backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 65 comment(s) - last by Zensen.. on Dec 4 at 11:31 AM
Nintendo achieves record sales during Black Friday week

It may be hard to believe, but Wii hype could be greater this holiday season than during the same time last year.

Nintendo said that it sold more product during the Thanksgiving shopping week than at any other time in its history – an achievement thanks to more than 653,000 DS systems and 350,000 Wii consoles sold in the week.

Sales of the Nintendo DS hit a record high for the company, surpassing the previous mark of 600,000 Game Boy Advance systems sold during the same period in the U.S. in 2005.

Although the DS will easily be the top selling game system of the year, all the attention is still on the Wii. The 350,000 sold for the week represent the highest one-week U.S. sales total outside since launch more than one year ago.

"As shoppers look for ways to maximize their limited holiday spending money, they turn to gifts that can be used by the entire family," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Wii and Nintendo DS offer something for every member of the family. They're the most fun video game experiences at the most affordable price."

Even with the Wii being the top selling console of this generation, demand for the machine is still at an all time high. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime reportedly spent last Friday and Saturday doing some holiday shopping at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Toys “R” Us, unable to find stock of his company’s hot product.

"I couldn't find a single Wii system on the shelves — literally as I was walking into a Wal-Mart at 11 a.m., someone was walking out with the last one," Fils-Aime said in an AP story. "Consumers are buying every game we can put into the system."

Fils-Aime dismissed the idea that Nintendo was intentionally constraining supply of the Wii as a sales tactic. "A shortage benefits no one," he said. "We're disappointed. This was all about how we didn't accurately estimate demand. We need to be more bullish about the potential for the Wii."

Nintendo is currently producing 1.8 million Wii consoles monthly, but still expects that demand to outstrip supply throughout the holiday season.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Demand worldwide
By intogamer on 11/28/2007 10:34:32 AM , Rating: 2
I'm sure the UK/Canada/AUS and the rest of the world can account for demand. They were last to be launched also.

Don't forget Japan too.

Wii pretty much sells its self. just-short-of-limited supplies keeps the demand steady

I don't think Ninteno wants to end up like the XBox360. Nintendo does not like the price cuts




RE: Demand worldwide
By bakerj5 on 11/28/2007 11:03:00 AM , Rating: 1
where does the Canada account into high demand?
If anything there is less demand for the Wii here. They sat on the shelves for months until around Christmas time than they started selling but for the longest time you could pick up a wii anywheres, and we aren't last to launch we get everything when the United States does... The UK is last along with Aus.


RE: Demand worldwide
By mmntech on 11/28/2007 11:54:21 AM , Rating: 2
Where are you? In the Toronto area, I've only seen them on the shelf once this past summer, at a Costco. The first week they went on sale, the Best Buy in Mississauga was picked clean.


RE: Demand worldwide
By Haven Bartton on 11/28/2007 1:25:28 PM , Rating: 2
Say what? I'm in Vancouver on the west coast and I have only ever once seen Wiis in stock. I only managed to get one by buying it off a coworker who wasn't playing it anymore.


RE: Demand worldwide
By Jasio on 11/29/2007 11:03:19 AM , Rating: 2
The EB Games by my house in South Surrey has about a dozen in stock most of the time. They've been sitting on the shelves ready to go since about March 2007. The store manager says they always restock regularly.


RE: Demand worldwide
By Hase0 on 11/29/2007 11:49:21 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
According to the 2006 census, Surrey's population was 394,976 in June, 2006.

Source: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/prof...

That might explain the abundance of Wii's


RE: Demand worldwide
By Jasio on 11/29/2007 6:44:09 PM , Rating: 2
Hardly, since Surrey is part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District/Lower Mainland:

http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/prof...


RE: Demand worldwide
By animedude on 11/29/2007 7:04:31 PM , Rating: 2
Surrey to me is where are old people live :p.


RE: Demand worldwide
By Flunk on 11/28/2007 11:07:17 AM , Rating: 1
Wii's are perfectly easy to get in Canada. You just walk into any store that sells games and ask. The stock shortage thing only really lasted until the end of last January. I wouldn't even know about any shortages if it weren't for Daily Tech. Maybe it will get a bit worse around Christmas but I doubt it. Most kids who really wanted one already have one and adults can wait for things.


RE: Demand worldwide
By myterrybear on 11/28/2007 2:17:14 PM , Rating: 2
I'd love to know where you see them easy to get.

Took me 2 tries & over 2 months before I was able to get a Wii thru Dell Canada.

Have to say ... its been worth the efford !! Wii fitness has helped me loose a ton of weight already :)


RE: Demand worldwide
By boredg on 11/29/2007 1:11:44 PM , Rating: 2
I have to disagree with you there, I work at a Futureshop in the Greater Toronto Area, and i usually end up saying "sorry not in stock" about 5-6 times a day. when we do have them in stock, theyre gone within a matter of hours. the demand is so high, that we dont reserve the product for more than an hour even if we do have it in stock.


RE: Demand worldwide
By aos007 on 11/28/2007 11:59:17 AM , Rating: 2
Wii's were indeed easy to find in Canada in the last few months. At least they were until last week. This week I have seen all of the "we have Wii in stock" signs disappear so the situation may have changed. However, they only started showing up regularly a few months ago. Until late summer I wasn't able to see any Wii's for sale in Vancouver AT ALL - and I go to at least half a dozen electronics stores every week and check some other stores regularly. I personally swore off Wii when the first reports of Nintendo keeping supplies limited came up, and when I relized the Canadian allotment was only 8% of what US gets while most manufacturers keep it at 10%. I don't like supporting companies doing business that way.

At any rate, I seriously doubt that pitiful numbers showing up in Canadian stores are responsible for US shortages.


If Nintendo REALLY
By qdemn7 on 11/28/2007 10:19:06 AM , Rating: 1
Wanted to sell more units, they would not have been messing around this long, and have opened or hired more plants to manufacture units. They've been claiming they have "underestimated demand" ever since the Wii first premiered.

Just how long does it take for one of the biggest electronic companies on the planet to ramp up their production?

Three years, 5, 10?

I am going to buy a Wii, but I think Nintendo is engaging in marketing hype to keep sales and prices up.




RE: If Nintendo REALLY
By Screwballl on 11/28/2007 11:06:24 AM , Rating: 3
I do agree... I have been looking for one for the family since they came out and no local store within an hour of me has had any stay on the shelf for more than 4hours. This includes 5 Walmarts, 3 Targets, 2 Kmarts, 3 GameStop/Babbages, 5 local small gaming stores, and anywhere else that sells them.
Luckily I am not one of these "gotta have it" types that tracks 10 different stores supply just to get up there at 3AM when they stock it just to pick one up. If I do not get one until next year i will not be heartbroken, the Gamecube and Dreamcast are working fine for us now.


RE: If Nintendo REALLY
By tmouse on 11/28/2007 11:14:25 AM , Rating: 2
I do not think there was any "master plan" to short supplies. They probably thought their main target market was smaller but they were right on target for a price (the others WAY over estimated their name value), they also lucked into the whole physical interactive market which I think they simply did not think of. As someone pointed out it DOES take time to ramp production AND balance it so you do not have a glut if the trend takes a sharp downturn. They were ramping very slowly (I guess you can consider that a bit of market manipulation) but it also just makes good sense. $300 to 400 is the upper bracket for the sweet spot in the current market, under that you can also get impulse sales; over it and people give the purchase serious thought and the combo game DVD player idea just did not cut it. The others will do very well this year with the PS3 gaining but I still think the Wii will outsell all of the others by a significant margin in the end. Price, Price, and Price this IS the main factor whether people like it or not, the history of electronics is littered with the bodies of technically superior products that were poorly priced and marketed.


RE: If Nintendo REALLY
By clovell on 11/28/2007 12:01:15 PM , Rating: 2
So true, and let's not forget that Nintendo has been expanding their manufacturing capabilities.


RE: If Nintendo REALLY
By UNCjigga on 11/28/2007 3:21:30 PM , Rating: 2
The "intentionally shorting supplies" is BS. They're just selling that fast. If you don't believe it just ask any store manager at a GameStop/EB store or BestBuy (the WalMart/Target employees are clueless and don't bother to keep track). I was trying to find a Wii Zapper this weekend (sold out everywhere but I would've had one if I bought *before* black friday). While at GameStops I asked the managers about Wii shipments. They all said they're getting between 5-10 per week, which is much better than the 2-3 every 2 weeks they were getting this summer. Obviously BestBuy and other "big boxes" will be getting more product per shipment.


RE: If Nintendo REALLY
By Vanilla Thunder on 11/28/2007 12:15:31 PM , Rating: 2
Better call the Lone Gunmen.

V.


Lets look at the numbers
By mikefarinha on 11/28/2007 10:57:09 AM , Rating: 5
I agree with the people that say 1.8 million per month is a lot of units to be producing. If Nintendo continues to produce 1.8m a month that would be around 21.6m/year . According to Wikipedia as of November there have been 13.17m sold , that is just under one year of full production so Nintendo has been increasing capacity.

I don't think Nintendo is doing this intentionally, I think they underestimated the continuing popularity of of they system. If you consider the Wii as a contender to dethrone the PS2 in terms of total sales Nintendo will need to produce a bit more than 1.8m/month.

Looking at Wikipedia again it states that as of 2005 the PS2 sold 100m/units , which is a little over 5 years after its release (Currently PS2 has sold around 120m). If Nintendo produces 1.8m/month for the next 5 years that will give a total of 108m total units . That is barely enough to outsell the PS2 , Nintendo probably didn't count on that level of popularity considering that the GameCube has so far only sold 21.6m/units and the N64 only sold 33m/units

I figure that Nintendo is practically flying blind with their current market position. I wouldn't expect them to increase Wii production too much more than what they have now, ramping up production for just 1 year only to have demand die back down isn't a smart business decision. Besides it's much cheaper to sell units as soon as their made than to store excess unsold units... but that shouldn't be news to anyone who has read about Toyota pioneering Just-In-Time (JIT) Manufacturing.




RE: Lets look at the numbers
By CKDragon on 11/28/2007 11:57:54 AM , Rating: 4
I agree 100%.

Those that post on message boards urging Nintendo to "just open another plant!" should be the ones that get to tell all the employees of that new plant that they have to find another job when demand eventually dies down and Nintendo only needs to produce 1 million a month.


RE: Lets look at the numbers
By Doormat on 11/29/2007 1:18:17 PM , Rating: 2
Last generation was an anomaly - I don't know if we'll ever see that type of single console dominance again.

Though given that this time next year, N will have sold over 30M Wiis and that is quite an accomplishment in the first two years of a console. I think after about 35M it starts to wind down and we see demand drop, with a 3rd year forecast of 42M and 5 yr number of 60M. 60M consoles is still an incredible number. I don't expect to see the 360 or PS3 to achieve the same number of units in that time period.