how they could anticipate demand and increase production (while I understand they have only so many factories that can produce so many consoles per month, I find it hard and difficult and hard to believe that they can't ramp things up enough get ahead of demand in a 6-7 month time span. While demand is great, it's not overwhelming, like the Cabbage Patch thing so long ago.

The only thing about the accelerometer bottleneck is that I doubt an accelerometer, even one specialized for a video game console controller, is going to be hard for somebody to produce. They're fairly common devices in a huge amount of applications, and in the past 5 years they've been incorporated into a ton of consumer electronics. (EDIT: More on accelerometers from Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer)

Though there probably aren't shenanigans involved here, I thought it appropriate to call shenanigans just for the sake of calling shenanigans.
 
I think it's time for a good 'ole fashion'd showdown:

perrin4.jpg


VS

reno_031799twp.jpg


I think it's high time for a Reno-ing.

I.e., IT'S RENO TIME
 
[quote name='Strell']I think it's time for a good 'ole fashion'd showdown[/QUOTE]
Why make it a competition? There's enough of the hog to go 'round for both those lasses. Saddle up n' ride, girls.
 
[quote name='zatos']I'd like to know if people are still showing up early to stores to get one.

Also, I'm still surprised by the prices on Ebay, they've come down slightly, but just slightly. I wonder how long it is going to take before these stop selling out. Do you really think it could make it until the holiday season and still be selling out (thus making it until after Christmas before it ends)? That would be something to see.
[/QUOTE]

every store manager i've spoken to at Target, TRU, BB, etc. [in akron/cuyahoga falls ohio area] says that everytime they have a shipment there is a line approx. 2 hours before the store opens. and their supply is always sold out within the first hour of opening.
 
[quote name='rohlfinator']One theory is that the accelerometers in the remote and nunchuk are the bottleneck in production. Up until now, that kind of device has never been used extensively in mass-market products (I think the ones in cars are a different type of device). With the Wii, Nintendo needs two accelerometers per console, plus one for every extra remote and nunchuk. After 6 million sales, they've probably needed close to 25 million accelerometers, which could easily be far more than they've ever need to produce in the past.[/QUOTE]

Which would make sense, but I can find Wiimotes and Nunchucks everywhere now, so I doubt that is the problem.
 
[quote name='pasteater']every store manager i've spoken to at Target, TRU, BB, etc. [in akron/cuyahoga falls ohio area] says that everytime they have a shipment there is a line approx. 2 hours before the store opens. and their supply is always sold out within the first hour of opening.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. Isn't this unprecedented? I'm starting to wonder whether or not this so called shortage isn't exactly that Nintendo isn't making enough... but that demand is THAT HUGE. Time will tell, I guess.

Oh and damn you Super Paper Mario! Guess I've been playing it too much, last night and today my brain keeps trying to flip things like the words I'm typing. Checking off one of those 'video game obsession' traits from 1up.
 
[quote name='botticus']So it's possible they are "artificially" extending the shortage by just not increasing capacity beyond what will be useful to them in the long-term. So more a result of inaction rather than intentionally holding back stock.[/quote] I think you nailed it on the head right there. Nintendo is not going to rush and lay out on capital assets (ie production facilities) to meet short term demand. They play the long term and always have. But there is no question that ANY company would like demand to be slightly higher than supply.

It is funny reading all the comments at the bottom of that Joystiq article. Actually it is kinda sad... and funny. The podcast in which this news came from is not bad either. I am listening to it right now.
 
It's too bad they aren't available, though. The novelty has kind of worn off for me now. I have TP for the Cube so...that leaves Super Paper Mario as the only other must have. Eventually they will have some available...but I will prolly have an Elite and Mass Effect by then.
 
[quote name='zatos']Thanks. Isn't this unprecedented? I'm starting to wonder whether or not this so called shortage isn't exactly that Nintendo isn't making enough... but that demand is THAT HUGE. Time will tell, I guess.

[/quote]

I agree that it isn't a "shortage", but that the demand truly is that big. A price tag that is much lower than the competition and tremendous word of mouth will do that for a product.
 
At this point, it is a demand issue. The Wii has sold 6.5 million + units. That means that Nintendo has had to produce around 7 million units. That's absurd for this early in the console's release. Even if this isn't entirely new tech, Nintendo couldn't have expected to be selling so many goddamn systems especially given recent sales of their past home systems. The Wii is radioactive at this point five months into its release. No console has ever been this hot, this late into it's release. What's worse is that the Wii is cheap enough that it'll be a hot summer item too. We could see Wii shortages through August even if Nintendo puts out another 10 million consoles.
 
Sheesh is it really that hard to find? I mean I don't see it on shelves but everybody I know who really wanted one has gotten one by now (in fact, most got theirs a couple months ago). I picked mines up back in January.
 
[quote name='NewSc2']Sheesh is it really that hard to find? I mean I don't see it on shelves but everybody I know who really wanted one has gotten one by now (in fact, most got theirs a couple months ago). I picked mines up back in January.[/quote]

You have to be there when a shipment comes in. THey are off the shelves and can't be found anywhere pretty much within the hour they arrive.
 
Well yes it is hard to find. You still need to show up before a store opens to get a voucher to buy a system. It's that simple.
 
[quote name='NewSc2']Sheesh is it really that hard to find? I mean I don't see it on shelves but everybody I know who really wanted one has gotten one by now (in fact, most got theirs a couple months ago). I picked mines up back in January.[/quote]

Yeah it definitely is. I work a block away from the Nintendo World Store, and they never have them. People wait in line in the morning before the store opens just to hear if they will have any in that day. They sell them out the minute they get them in. Once every 2-3 weeks I can tell they got a big shipment in cos theres a hundred people on line in the store.

I got my Wii on launch day and I havent seen one in a store since.
 
In the end, Nintendo's not going to pay to be able to make 5 million consoles a month when that demand will only last so long, and then you'd be throwing money away and having product rot on store shelves.

They are going to need to something to get the numbers up a bit, but the demand is just enormous. You don't sell 1/2 a million systems a month and be sold out in every store because you're just intentially short-changing the market.
 
I live in Portland, ME and every store is sold out. Even if a store is getting a shipment in they are sold out within the hour.

[quote name='NewSc2']Sheesh is it really that hard to find? I mean I don't see it on shelves but everybody I know who really wanted one has gotten one by now (in fact, most got theirs a couple months ago). I picked mines up back in January.[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='auralia']i kind of laugh at this because i see wii's quite often where i am (georiga).[/QUOTE]

That's wild. I've *never* seen a Wii sitting on the shelf in any store near me. Never. I've been to stores just hours after they opened when new shipments arrived and saw the astounded looks on the employees' faces at how fast they keep selling out. But an actual Wii? Nope.

Heck, wasn't till this past week that I've actually noticed consistent decent stock of the various controllers in local stores.
 
Anyone want to guess how long it will be until someone else at Nintendo says that Perrin is wrong? ;)
They shouldn't even let her speak to anyone outside the company.
 
[quote name='NewSc2']Sheesh is it really that hard to find? I mean I don't see it on shelves but everybody I know who really wanted one has gotten one by now (in fact, most got theirs a couple months ago). I picked mines up back in January.[/QUOTE]

Well, completely anecdotal, but when I was in EB taking advantage of their trade 2 deal the clerk there was jealous that I had a Wii - he fucking works at EB Games and hasn't been able to get one yet! He said he was all set to get one on launch but the manager gave it to a person with less seniority (he seemed bitter about that still :lol:). I'm guessing that the shortages since then have meant all incoming systems go to customers and he's been out of luck.

As for myself, of course I haven't been looking, but I've only ever seen one in a store since launch - and that was at the *least* likely time as well. It was 3 days before Christmas and Gamecrazy had a shipment that had lasted all day for some reason. I was in there at 8pm and they had one left.

And furyk - if shortages last through August there won't be much reprieve before the shortages ramp up again for Christmas '07 :lol:. Maybe Aug-Oct they won't be *impossible* to get, just moderatly hard, but then Nov/Dec, forget it - especially if they manage to push out SSBB or Mario Galaxy then. I think it is imperative for Nintendo to get 1 if not both of these games (or at least Mario Galaxy and Metroid) out then to *really* bury the other two systems this holiday. I mean, I don't want to see them put the other two out of business or anything, but I want enough damn Wii's out there that we get some incredible third party stuff this go around (hoping for more JRPG's and some of the quirkier stuff that was on PS2). And I want the endless talk about no third party support for Nintendo consoles (and how "horrible" the Gamecube was as a result) to stop once and for all!
 
Other than launch day when I got my Wii, I haven't seen one in stores. About half the time when I go into stores now I'll see a Wiimote or two, maybe a nunchuck and some Wii points or a CC. Rarely do I see more than two or three of them though. Other than release day for Wii Play when I got it, I haven't been able to find Wii Play either.

I'm glad, it's a great system that could be even better with more third party support, and if sales keep up it'll get that support.
 
[quote name='drfunk85'] Other than release day for Wii Play when I got it, I haven't been able to find Wii Play either.
[/QUOTE]

Well, now, while I have had the same experience with the Wii and the remotes to a certain extent (though they seem pretty common now) I can't say the same for Wii Play. I see piles of those at every store I go to. Same with DS Lites. They seem to have solved the shortages on those things - just not the Wii system itself.
 
Thanks to the preorder shenanigans at GameRush I had to put up with, they held a wii for me and I finally got one mid february. Much like everyone else, since then I have not seen another one for sale since a day or two ago when some lucky older folks bought one at an EB.

As for the accessories in my area, the wiimotes are plentiful but nunchuks, and the classic controller to a lesser extent, are very hard to find.
 
[quote name='io']if shortages last through August there won't be much reprieve before the shortages ramp up again for Christmas '07 :lol:. Maybe Aug-Oct they won't be *impossible* to get, just moderatly hard, but then Nov/Dec, forget it - especially if they manage to push out SSBB or Mario Galaxy then.[/QUOTE]

They need to come up with a serious plan to stockpile a huge amount of Wiis for each territory for the holidays. Launch shortages are understandable. It's just frustrating as hell being half a year out from launch and watching Nintendo playfully throw their hands up and innocently burble "we're too popular and the factory people don't know how to build more!"

For a company who has acknowledged that the Wii's success is show-stoppingly critical, they sure seem to be doing everything they can to hold back the runaway success (game drought with two of the first big titles being GameCube ports, virtually zero on-line support, castrated production capabilities, failing out of the gates to secure more quality 3rd party support, etc.).

I guess I care too much about Nintendo's success this generation, and that's the reason it ticks me off so much to stroll around in freakin' mid-April '07 and not be able to see a single Wii on a shelf and then see "get your Wii here!" mini-launches by stores... where there are only 20-30 Wii's available. It kinda feels like Soviet-era rationing, doesn't it? Like you expect they're going to include a bottle of vodka and a loaf of black bread with each Wii.

The Joystiq/Kotaku/1-Up backlash is gonna come and it's gonna be bloody and brutal. Wombat, too, is sure to hurl some poo. Whether any of it ultimately matters is another thing altogether. :)
 
[quote name='Scobie']They need to come up with a serious plan to stockpile a huge amount of Wiis for each territory for the holidays. Launch shortages are understandable. It's just frustrating as hell being half a year out from launch and watching Nintendo playfully throw their hands up and innocently burble "we're too popular and the factory people don't know how to build more!"

For a company who has acknowledged that the Wii's success is show-stoppingly critical, they sure seem to be doing everything they can to hold back the runaway success (game drought with two of the first big titles being GameCube ports, virtually zero on-line support, castrated production capabilities, failing out of the gates to secure more quality 3rd party support, etc.).

I guess I care too much about Nintendo's success this generation, and that's the reason it ticks me off so much to stroll around in freakin' mid-April '07 and not be able to see a single Wii on a shelf and then see "get your Wii here!" mini-launches by stores... where there are only 20-30 Wii's available. It kinda feels like Soviet-era rationing, doesn't it? Like you expect they're going to include a bottle of vodka and a loaf of black bread with each Wii.

The Joystiq/Kotaku/1-Up backlash is gonna come and it's gonna be bloody and brutal. Wombat, too, is sure to hurl some poo. Whether any of it ultimately matters is another thing altogether. :)[/QUOTE]

There's a couple of things I have to take issue with. You can blame Nintendo for hardware shortages, but the game drought isn't their fault. Nintendo has put out six (Wii Sports, Play, LoZ, Wario Ware, Excite Truck, and Super Paper Mario) first party releases for the Wii where as Microsoft only put out two in the same time period. Furthermore, Nintendo has secured third party support. It's just that the games that the third parties have put out have been pure crap. We've had only a handful of quality titles put out by the third parties (Rayman, Sonic, Elebits, DBZ, M:UA, etc) while most of them have put out tons of truly awful games.

Furthermore Nintendo has put out around seven million consoles which is a huge number as far home launch consoles go. The simple fact is that people are still lining up every Sunday the Wii is advetised and most places can't keep them on the shelves. If anything, Nintendo has learned from Microsoft. Remember back last April-October when there were stacks upon stacks of unsold 360s rotting in your local Best Buy (even when the number of 360s in the marketplace were relatively small)?

I also imagine that the local Best Buy/CC/Toys R Us/etc is more responsible for these mini launches then Nintendo is. It's easier to sell guy X on the three year warranty, three games, two extra controllers and nunchuks after he's been sitting outside for a couple of hours then if he walked into a store and just bought the system and the game of the moment. I know I wasn't the only one who bought Red Steel (or Rampage that I ultimately returned) at launch knowing it was a pretty terrible game because of delerium.

I think Nintendo should have uped production a lot more then they already have, and I agree that the online system is retarded, but I think I'm over my post Wii launch despair/hating Nintendo phase. I can say that a lot of the post launch problems aren't their fault.
 
[quote name='Scobie']
I guess I care too much about Nintendo's success this generation, and that's the reason it ticks me off so much to stroll around in freakin' mid-April '07 and not be able to see a single Wii on a shelf and then see "get your Wii here!" mini-launches by stores... where there are only 20-30 Wii's available. It kinda feels like Soviet-era rationing, doesn't it? Like you expect they're going to include a bottle of vodka and a loaf of black bread with each Wii.
[/QUOTE]

Me too. :D
 
I've seen Wiis exactly three times in the wild, twice on one day.

The first was in early February, in Target. They had two. I debated getting one, but was still convinced (at the time) that I could get one at EB.

Then, two weeks later, I saw one in Gamestop, being sold, and two more in the nearby Target. I caved and bought one. At the time, I felt bad about doing so -- I wanted to use my EB credit -- but now I'm glad I did.

Since then, I've been in Target, BB, and TRU tons of times and not seen a single one. I always check, just for laughs. If I were actually trying to find one, it wouldn't be funny. And every time I'm in EB/GS, someone asks or calls for the Wii and they never have one.

I was one of the ones who thought Wiis would be everywhere in February. I was convinced that Nintendo had made a ton or would be sure to crank them out quickly. I would have scoffed at the idea they'd be hard to find in April.

For awhile, I thought that there might be some Wii-specific component that was a bottleneck in the manufacturing process. But this would imply the motion sensing or detecting stuff. That made sense when remotes and nunchucks were as rare as the consoles, but they're not anymore. If these were the bottleneck, I would expect more of them to be held back from the market to be included with systems and that's clearly not the case.

I think that the demand is really there. While Nintendo may have dreamed of doing this well with the Wii, they certainly couldn't plan on it. They probably planned production with modest, achievable goals because businesses can't afford to have tons of inventory that they can't sell, even if they will sell it eventually.

The only possibility that I think is likely is that early this year Nintendo may have decided to keep demand high and availability low. The reason for this is that it keeps the console as a desirable, sought after item with lots of buzz while the number of games, especially must-have games, increases to the point that people don't complain about lack of games and that there's a steady stream of new games and (god help me for this phrase) things that keep people excited about their Wiis.

I just hope they deliver on that, like they eventually did with the DS.
 
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