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Media Create Sales 4/23 - 4/29

Jirotrom said:
Not many because its sold out but I know people who bought a Wii because they saw one. Those are from friends who never buy launch systems and even people coming into our store to purchase them calling there friends to hurry up and come to the story and purchase one before they are gone. there is no denying that those people would be a little more lax if the supply was there. Im sure Nintendo has there share of production problems but you cant tell me there isn't an orchestration to their supply shipments...they are selling a shit load but at a high rate. In march our store didn't receive a wii for the last 2 weeks yet a few other stores had special Wii Sundays. Releasing batches in groupings rather than a constant flow everyday or every 3 days is the way to go sales wise. I just don't believe a store full of a hot item on the shelf sells as fast as a store with maybe 5 of those hot items on the shelf. Also this helps Nintendo save on production because they don't over produce, they maximize money expenditure and profit gain. As you said they had a set number of production facilities and it cost money to make more. The have the resources to make many more production facilities but they wont do so in some big blast because it reduces their overall profits. They increase shipments every month but ever so slightly to make sure nothing is waisted. Its a good business model....so maybe I was a little blunt before but that is my general idea of what I see going on. People laughed at the analyst who thinks demand for wii will keep up until 2009, even I did, but the more I look at the sales data for DS and how Nintendo is now selling there products the more I think of it as being a possibility. To make matters even better for them word of mouth is with them now more than ever.

tl;dr. Use paragraphs next time.
 

stewacide

Member
nli10 said:
All they had to do was make disk 2 BluRay and fill it with HD content - Instant bragging rights disk. Imagine everyone who bought GOWII owning a disk they longed to play but couldn't without investing in Sony - major missed oportunity in my book.

Wow, that's seriously really clever.
 
Jirotrom said:
Not many because its sold out but I know people who bought a Wii because they saw one. When you here about a hot item enough and you may have some interest in that area it can cause you to purchase especially when compared to the other system prices. this wont work for everything but because the system has unique software it helps. I have friends who never buy launch systems and even people coming into our store to purchase them calling there friends to hurry up and come to the story and purchase one before they are gone. there is no denying that those people would be a little more lax if the supply was there. Im sure Nintendo has there share of production problems but you cant tell me there isn't an orchestration to their supply shipments...they are selling a shit load but at a high rate. In march our store didn't receive a wii for the last 2 weeks yet a few other stores had special Wii Sundays. Releasing batches in groupings rather than a constant flow everyday or every 3 days is the way to go sales wise. I just don't believe a store full of a hot item on the shelf sells as fast as a store with maybe 5 of those hot items on the shelf. Also this helps Nintendo save on production because they don't over produce, they maximize money expenditure and profit gain. As you said they had a set number of production facilities and it cost money to make more. The have the resources to make many more production facilities but they wont do so in some big blast because it reduces their overall profits. They increase shipments every month but ever so slightly to make sure nothing is waisted. Its a good business model....so maybe I was a little blunt before but that is my general idea of what I see going on. People laughed at the analyst who thinks demand for wii will keep up until 2009, even I did, but the more I look at the sales data for DS and how Nintendo is now selling there products the more I think of it as being a possibility. To make matters even better for them word of mouth is with them now more than ever.

Well, now I have no idea what you're arguing. If the people you mentioned wanted a Wii to begin with, then the shortage created no artificial demand. The fact that they had to "hurry up" to get one has no bearing on the overall demand. In fact, the large majority of buyers will not buy one until they're readily available because they do not want the systems enough to actively hunt for them.

All your other points have no bearing on the argument at hand, which is whether Nintendo is actively limiting supply in order to increase demand.
 

Neomoto

Member
I've just read this whole thread :lol It's a hilarious one! And so much data to post about, wow
DSL 255,971
Wii 102,522
PS3 12,791
Pretty good week (funny that this is considered good or normal and not fantastic/mindblowing anymore heh).

lol @ Wii outselling PS3 8 to 1. I wonder how much more of this Japanese developers can take who are focussing on PS3 (I feel sorry for Square Enix with FF XIII :()

DS Lite over 10 million! :O

Just noticed that Pac-Man is close to holding it's teeth on eatchother instead of just eating. :lol

AniHawk said:
68azfw2.jpg
:lol That's brilliant! (first version was great too)

Odysseus said:
wii-ps3 gap is 89,731 for the week.

mind-blowing question: will that number be higher or lower than total ps3 sales in april npd? (released 5/17)
Man that's pretty harsh (I like it!) :lol

creamsugar said:
Nintendo's GOLDEN WEEK (4/30 - 5/6) :lol

1. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings(DS)
2. Super Paper Mario (Wii)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Momotarou Dentetsu DS (DS)
5. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)
6. Yoshi's Island DS(DS)
7. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis(DS)
8. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
9. Wii Play (Wii)
10. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (DS)
Holy shitnitz! It's becoming kind of scary, incredible legs and top 10 TWICE in two weeks for Nintendo! And **** yeah at Super Paper Mario performance (and funny how there are 4 mario related titles in the top 10).

So when does the PS3 come out so that Nintendo will finally have some competition for **** sake?
 
Satanmonkey said:
What i want. What i really really want, more than a cure for aids and the wiping of third world debt is an animated gif of the japan console sales pacman since the wii's release, so i can see his giant nintendo face chomping down on everything. With maybe a little thought bubble saying something like 'wow they all taste like chicken'. Then i think, my life would be complete and i could ascend to heaven upon a lakitu cloud.
Not exactly as you desire, but I toyed with some animations for a while. I mostly stopped because it was a bit of a processing and bandwidth sucker (creating dozens of the regular pies to create one pie animation whenever request) and others like PantherLotus had been doing animations anyway, but as one-offs here are the two variants I had saved to GIF form:
20070509anipie1.gif

20070509anipie2.gif
 

puck1337

Member
I'm imagining Iwata dancing and doing jazz hands while Miyamoto plays the piano on top of a pile of gold. And I love watching that Pacman close his giant maw.
 

Jammy

Banned
I'm just glad we're seeing the "third party games don't sell on Nintendo systems" thing anymore. Sure, you can argue that there's more competition on Nintendo systems because Nintendo is the best damn developer/publisher in the world, but even with Nintendo surpassing expectations with their sales of AC: WW, NSMB, BA, etc., there's Square-Enix rolling to the bank with their FFIII, DQM: J, and others, Capcom with their fourth Phoenix Wright and their Mega Man games (performing better on DS than they did on GBA), and now it's especially good to see Level 5's first published game aiming for 600,000. And Bandai-Namco has found they can develop smaller "non-games" and sell around 200,000 fairly easily.
 
Jirotrom said:
I dont care what anyone says...Nintendo is causing the supply issues themselves, on purpose. The supply issue creates demand for them...if an Item constantly sells out people want it more, if there was a little interest before the sell out there is even more after the sell out...look at the DS which has been supply constrained for nearly 2 years in Japan. The sales have gotten even higher....Nintendo has finally figured out how to sell a product and how to really work the market.

After GameCube sales, and the slow burn of DS's starting sales, why would they have opened enough pre-launch factories to produce more than a little over a million units a month? NO ONE predicted Wii's explosive success, so why would Nintendo risk billions on getting all these factories set up? Even if Nintendo had taken the risk of opening that kind of production capacity, would retailers have ordered that many units in the first month or two? Probably not.

They increased shipments starting in April, that is a reasonable timeframe to get extra factories on line and in full production.

Manufacturing capacity and product allocations are determined WAAAAY in advance.
 

Jirotrom

Member
Gekkonidae said:
Well, now I have no idea what you're arguing. If the people you mentioned wanted a Wii to begin with, then the shortage created no artificial demand. The fact that they had to "hurry up" to get one has no bearing on the overall demand. In fact, the large majority of buyers will not buy one until they're readily available because they do not want the systems enough to actively hunt for them.

All your other points have no bearing on the argument at hand, which is whether Nintendo is actively limiting supply in order to increase demand.
thats because I'm not really arguing with you...I'm partially agreeing with you in that you are right but I see Nintendo as being able to make more production facilities quicker except that costs them on the profit margin they want to increase...so they have to slowly ramp up to keep share holders happy. I think they are better off right now in this position and keeping it going like this for another year than having a crap load of Wiis easily able to find, granted there is a limit to all of this with the consumer because sooner or later one person gets tired of looking for one and so does another, so Nintendo probably questions themselves on how to keep demand extremely high as it is right now but not lose out too much at the same time. I just see that Nintendo has achieved this now...whatever they are doing is working...DS lites constantly sell out and so do Wiis I just don't see that as bad. Nintendo has always been great with money, I just feel they've nailed the sweet spot on how to create an extreme demand. I mean I own a DS and Wii and its gratifying to me as an owner to know that a product I own constantly sells out because that means its popular and it will have continued support. Id rather not walk in the store and see a ton of them sitting there like I do the PS3. I owned a PS3 and took it back as it didn't click with me as a worthy investment, and thats only because I own a 360.
 

Jirotrom

Member
AdmiralViscen said:
After GameCube sales, and the slow burn of DS's starting sales, why would they have opened enough pre-launch factories to produce more than a little over a million units a month? NO ONE predicted Wii's explosive success, so why would Nintendo risk billions on getting all these factories set up? Even if Nintendo had taken the risk of opening that kind of production capacity, would retailers have ordered that many units in the first month or two? Probably not.

They increased shipments starting in April, that is a reasonable timeframe to get extra factories on line and in full production.

Manufacturing capacity and product allocations are determined WAAAAY in advance.
And you are right they wouldn't risk it...but do you think they would take a huge risk now and increase by a large amount there production capabilities. Also a big point you made are the retailers which I didn't include which is highly correct after gamecube sales that could be seen as very understandable.
 
Jirotrom said:
And you are right they wouldn't risk it...but do you think they would take a huge risk now and increase by a large amount there production capabilities. Also a big point you made are the retailers which I didn't include which is highly correct after gamecube sales that could be seen as very understandable.

How long do you think it takes to buy/build a factory and get it into a full production swing? The supply became an obvious issue by January, and they had production increased by April.

BTW, they did exactly that with GCN, then they had to shutter the factories for 6-8 months when initial demand fell off and they had massively overproduced the console.
 

Neomoto

Member
AdmiralViscen said:
Come to think of it, didn't they say 4 million and then updated it to 6 million as launch neared?
I don't know, could be but I remember that they made that projection about the same time as Sony did with PS3 (they did change their forcast a couple of times though with DS and annual profits and such).


Oh btw. Nintendo produces more systems (DS/Wii) a month now I think than the number of PS3's Sony has sold worldwide to this day in almost half a year. Auahahah, etc (edit: and that's without software/accessoires and such).
 

Jirotrom

Member
AdmiralViscen said:
How long do you think it takes to buy/build a factory and get it into a full production swing? The supply became an obvious issue by January, and they had production increased by April.

BTW, they did exactly that with GCN, then they had to shutter the factories for 6-8 months when initial demand fell off and they had massively overproduced the console.
Which is why I don't see them doing a "big" increase in shipments, I see them better in this position constantly selling out rather than over producing. Slow and steady increase is best...but its a change from what they used to do which is good. It shows me that nintendo really understands how to work with demand.
 
AdmiralViscen said:
Come to think of it, didn't they say 4 million and then updated it to 6 million as launch neared?
I believe their and Sony's claims were always the same (pre-PS3 delays/shortages): 4 million by the end of 2006, 6 million by the end of March.
 

CoolTrick

Banned
I believe their and Sony's claims were always the same (pre-PS3 delays/shortages): 4 million by the end of 2006, 6 million by the end of March.

And despite Sony's PR attempting to convince us otherwise, they still haven't reached 4 million WW.
 

manzo

Member
Jirotrom said:
Not many because its sold out but I know people who bought a Wii because they saw one. When you here about a hot item enough and you may have some interest in that area it can cause you to purchase especially when compared to the other system prices. this wont work for everything but because the system has unique software it helps. I have friends who never buy launch systems and even people coming into our store to purchase them calling there friends to hurry up and come to the story and purchase one before they are gone. there is no denying that those people would be a little more lax if the supply was there. Im sure Nintendo has there share of production problems but you cant tell me there isn't an orchestration to their supply shipments...they are selling a shit load but at a high rate. In march our store didn't receive a wii for the last 2 weeks yet a few other stores had special Wii Sundays. Releasing batches in groupings rather than a constant flow everyday or every 3 days is the way to go sales wise. I just don't believe a store full of a hot item on the shelf sells as fast as a store with maybe 5 of those hot items on the shelf. Also this helps Nintendo save on production because they don't over produce, they maximize money expenditure and profit gain. As you said they had a set number of production facilities and it cost money to make more. The have the resources to make many more production facilities but they wont do so in some big blast because it reduces their overall profits. They increase shipments every month but ever so slightly to make sure nothing is waisted. Its a good business model....so maybe I was a little blunt before but that is my general idea of what I see going on. People laughed at the analyst who thinks demand for wii will keep up until 2009, even I did, but the more I look at the sales data for DS and how Nintendo is now selling there products the more I think of it as being a possibility. To make matters even better for them word of mouth is with them now more than ever.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
 

Parl

Member
Jirotrom said:
Not many because its sold out but I know people who bought a Wii because they saw one. When you here about a hot item enough and you may have some interest in that area it can cause you to purchase especially when compared to the other system prices. this wont work for everything but because the system has unique software it helps. I have friends who never buy launch systems and even people coming into our store to purchase them calling there friends to hurry up and come to the story and purchase one before they are gone. there is no denying that those people would be a little more lax if the supply was there.

Im sure Nintendo has there share of production problems but you cant tell me there isn't an orchestration to their supply shipments...they are selling a shit load but at a high rate. In march our store didn't receive a wii for the last 2 weeks yet a few other stores had special Wii Sundays. Releasing batches in groupings rather than a constant flow everyday or every 3 days is the way to go sales wise. I just don't believe a store full of a hot item on the shelf sells as fast as a store with maybe 5 of those hot items on the shelf. Also this helps Nintendo save on production because they don't over produce, they maximize money expenditure and profit gain.

As you said they had a set number of production facilities and it cost money to make more. The have the resources to make many more production facilities but they wont do so in some big blast because it reduces their overall profits. They increase shipments every month but ever so slightly to make sure nothing is waisted. Its a good business model....so maybe I was a little blunt before but that is my general idea of what I see going on. People laughed at the analyst who thinks demand for wii will keep up until 2009, even I did, but the more I look at the sales data for DS and how Nintendo is now selling there products the more I think of it as being a possibility. To make matters even better for them word of mouth is with them now more than ever.

So DS isn't naturally a phenomenon in Japan, because it's supply constrained and it makes it that hot item that people can't get, but they get it when they see it? A long-running fad, basically. However, of course DS, which hasn't suffered supply problems in Europe (except very minor ones around Christmas and just after limited to several shops), is currently experiences the same huge success as Japan in many regions. And DS is selling fantasically in NA, even though it's not historically supply constrained there.

The appeal is mass market interfacing, with mass market software applications, mass market price point and promotion that successfully targets this mass market. Add excellent word-of-mouth and media buzz and you have something that increases in demand over time. Ie, DS, Wii, iPod, etc, etc.... The PlayStation brand has historically done much of this well, whilst also grabbing the attention of self-proclaimed mature gamers - Sony has seemingly lost its edge in pulling this off nowadays.

Sony didn't need a stock issue and neither does Nintendo.
 

tanasten

glad to heard people isn't stupid anymore
Neo C. said:
Wii_VS_PS3.jpg

now I understand...

I love that game. I want a wii remake with online mode :( (Best multiplayer experience ever)

Edit: I mean... better on the DS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
Jonnyram said:
According to sinobi...

DS sold more than 200k again (lol)
FF12RW 100k
Yoshi 50k
NSMB 45k
Brain Age 2, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, etc all coming up the charts.
Pokemon, Tamagotchi, Digimon, and other kid's games all selling well.

Momotaro Dentetsu 60k
Mario vs DK2 40k (200k total)
GS4 35k
PdP DS 30k
English Training 2 200k total
Layton 500k total

Wii 80k
Super Paper Mario 90k
BBA Wii 60k (100k total)

PSP 40k
PS2/PS3 not budging much
Go Panel de Pon!
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
pickwick said:
Stephane Bole, CEO of Nintendo of France, has just announces in lemonde.fr that Ninty is going to increase production of Wii by 50% in the next few weeks.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-651865,36-907086@51-886104,0.html

Google Translation to the rescue!!!

With Wii, Nintendo wants to exceed cleavage between “gamers” and general public

Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, worried last week about the “abnormal” shortage, of Wii in the world. Is the objective of 14 million Wii sold at the time of the next fiscal year realizable? Which is the situation in France?

In spite of 6 million consoles already delivered in the world, it is true that we have difficulties in satisfy the requests. In fact, the launching of Wii corresponds to the fastest starting of a console since many years. In the next weeks, we even will increase by 50% our world capacity of production. We fixed ourselves for the next fiscal year - from April 2007 at March 2008 - the total sale of 14 million machines. When one announces a similar objective on the financial markets, one is held to reach it.


The low technicality of Wii, compared with the concurrent consoles, shouldn't it facilitate the production?

Indeed, the power of the processor of our console is less. But the small size and low fuel consumption of energy of Wii imply very advanced components. For the manufacturers of these chips, there are bottlenecks, in particular on the components of point. That prevents us from having all flexibility on the production which we wish.

For Wii, one notes a real cleavage between the “gamers” and general public, to which you grant the beautiful share. Is this a new strategy of Nintendo to widen its customers?

Nintendo refuses any cleavage. We want to cut down the wall which separates these two categories. Apparently, it is well what there are with Wii. The “loyal supporters” of Nintendo appreciate an experiment of simpler, but more convivial play. The launching of the console with the last episode of the Legend of Zelda is also a sign. Zelda is a play resolutely “gamer”, sold with more than 240.000 specimens in France, and voted by plebiscite by the specialized press. But so that ludic video industry progresses, so that it becomes a leisure of mass, it is also necessary to propose contents to attract those which do not play yet. More intuitive plays, simpler, not requiring long hours of adaptation are the best means of reaching that point.

Don't you feel, however, a certain lassitude of the “loyal supporters” of Nintendo, which by spite resell their console on sites of E-trade?

It is not at all a tendency but one measures today. We notice speculative movements rather, with consoles yielded expensive than in the trade.

Why the mark didn't launch with the Wii console the plays to success of the preceding generations? The title-headlights with exclusive licences like Super Mario and Pokemon are always made wait.

To develop a “blockbuster” is not done in a day! Wii is the only console of the market launched with a major title for the “gamers”, while taking care of general public, with Wii Sports. It is currently sold in France twice more Wii plays than of plays X-Box 360. The last episode of Dragon Ball Z obtains a great success in the players. For the end of the year, many licences are under development: Super Mario Galaxy, as well as the play of combat Super Bros Smash.

Did the editors of plays readily agree to develop on Wii?
As on our portable console, Nintendo DS, the third editors initially were careful. Now that the console starts with well functioning, a movement is engaging. For us, the strategy consists in taking care of the balance of the offer of accessible plays and more pointed plays.
 

Culex

Banned
Glad to see that the Wii simply isn't a 'fad'. I can't wait until it outsells the GC in Japan, that'll make me happy!
 

Parl

Member
We saw top 15 Nintendo for this MC thread, will we see Nintendo systems flawlessly dominate the top 20 for Golden Week? I'm calling it now, I say MAYBE! Final Fantasy for PSP might slip out of the top 20.
 

Jirotrom

Member
Parl said:
So DS isn't naturally a phenomenon in Japan, because it's supply constrained and it makes it that hot item that people can't get, but they get it when they see it? A long-running fad, basically. However, of course DS, which hasn't suffered supply problems in Europe (except very minor ones around Christmas and just after limited to several shops), is currently experiences the same huge success as Japan in many regions. And DS is selling fantasically in NA, even though it's not historically supply constrained there.

The appeal is mass market interfacing, with mass market software applications, mass market price point and promotion that successfully targets this mass market. Add excellent word-of-mouth and media buzz and you have something that increases in demand over time. Ie, DS, Wii, iPod, etc, etc.... The PlayStation brand has historically done much of this well, whilst also grabbing the attention of self-proclaimed mature gamers - Sony has seemingly lost its edge in pulling this off nowadays.

Sony didn't need a stock issue and neither does Nintendo.
I think i made a comment about good software in one of my long rants. Software is important as it is a boost to keep demand going. Which is what the DS has done and what the playstation 1 and 2 did and whether people like it or Not what the Wii is inevitable doing. The Wii may not have stellar software to the "hardcore
" gamer but it is getting most of the shovel ware right now which is a good sign as publishers are realizing where the money is. The NES had a ton of shovel ware as did the SNES the PS1 and 2.

And no i dont think its a fad...far from it to clarify what I meant by people purchasing it even quicker, I'll give you an example. Little Johnny wants a Wii but his friend is only slightly interested in one. His friend says he can wait. Johnny gets a Wii and shows it off to his friend and his friend says...wow thats cool I want one too but he can't find one. Johnny's friend tells others that he enjoyed the Wii but its hard to find. Other people start to hear this and interest increases. Now there are multiple factors that add to this basic factor. Price, software, and even cosmetic attributes.

Comparisons start being made... alot of people still come into my store and are surprised the Wii is only 249.00 when the 360 is 399. and ps3 is 599. These people aren't really in the know and were probably influenced by someone else. If thats the case that wallet has a tendency for the lesser price item or the one they deem the better value. Even if they don't buy it for themselves personally a sale is a sale to a business so it doesn't matter.

Back to the original point, basically when a hot item is hard to find it causes an increase in interest whether negative or bad its an increase which leads to an increase of word of mouth by consumers, and thats a good thing.

What sounds better..." Look at that stack of PS3s they aren't selling" or "look at that stack of PS3's I'll comeback later when I have more money" or "Man not to many PS3s I should probably look into buying one". Granted these situations don't really happen vocally but rather subconsciously. Being in the video game section and seeing stacks of PS3s next to a near barren stack of Wiis early in the life cycle is bad. Later in the life cycle lets say about a year it doesn't matter because software is in full force by then. Its not to say that a stack of wii's or PS3s wont get sold I just feel that when you visually see alot of something the rush to purchase it is a lot less unless you are a fan or are purchasing that item for a fan.
 
D.Lo said:
NES never caught on in Europe, and it's competition included a bunch of proprietary PCs like the Spectrum and C64. Between them, the Master System, 7800, and early PC Engine in Japan, the NES 'only' had about 70% market share worldwide.

I'm not sure you should count the Commodore, etc...but even if you do, I don't think the Wii can manage 70% worldwide vs. its two competitors. To do that, it has to sell over double what the PS3 and X360 do each month combined. In Japan, no sweat. Worldwide? Nah.

If it does, though...well, "WOW".
 

Parl

Member
I agree that the shortages has led some people to purchase the unit at a certain time when they would otherwise buy it at a later date, because as they see the unit in stock there and then, they don't want to have the opposite of buyer's remorse (non-buyer's remorse) as they know they may wanna pick it up at a later date but not be able to, so they choose not to miss the opportunity. The shortages, for these cases, means that potential future demand is brought forward to become actual demand and a sale.

But also, there's many who find that the units is difficult to find, and thus give up on trying to find one or not put much dedication into finding one because they don't demand it enough (but demand it enough to pick it up if they're readily available). These are those who won't purchase, but may do in the future when units are more readily available.

Both types, who actually want a unit at a certain time and can't get one or have decided they'd prefer to get one later but see one and don't want to miss the opportunity, in the long-term, would've purchased the console anyway... unless..

If there's a large presence for a certain console in a shop, but there's no hardware to be found, it indicates high demand. Many click to this being good for the future of the console and thus this helps them want it more. Shortages contribute to interest in a console, it must be said. I'm sure they can hinder in some ways too.

However, Nintendo wants sales (directly) and not demand (except indirectly). If there's higher demand helped by shortages it means they'd want to capitalise on this demand by giving supply, but more supply means that the shortages no longer persist and this minor demand generator is gone.

I think the extra demand generated overall through shortages is fairly minor, but it's there. But some people may jump to a different console and settle there because of it too, so it has its disadvantages too.

A supply shortage is only a good thing for them if they're only just late, meaning, there's not actually that much of a backlog of demand. With DS, that may be true, but Wii, very doubtful.
 

Jirotrom

Member
Parl said:
I agree that the shortages has led some people to purchase the unit at a certain time when they would otherwise buy it at a later date, because as they see the unit in stock there and then, they don't want to have the opposite of buyer's remorse (non-buyer's remorse) as they know they may wanna pick it up at a later date but not be able to, so they choose not to miss the opportunity. The shortages, for these cases, means that potential future demand is brought forward to become actual demand and a sale.

But also, there's many who find that the units is difficult to find, and thus give up on trying to find one or not put much dedication into finding one because they don't demand it enough (but demand it enough to pick it up if they're readily available). These are those who won't purchase, but may do in the future when units are more readily available.

Both types, who actually want a unit at a certain time and can't get one or have decided they'd prefer to get one later but see one and don't want to miss the opportunity, in the long-term, would've purchased the console anyway... unless..

If there's a large presence for a certain console in a shop, but there's no hardware to be found, it indicates high demand. Many click to this being good for the future of the console and thus this helps them want it more. Shortages contribute to interest in a console, it must be said. I'm sure they can hinder in some ways too.

However, Nintendo wants sales (directly) and not demand (except indirectly). If there's higher demand helped by shortages it means they'd want to capitalise on this demand by giving supply, but more supply means that the shortages no longer persist and this minor demand generator is gone.

I think the extra demand generated overall through shortages is fairly minor, but it's there. But some people may jump to a different console and settle there because of it too, so it has its disadvantages too.

A supply shortage is only a good thing for them if they're only just late, meaning, there's not actually that much of a backlog of demand. With DS, that may be true, but Wii, very doubtful.
I definitely see what you mean...it just feels that Nintendo seems to have someway figured out the perfect balance to keep profits up and demand high. The DS shows this and if the Wii demand continues through Christmas I just believe it further verifies that Nintendo's new market strategy is pretty amazing. In the long run software counts but early on relying a bit on that non buyers remorse is good for an early boost. granted like you say its just a factor of the equation as price and other things are to be considered. If Nintendo can release Galaxy and Smash this year they will have the Hardcore along with the casuals.
 

gogogow

Member
chibcicylist said:
So Wii Sports is above 50k, and the Wii could potentially have another 100k week? Yikes.
Another? I think the Wii will have many many many 100k weeks. The keyword is: supply.
 
:lol at the theory that Nintendo is under-shipping to keep demand up. People who think this aren't thinking it through from the start. The first step would be to have outrageous demand in the first place. Shipping out 6 million units in 5 months is no way to create a shortage (and therefore demand)--and Nintendo stated they were shipping 6 million in that timeframe before the Wii launched.

So unless Nintendo can see the future and know the Wii would sell faster than any console ever has, they couldn't have planned to keep the Wii in a constant state of 'sold out'.
 

Parl

Member
DS has had amazing hardware sales so far. Thing is, it'll sell more if it wasn't supply constrained. But, how much more? Is their demand backlog only a few hundred thousand or maybe nearly a million in Japan? What if Nintendo had some way of discovering just how many people want to get themselves a DS who haven't yet because they're not dedicated enough to find one, and they then magically pop some out of nowhere and do a temporary supply spike to catch up with a demand backlog - how many extra will sell?

If that number is large, then that's an even bigger install base earlier on, and a more front-heavy system which means more software sales overall for the full cycle as somebody who purchases the system in the first few years is more likely to buy more games overall than somebody who purchases it in the later years. So if there's a big backlog, that means that there's less software sold as they pick the system up later than they would if supply wasn't a problem.

If that number is small, this disadvantage is minimal and the positive effects of shortages as perceived by casual observers still persist. But just because you've demanded a product longer, it doesn't mean you get it earlier. It's not first demanded, first served; it's first find, first serve. There's potentially a small percentage of those who want a DS who haven't been able to pick one up for several months who then decide to purchase a PSP or something - not all those who want a DS are non-gamers, of course.

But as the DS is such a phenomenon, increasing supply to meet demand could actually be quite a paradox. More units out there means more word-of-mouth and a wider spread of the DS phenomenon, and thus more demand. There's many who haven't yet, but will, Jump In.

More demand means more sales in reality. But in Nintendoworld, more demand doesn't mean more sales, more sales means more demand.
 
The PS2 sold 100million plus units. The DS only sold 40 million so far. Handhelds should tend to sell more than console because of the nature of the way you use it, one for every person vs one per household. The DS expanded the userbase greatly, more so than the PS2 have.

Add all those together and I'm pretty sure we haven't even seen nothing yet.
 
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