Analyst says Nintendo fed Wii-starved US with Japanese stock
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted August 25th 2007 5:35PM
posted August 25th 2007 5:35PM
Despite the launch of the Wii in the US occurring months and months ago, there is still a perceivable shortage of the little white console. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter made his own analysis of the recent upturn in US Wii console sales by predicting that Nintendo filled the gap by diverting manufacturing in Japan to feed the US stores. It's almost beyond belief that Nintendo still hasn't been able to get a grasp on its manufacturing process, over nine months since the Wii was released. Wasn't half the point of focusing on casual gaming -- and therefore lower specs -- that the console would be easy to manufacture in vast quantities?[Via Joystiq]
The Wii's novelty will never wear off if it has great games(which it will, trust me)
I'm sorry, did you say IF it has good games? So you are agreeing there are none now.
The novelty of the wiiremote will wear off only if both Sony and MS follow suit. In fact it's not really a novelty. Instead, some game are "supposed" to play with the motion sensor, just like you need a wheels, light guns, and dance mat, etc.
Judging by the number of my friends who played the Wii (20+ people), NONE of them even asked me to play new XBOX360 games (And I've bought a few of them as well) ever since I got the Wii. You'll have to be really ignorant to realize that console spec doesn't mean anything.
And as a matter of fact, I've been wanting to get a PS3 since launch but somehow I still haven't got one. You could say that it's the price but I've already spent probably over $1000 on 2 Wii consoles and a bunch of games/accessories. Sure I'd love the PS3's graphics, but I'd rather have more fun instead. For FPS games, there's a PC for them.
It's called the The Legend of Zelda: TWILIGHT PRINCESS! I swear that I could play through Halo's launch night and I would never get up.
But other than that ,no there are not a lot of AAA tiltes YET. A lot of third-party devs are trying to step up the production (both quality and quantity) of Wii titles so what I'm saying is that you should just wait a little longer that's all.
I'm sorry sdman but last time I checked the only thing of significance coming to the Nintendo Wii are basically revamped Gamecube titles with added motion controls: Metroid Prime 3, Super Smash Brothers, and Super Mario Galaxy. Nothing else on Wii is worth mentioning.
Xbox 360 is basically the PS2/Xbox hybrid of this generation. We are getting much more in terms of service and games in general. XBLA easily best most of the Virtual Console, with improvements to older titles and new games that we haven't played coming out. Xbox 360 still offers the best online console gaming service and the games....man there are too many: Blue Dragon, Alan Wake, Too Human, Banjo 3, Halo 3, Jericho, Mass Effect, Stranglehold, Madden 08, GTA IV, Bioshock, Assassins Creed, Soul Calibur IV, Two Worlds etc.
I'm sorry but you should read my response to Maestro. That is the same thing I'd say here.
Oh and to respond to your comments on Virtual Console, I would personally really enjoy playing games from the past on a console I could easily access and not have to buy the cartridges (e.g. I saw Sonic at the thrift store once but no Genesises) or console. The Wii Points is kinda sorta inconvenant though.
The only two things I have about XBL is
a) I wish they had brought a little innovation i.e. PlayStation Home instead of just evolving XBL from the original XBOX.
b)It's not free, and I can get pretty much the same thing on Nintendo and Sony free of charge.
c)Where's the f'ing web browser (kind of one of my favourite features on the Wii.
These are just my opinions, not facts. Your opinion is your opinion, and that's fine so let's just all get along, alright?
If you really want a Wii and live in the New York area, go to the Nintendo World Store by 8AM (any day). Other than that, you'll probably get lucky eventually with the other stores. I still have my PS2 and I was hoping to replace it with a PS3. It doesn't look like that will happen this year and who knows about next year.
I would like to play GTA 4 next year, so I may consider the Xbox 360 once they go to 45nm, the current system is too unreliable for my taste.
Dang, when I read the title, I was hoping that we were being sold Japanese Wiis, that way I could get myself one and have fun playing some Famicom games (like Crisis Force) via the VC. :( There goes that.
Ahem....Conrad, hey buddy...the word's perceptible, not perceivable!
@blah
You forget that all the game franchises you mention are legendary game franchises, k? And no they are not overrated like Halo (albeit only slightly) is. The reason they are still published is because they brought and continue to bring something new to the table. I don't even think that Mario will ever be let go because then people won't have anything to remember of when they think of gaming's past.
Okay nevermind the Wii is all good. I got one at Target around 11am. Me and my girlfriend love it. It will sit next to my 360 in harmony. Wii60 FTW!
Luckily for Nintendo, the market for casual gamers (normal people) greatly outnumbers the hardcore gamers geeks who needs spec sheet to put a value on anything.
Wii is just plain fun. Sure, technically in the video audio and processing technology it's a few generations behind the xbox 360 and ps3. But it's LEAPS AND BOUNDS above xb360 and PS3 in its interaction concept. It lets people to make use of their natural movements to control objects and avatars in virtual world.
It's time for electronic gaming to be integrated more gracefully into the 'normal life' as we know it.
And for the hardcore geeks to be reintegrated to the society by leaving their archaic mouse+keyboard combo or gamepad and live life like the rest of us.
Okay, if I distill all the fanboy flame wars I see I get:
a) PS3 costs a ton of $$, great specs, no games= not much playing going on
b) 360 costs less $$ (but still a substantial amount), plenty of games, almost a third of units brick = not much playing going on
c) Wii, costs a LOT less money, has a middling amount of games, reliable = TONS of gaming
Why are we arguing, if you want amazing specs, you know what to buy, if you want almost as amazing specs, and a willing to risk a lot of time with no console you know what to buy, if you want some good clean, cheap fun you know what to buy.
The title of this article is misleading. To say that Nintendo fed the US market with Japanese stock implies that they shipped Japanese market units here, which would be illegal since Nintendo region locked the Wii and Japanese consoles would not be able to run US market games. It would have been better to say that Nintendo gave US consoles production priority over Japanese ones.
Nothing at all to do with the fact that demand is so high for the Wii nd not for PS3 and XBOX, might have something to with them not manafacturing enough, it's not like they can just bung out an extra million units at a moments notice because stocks are a bit low.