Wii's Halo Killer: Anubis II! (And other Wii discussion)

[Kuciwalker]

I'm still not convinced of any conspiracy.

[Asher]

Conspiracy? No. Strategy? Yes.

They're still getting publicity and hipster status out of it by having it be a "hot commodity". Even if they flood the market with Wiis and sales go up, the presence of stockpiles of Wiis diminish the appearance of it being a "hot commodity".

A year is MORE than enough time to ramp up production significantly. They have not.

Nintendo is either immensely inept or rather evil. Take your pick.

[Wiglaf]

BASIC ECONOMICS OH MY GOD

HAVING PEOPLE BID ON EBAY OR BUYING IT USED DOES NOT HELP THEM ASHER

IT IS NOT AS IF THEY ARE 'A LITTLE HARD TO FIND'

THERE ARE NO WIIS THEY ARE ABOUT 50% MORE THAN MSRP ON AMAZON

EVERYONE KNOWS THE NINTENDO PRESIDENT IS WEIRD...WHAT HE SAYS IN INTERVIEWS SHOULD NOT BE INDICATIVE OF A STRATEGY, HE IS JUST A TOOL

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Asher
Conspiracy? No. Strategy? Yes.

They're still getting publicity and hipster status out of it by having it be a "hot commodity". Even if they flood the market with Wiis and sales go up, the presence of stockpiles of Wiis diminish the appearance of it being a "hot commodity".

A year is MORE than enough time to ramp up production significantly. They have not.

Nintendo is either immensely inept or rather evil. Take your pick.

Get OVER yourself. You act like some boy sleuth uncovering a conspiracy in a haunted castle when you are not...Motion sensing controllers AND THE BEAMS on top of the TV do not grow on trees...Wii is EXCEEDING NINTENDO'S ESTIMATES and remember, it takes months for components to come in from china.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
BASIC ECONOMICS OH MY GOD

I'm not discussing economics. I'm discussing PR, market positioning, guerilla marketing tactics, and utilizing news sources for free marketing.

This is far more than economics, it's business strategy. Yes, in the short term flooding the market with consoles is better for them. But there are strong arguments to be made in finding the "sweet spot" such that you constantly sell out consoles while still selling a good amount -- this ensures you make it look like everyone is getting one, which means you should too (you're missing out!).

It's not unheard of. I would throw links your way on this kind of strategy (and it has been used in the gaming industry before, just not for this long), but I'm lazy and slightly drunk tonight. I trust you can use google.

[Wiglaf]

And so MS did it with the 360 in 2005, right?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wiglaf


Get OVER yourself. You act like some boy sleuth uncovering a conspiracy in a haunted castle when you are not...Motion sensing controllers AND THE BEAMS on top of the TV do not grow on trees...Wii is EXCEEDING NINTENDO'S ESTIMATES and remember, it takes months for components to come in from china.

Motion sensing controllers are dirt cheap and easy to make. I've seen a link to the very chips used in them (they're also used in ThinkPads and SixAxis PS3 controllers and PowerBooks and Seagate enterprise harddrive), they're cheap, easy to make, and plentiful.

There is "beams" on the TV are literally LED light strips. It's a plastic bar with LEDs. That's all they are -- I'm serious. You clearly don't know how this technology works.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
And so MS did it with the 360 in 2005, right?

I suspect so, yes. It was suspicious how quickly they ramped up production in March.

[DrSpike]

So the Wii is just following MS strategy.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher
I think the blame goes far higher than the person "in charge of manufacturing". This is a deliberate attempt to NOT resolve "shortages".

They simply haven't done anything to address it in a year. That's a high-level decision. The Wii is a ridiculously simple, cheap console to produce. There's nothing complex in it or anything rare in it. There's no component shortages, the only thing is they choose not to recruit more manufacturers as MS did when they had shortages (they brought up two new contract manufacturers).

Im not sure that means a deliberate attempt to not resolve shortages, or even incompetence in manufacturing. It could mean the Nintendo execs are as taken aback by their CONTINUED high sales as y'all are. They too could think its a fad, sales will moderate, etc. After all like you said, HD is spreading, and that should hurt them. Prices are coming down for the other consoles, and that should hurt them too. Why would you invest in increasing production for Wii, when it naturally should have such short legs? Better to reap the cash, and go for Wii 2.

[Asher]

I don't think they are taken aback when they make comments in August about how they "guarantee" they won't have enough stock to meet demand for the holiday season. That's pretty clearly a deliberate starvation of the market.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher
I don't think they are taken aback when they make comments in August about how they "guarantee" they won't have enough stock to meet demand for the holiday season. That's pretty clearly a deliberate starvation of the market.

they wont have enough by November. That means out the plant in October, at least. August to October doesnt sound to me like a lot of time for major changes to production, though I admit I dont know manufacturing in this industry.

In any case, I dont see any more news stories about empty shelves for Wii's - thats yesterdays news. So I dont think theyre getting PR from that at least not in the mainstream media. Maybe cache, I dont know.