Nintendo Wii Flying Off Shelves, Facing Supply Shortages

Nintendo achieved its best week for Wii sales in the U.S. last week since the console's debut-week sales a year ago, with 350,000 units sold, compared to 300,000 sold the week prior. While the strong sales keep Nintendo on track to meet its upward revised fiscal target of 17.5M console sales, the company has a major problem of replenishing store shelves. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime called the shortage of Wii consoles a "disappointment," saying "a shortage benefits no one." Fils-Aime blamed the company's misestimate of demand and said, "We need to be more bullish about the potential for the Wii," in an interview with the Associated Press. Nintendo has increased its monthly volume of Wii production to 1.8M consoles, from 1.2M previously, but will still not be able to meet demand. Nintendo's original estimate for fiscal 2008 (ending in March) Wii sales was 14.5M consoles. Nintendo said it also sold 653,000 DS portable consoles during the week Nov. 18 - 24. Nintendo's sales in Japan remain robust, but the Wii was surpassed by Sony's PlayStation 3 for the first time in the weeks ended Nov. 11 and Nov. 18, after Sony released a cheaper 40GB model PS3, according to a leading game magazine's survey. Ordinary shares of Nintendo gained 0.2% to ¥62,200 in Tokyo. Nintendo's ADRs rose 0.5% to $71.90 on Tuesday.

Sources: Press release, Associated Press
Commentary: Sony Climbs on News of Dubai Investment; PS3 Tops Wii • Nintendo Looks to Sustain Popularity of DS, Wii • Nintendo Raises Forecast; FQ2 Mostly In-line
Stocks to watch: NTDOY.PK. Competitors: SNE, MSFT

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Comments

[jcrash]

FYI - one of the main reasons this is happening is Ebay.

People are buying 20 or more at a time online with difference CC's and at stores with friends and selling them at a $100 premium.

I'd expect the situation to clear up pretty quickly after Xmas.

[Frank Li]

But if people are buying to resell them at a premium, that means there's a ton of demand.