Planned Wii production boost blocked?
Electronic component shortage blamed
Nintendo may not be able to boost Wii production as planned, it has been alleged - and it's all thanks to the industry-wide components shortage that appears to be hindering notebook production.
Unnamed Taiwanese component makers today told DigiTimes that Nintendo has been forced to delay its plan to ramp up Wii output, a scheme that should have kicked in this past June but, according to the sources, didn't.
In April, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata admitted the company had been unable to foresee the strong demand for its latest games console. Some estimates put the worlwide sales of the machine at more than 10.1m units.
Iwata pledged to "fix this abnormal lack of stock", though he didn't say by how many units Wii production would be increased.
If the latest claims are correct, that increase may not have taken place. The report's sources said there is unlikely to be any significant increase in Wii availability through the rest of 2007.
Still, if Nintendo can indeed rack up sales of 10.1m units or thereabouts - a figure right behind the Xbox 360's tally, and that machine's been on sale for a year longer than the Wii - it's not doing so badly from the so-called shortages.
That said, as the 360 and potentially the PS3 become cheaper to buy - the basic Xbox 360 now costs the same as the Wii in Australia, for example - consumers who can't get a Wii may be tempted to buy an alternative.
COMMENTS
Wii not worldwide
I was in Bangalore last week, I could buy a PS3 for 35,000 Rupees (about £440), I saw an XBOX 360 for sale but did not see a Wii for sale. Of course, I'm sure people are importing them....
It would be interesting to know exactly what components are in short supply, the Wii does not have BluRay, I wonder if it's the PowerPC cores as these are used in the Wii, PS3 and XBOX...
Not worldwide
@Chris: actually there are many countries that the Wii hasn't been launched in yet... I'm in South Africa, and we're hoping that it will be launched here next month, but there's been no announcement yet.
Some people are doing direct imports, but it works out a bit more expensive both for the console and the games - and then you run into the region coding issues on the games as well, once it is officially launched here.
No shortage in the Netherlands either...
It's been possible to get a Wii here (without pre-ordering) for a couple of months now.
Re: shortage of fun.
You don't need to duck flying projectiles from Xbox owners, nobody in the real world ever got hurt by having virtual pixels lobbed at them. A flying Wiimote though, that's a different story.
Wii owners not only have more fun, they're more dangerous to piss off as well :-)
TeeCee
No shortage in Ireland...
..because I work in a small enough music shop, and we have three of them. There are many other branches of our store alone, and plenty of other music/game shop chains...
