Gamestop Crys Foul on Wii/DS Lite Shortage

wii.ign.com

March 27, 2007 - Speaking to investors during GameStop' s Q4 2006 Earnings Conference Call, executives stated they believe Nintendo fans' long nightmare of Wii and DS scarcity is about to end.

In response to a question as to whether a low Wii supply would be a recurring problem with Nintendo, GameStop COO Dan DeMatteo said he believed Nintendo created the shortage on purpose. " I think they intentionally dried up supply because they made their numbers for the year," DeMatteo said. " Their new year starts April 1 and I think we' re going to see supply flowing."

DeMatteo stated he believes the DS Lite drought should be ending in April as well, though he made no claims as to what was causing the supply problems for Nintendo' s handheld. The DS was the best-selling system in 2006, and GameStop believes the two screens could pull it off again this year.

As of this writing, Nintendo could not be reached for comment.

I never would have suspected Nintendo for that kind of lameness (at least not recently), but it does make sense. What do you all think?

It' s been obvious that Nintendo has purposefully caused the shortage. They were ready months before launch to ship without shortages but they took that time to produce even more consoles. Nintendo' s been sitting on a huge stock pile of Wiis with no intention of releasing all of them just to keep demand up. It' s really ratty if you ask me.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

I' m a bit sceptical of this, even if I wouldn' t put it past Nintendo or any other company. If you believe this idea, you have to accept that Nintendo doesn' t believe they will make their numbers next fiscal term. Otherwise they wouldn' t bother moving their numbers from one successful year to another one at the expense of market share.

Unless they wanted an " average" launch year (which in games, reads as hyper-amazing) and a skyrocket of sales come the next fiscal year.

All i can say is that from most of the reports i have seen Nintendo has fulfilled its promise of shipping 6 million Wiis by 31 of March. The speculation that Nintendo are or are not sitting on stock piles of Wiis is irrelevant. They never promised more, so why should anyone expect more? They are the ones losing out if they lose customers because they are unwilling to ' release' these supposed stockpiles, so the only one this will really hurt is Nintendo.

Could they be sitting on stockpiles of Wiis? Very likely, after all the circumstances, Japanese stock sale (?), the ending the fiscal year, Corporate bonus for performance kicking in, Wii should be easier to manufacture it is entirely plausible that Nintendo are hoarding Wiis. But to complain after they fulfilled there promise (ie 6 million by end of fiscal year) is silly.

If anyone should be put under the spotlight its sony, they claimed that they too would have shipped the same number of consoles by the end of the fiscal year and have fallen well short of that goal. Why are people not complaining about this?
So Nintendo fulfills its promise but gets blasted, and sony fails and is unscathed?

Just an interesting observation - Not a blast at anyone

If anyone should be put under the spotlight its sony, they claimed that they too would have shipped the same number of consoles by the end of the fiscal year and have fallen well short of that goal. Why are people not complaining about this?
So Nintendo fulfills its promise but gets blasted, and sony fails and is unscathed?

The difference is people want more Wii' s and there are already enough PS3' s available for demand.

Sitting on consoles just because you wanna play the numbers game is an a$$hole move.

I wish this would deter people from buying the gimp, but I' m sure it won' t.

And you just figured this out now? C' mon, why would there be shortage of supplies on beefed up gamecubes?

EDIT: nevermind, miss read a quote

I' m not condoning Nintendos actions if this is true, but, you have to Remember that this is only a RUMOUR, all my comments were hypothetically speaking. No one has yet provided conclusive evidence that Nintendo is doing this. So until such time as this evidence is revealed i' ll treat this comment like i treat the comments of those analysts - I' ll Believe it when i see it.

Dagashi the reason why sony should be scrutinized is because THEY insisted that even with the shortages during its JAP/US launch, they would still make hit the 6 million consoles shipped mark by the end of the fiscal year, its only now that there is no chance for it to happen that they quietly acknowledged their gross overestimation. Thats a big difference.
If Nintendo is stockpiling Wiis its not something new anyway, retailers stockpile stock regularly for big sales to ensure there enough to go around, even the ps3 was delayed 4 months to ensure sufficient stock was available for its MArch launch.

Sony did the same with the PS2 when it first launched, people were scrambling cross-country to try to get one, that was flat-out ridiculous.

They did it for the DS Lite launch in Japan as well. They' d had tons of time to prepare, and yet, magically, without rhyme or reason, they just barely made their numbers for a little while after their launch.

The guys at Gamestop said April is when we' d start to see them in stock, but if their console supply predictions are as good as their game release predictions...

The guys at Gamestop said April is when we' d start to see them in stock, but if their console supply predictions are as good as their game release predictions...

... or their gaming knowledge. When i was looking for crackdown every time i went to a gamestop and asked if they had it they would always respond with " yeah crackdown is for the xbox 360" Or like the guy at my local gamestop " You dont have to get it on Xbox 360, it and halo 3 are coming to the ps3" I sat there for like an hour arguing with a guy i didnt even know and he still never told me if he had it so i just left

... or their gaming knowledge. When i was looking for crackdown every time i went to a gamestop and asked if they had it they would always respond with " yeah crackdown is for the xbox 360" Or like the guy at my local gamestop " You dont have to get it on Xbox 360, it and halo 3 are coming to the ps3" I sat there for like an hour arguing with a guy i didnt even know and he still never told me if he had it so i just left

I' ve had nearly the same experience with a guy at Best Buy telling me PS3' s sucked and that I should just ebay it and not bother getting Fight Night Round 3.

The thing is, if he had a decent argument I would have at least listened, but his only response to why, was " it sucks and isn' t any good" . Very similar to the moron you talked to who claimed that crackdown and halo 3 would go to the ps3. Crackdown might have the chance of that happening, but anyone who would think Halo 3 would ever go to ps3 is a moron. Even if Halo 3 was a complete flop and a trash game that MS didn' t care about, it still wouldn' t go to ps3.

ORIGINAL: Evil Man

And you just figured this out now? C' mon, why would there be shortage of supplies on beefed up gamecubes?

Please provide evidence that the Wii is, in fact, more powerful than the Gamecube and can therefore be called " beefed up" .

Please provide evidence that the Wii is, in fact, more powerful than the Gamecube and can therefore be called " beefed up" .

Things like that are why Joe is one of my favorite posters here.

All logic says this must be an artificial shortage. Nothing anyone but Nintendo can do about it though.

Crackdown might have the chance of that happening

No, its published by MS. And its not like PS3 owners are missing a " must-own" by not having it.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Please provide evidence that the Wii is, in fact, more powerful than the Gamecube and can therefore be called " beefed up" .

Ha!

I' m actually getting used to having intelligent guys working at my local EB. They' re not all 18 year old Halo freaks or 30-something part time moms either. I' m on fairly good terms with the guys at the local store too which does have its advantages.

No, its published by MS. And its not like PS3 owners are missing a " must-own" by not having it.

Buy halo 3 beta get Crackdown free

No, its published by MS. And its not like PS3 owners are missing a " must-own" by not having it.

Not directly no. I don' t know anybody but me who bought Crackdown so they could play Crackdown. It' s all about the beta.

Not directly no. I don' t know anybody but me who bought Crackdown so they could play Crackdown. It' s all about the beta.

Actually i wanted for the actual game after i played the demo. The game actually gave me something to do for about 2 wks