17 replies to this topic

[homerwannabee]

After 4 months of being out people are still having trouble finding the Wii. Does anyone know how long this will last

Edited by homerwannabee, Wed Mar 7, 2007 10:58 PM.

[Lord Helmet]

I think it will be after Christmas 2007. The things are in HUGE demand. I'd be really surprised if Nintendo weren't cranking them out as fast as they could. I just don't see any way that they can catch up until after the next holiday season. The things are sold the second they hit the sales floor. People are still lining up before stores open in order to get one and its March.

Edited by Lord Helmet, Thu Mar 8, 2007 9:35 AM.

[figgler]

The DS has been out for years and the demand is still not being met on a regualr basis

[MCHufnagel]

Lord Helmet, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 10:34 AM, said:

I think it will be after Christmas 2007. The things are in HUGE demand. I'd be really surprised if Nintendo weren't cranking them out as fast as they could. I just don't see any way that they can catch up until after the next holiday season. The things are sold the second they hit the sales floor. People are still lining up before stores open in order to get one and its March.

Here's some food for thought. If Nintendo sells every single Wii they make until the end of 2007, can they sell as many Wii's in one year as they sold Gamecube's in it's entire lifetime?

[jbanes]

MCHufnagel, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 2:20 PM, said:

Can they sell as many Wii's in one year as they sold Gamecube's in it's entire lifetime?

More, I should think. Potentially, a lot more. All depends on if they can keep up the pace of manufacturing.

[AussieAtari]

In what has to be a first for Australia, there are plenty of Wii's in stock reasonably widely in my area and even on special at $10 off.

I was talking to my local game shop owner and he reckons consoles have a three week wait at worst from Nintendo Australia, and yet the Wii is the fastest selling console ever in Oz (I know, our population is so much lower then everywhere else, apart from NZ), but it appears that Nintendo Aus received a greater percentage per population share than pretty much anywhere else.

Is this the same in other PAL countries?

Edited by AussieAtari, Thu Mar 8, 2007 7:49 PM.

[jbanes]

AussieAtari, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 7:49 PM, said:

Is this the same in other PAL countries?

From what I've heard, yes. PAL countries (which have never been as interested in game consoles) having been setting sales records with the Wii.

For example: http://www.reghardwa...k_sales_record/

[Jess Ragan]

I'm happy for Nintendo's initial success, but I hope they don't plan to rest on their laurels as they did with the GameCube and Nintendo 64. If they're not planning for the long haul, the Wii will still ultimately be regarded as a failure when the software dries up and the third parties retreat to Nintendo's competitors.

JR

[AtariJr]

i think the N is more prepaired this time around for the long haul than the last 2 gens for sure. in fact, if i can find that interview , they talked with nintendo and they said they were frustrated with the gamecube and n64's end of life, as they seem to run out of steam, and said they really wanted to do it differnt with the revolution (what it was called then). i think its smart of them to evenly distribute thier 1st party games instead of shoving evrything in the first bit and saying "we're done for 6 months, have fun". also, because of this unexpected popularity more 3rd parties are signing on, some cant even get dev kits.. . so i think we'll see more games that will help it live longer than the other two systems.

while i dont think it will sell as much as ps2, i think it will have a similar life to it, being that it will have many games (not as many though) and will still be bought when the next gen starts to roll out. honestly, i thought id see systems starting in january.. this is relaly suprising there is so much demand for this system, i mean its fun, but damn... and yes, i would laugh if they sold more wiis this year than all of the gcs sold in its life... speaking of which, how many cubes were sold (not shipped , sony lovers hehe) and how many wiis have been sold so far?

[jbanes]

AtariJr, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 9:41 PM, said:

while i dont think it will sell as much as ps2, i think it will have a similar life to it, being that it will have many games (not as many though)

Personally, I'd rather the Wii didn't have as many games as the PS2. The PS2 had every bit of shovelware under the sun, making it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'd much rather that the Wii focus more on fewer, high-quality games that are worth the money. Granted, the start is a bit bumpy, but Nintendo is just getting ramped up. If the time comes when every publisher is knocking down their door to make a crappy game, I sinerely hope that Nintendo puts some sort of limits on them.

Quote

speaking of which, how many cubes were sold (not shipped , sony lovers hehe) and how many wiis have been sold so far?

Here are the approximate numbers, give or take a few million (or thousand in the Wii's case) for each system.

GCNs: 21 million
Wiis: 5 million
PS2: 120 million

[AtariJr]

jbanes, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 8:23 PM, said:

AtariJr, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 9:41 PM, said:

while i dont think it will sell as much as ps2, i think it will have a similar life to it, being that it will have many games (not as many though)

Personally, I'd rather the Wii didn't have as many games as the PS2. The PS2 had every bit of shovelware under the sun, making it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'd much rather that the Wii focus more on fewer, high-quality games that are worth the money. Granted, the start is a bit bumpy, but Nintendo is just getting ramped up. If the time comes when every publisher is knocking down their door to make a crappy game, I sinerely hope that Nintendo puts some sort of limits on them.

Quote

speaking of which, how many cubes were sold (not shipped , sony lovers hehe) and how many wiis have been sold so far?

Here are the approximate numbers, give or take a few million (or thousand in the Wii's case) for each system.

GCNs: 21 million
Wiis: 5 million
PS2: 120 million

lets see, thast for 4 months roughly, so about 8 more of those is 15 mil.. thats not counting december's christmas season... thast kinda sad if it would get close. no wonder nintendo is having such production problems , the probably didnt even dream they could get that much in one year, none the less 4 months.

are those numbers world wide or just america?

[jbanes]

AtariJr, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 11:05 PM, said:

are those numbers world wide or just america?

Worldwide. The NA numbers are actually pretty sad for all but the Wii. For example, only 37 million of those PS2s were sold in the US.

[AtariJr]

jbanes, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 9:26 PM, said:

AtariJr, on Thu Mar 8, 2007 11:05 PM, said:

are those numbers world wide or just america?

Worldwide. The NA numbers are actually pretty sad for all but the Wii. For example, only 37 million of those PS2s were sold in the US.

always amazes me that they sell so many systems in a relatively small country like japan, and the numbers for america are so much lower considering our population and the popularity of video games, abliet not as popular here as in japan.

[AussieAtari]

jbanes, on Fri Mar 9, 2007 1:51 PM, said:

[ PAL countries (which have never been as interested in game consoles)

I disagree and think that it simply comes down to population size, the PS1 and PS2 were/are very big in Oz with a big take up per head compared with other countries, the same for the Wii.

[Steril707]

In germany it's available in almost every store all of the time now, for the last three weeks..

[chrisbid]

third parties flock to hardware sales numbers. if the wii is still selling strong, there will be software.

as far as when supplies will finally saturate demand, the fact that launches are now worldwide means it will take more time for nintendo to find out where the greatest demand is. if you have empty shelves in japan and the us, it will take time to sort out the demand.

[AtariJr]

chrisbid, on Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:07 AM, said:

third parties flock to hardware sales numbers. if the wii is still selling strong, there will be software.

as far as when supplies will finally saturate demand, the fact that launches are now worldwide means it will take more time for nintendo to find out where the greatest demand is. if you have empty shelves in japan and the us, it will take time to sort out the demand.

im kinda curious the percentage of wiis sent to america vs japan vs europe and countries like au. i wonder how much higher of a priority they make japan than us.. and how much less they ship to europe than america.

[AussieAtari]

That's a good question, does anybody know? It would be interesting to get an insight into Nintendo's distrubution ideas based on country and PAL/NTSC.