No creo o me niego a creer que losalbertos siga entre nosotros.
In the video podcast Dean & Nooch on Gaming, hosted by San Jose Mercury News’ Dean Takahashi and Mike Antonucci, Nintendo of America president Fils-Aime addressed the Wii’s continuing short supply.
“The good news is we’re flowing more and more product into the marketplace, and the amount of Wii hardware that will be in North American stores will be unprecedented—substantially more than the launch and substantially more than has been seen to date,” Fils-Aime assured.
Unfortunately for consumers, this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be seeing stockpiles of Wiis on store shelves.
Fils-Aime conceded, “The bad news is that given the level of demand, and given the fact that the more we put in, the more we sell, it is still going to be difficult to get hands on the Wii.”
He said that major retailers will be regularly re-supplied, and gamers will simply have to check with managers at key retailers to find out on what days they get their Wii shipments in.
“…Demand outstrips supply on a worldwide basis,” Fils-Aime said, with product only lasting in stores for a few hours.
Recently, the Financial Times reported that the Wii has become the top-selling console worldwide, beating out more expensive rival Xbox 360, which launched a year before Wii.
”We are not taking our current success lightly. This is a long-term battle,” Fils-Aime said.
Commenting on his competitors, he said, “…360 and PS3 essentially trade share as they alternate on price reductions… Really, none of that is affecting our business.”
The Wii isn’t Nintendo’s only hot item. The handheld DS is still selling piles of units monthly.
Fils-Aime still considers DS momentum to be quite strong, as evidenced by the 383,300 hardware units sold in August in the US ( it was the second-best selling platform after the Wii, which sold 403,600). Fils-Aime said that DS inventory will be “tight,” but not Wii “tight.”
He also quietly reveled in the fact that DS is trouncing Sony’s more powerful PlayStation Portable. “In terms of PSP and [Sony’s new] ‘slim,’ I actually put a unit in my hands yesterday. I think most consumers will be hard-pressed to tell the difference. So I find myself fortunate that [Sony] continues to struggle a little bit.”
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