I think there will be a shortage by the end of the year, if they dont blow their current estimate out of the water.
There are 4 million units WORLDWIDE by the end of the year. Lets say North America gets half of that. Thats 1 million at launch, and 1 million by the end of the year.
Actually, funny you should bring that up.
From Kotaku (and keep in mind, I hate EA, but that's irrelevant here):
EA says the Wii will be much more readily available, with upwards of 1.4 million consoles in North America by years end, which just goes to show you that creating consoles with parts that are readily available is a good plan.
That's...not quite what a lot of the 'optimists' (read: overconfident) were thinking, is it? I'll bet most people were banking on at least two million by January 1st, 2007 in the States.
So tell me I'm posting from a Waffle House while wearing flip-flops, but regardless of what Toys R Us gets for Launch Day, this is still going to be a very difficult system to secure before Christmas if you don't get a preorder in and aren't willing to linesit for at least a few hours a couple weeks from now.
Wow, just over two weeks!