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European Wii release plagued by shortages
Wii logoToday the Nintendo Wii was supposed to show up in European stores. Nintendo is aiming to sell at least 4.000.000 Wii consoles world wide before the end of the year. Nintendo claims everything is moving according to plans, but according to Dutch stores the multinational needs to get their act together. As usual the European market gets a raw deal when it comes to console gaming.
As we all know the Wii proved to be a huge success in the territories where it has been released. The revolutionary control schemes, the compact design, it is supposed to be very quiet and the low price are all big advantages that may give the Wii a head start. The Nintendo company has issued a press release stating the huge success of console in Asia and America but refuses to give numbers on European sales. I couldn’t spot a single Wii in Leiden, Utrecht and The Hague for sale today. Some store managers only got one console to sell when they ordered as much as 50. New stocks can be expected not any sooner than January. Stores simply don’t dare promise their customers that they can have a Wii before Christmas.
Contrary to Dutch store owners Nintendo states that its release-stocks are bigger than ever before and promise that shipping of consoles to the stores will continue during the whole month of December. Anyways, the game fans in need of a next gen console might be better of getting that other white console that happens to be produced by Microsoft.
I didn't manage to obtain a Wii today, perhaps MrCustard was more lucky!
Comments
Nope, no luck. The local computer store where I was planning to get mine from, received 1 console for 22 pre-orders. There were few accessories as well. As expected, no component cables. In fact, no cables of any kind. The only semi-readily available items are the Wiimotes and classic controllers. So, i guess i have to wait a bit longer. Oh well, no biggie. Apart from Zelda the games are poo anyway.
Gamertag: Custardo
According to Stan Veit (author of History of the Personal Computer), this has been a pretty common tactic for computer and console manufacturers from the beginning. The strategy works something like this. The stores (Sears, Wal-Mart, etc.) know that they'll only be getting a small fraction of the units they order, so they order far more units than they need. Meanwhile, the manufacturer takes all of these funds and uses them either to earn a quick profit (stocks go up), or to fund the production. The manufacturer then sends out the first wave of units and then lets supplies stockpile in the factories. Finally, the manufacturer unloads the merchandise in bulk, and stores that ordered way more than they can sell (particularly if the product fails in the marketplace) are stuck with a huge inventory and have to unload it at a loss. It's a win-win situation for the manufacturer, but the stores (and the gamer) gets screwed.
There are even cases where a company didn't have the facilities to manufacture the product until advertising and accepting huge orders (and pre-orders), then using that money to pay for the process. Just imagine!
Nintendo and the rest know that stores are desperately trying to get these units on the shelves before the big holiday season, and they'll end up ordering so many units that they'll have to get rid of if the unit flops.
There is still no major re-stock in the US, either, so it's unavailable here as well. I also agree with mrCustard, that overall, the launch line-up is not particularly intriguing (though few launches are). From all I've read and heard, Wii Sports and Rayman Raving Rabbits are perhaps the best bets. Zelda is good too, "of course", but apparently is all but a clone of the GameCube version, just with slightly different controls. It's also disappointing that there are no online games available and there won't be for some time, but at least the virtual console has ramped up with some nice classics. As with the DS, I suspect it will take a little while for true must-have games to appear as developers really wrap their minds around how best to utilize the control scheme. Modified ports from other systems with last gen graphics are not the answer.
I'd love to get one and certainly will sometime early next year (maybe after March), but I'll be pretty insistent on getting it with component video cables (though not every game supports widescreen - another aargh!), an extra Wii-mote and one or two (preferably the latter) classic controllers.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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In the Netherlands, as in Belgium, there aren't really such influential big chains as Sears and Wallmart. In fact, most of the big retailers are ailing. The only successful big electronics chain is the Media Markt, of German origin. Even they only got 18 Wii consoles per store. To illustrate the situation, in my home town (population 80,000), there are 10 stores that sell consoles. Apart from the Media Markt, which got 18 consoles, all others only got 1 or 2. I have to say, the avarage Media market is about 18 times bigger than the average Dutch store, so that's nicely balanced ;)
Some specialized Dutch game stores refuse to sell the Wii at the moment because low margins and poor availability. It just isn't worth the bother, they reckon. With these numbers, i suppose they have a point.
[Update] It now seems some stores did get larger larger amounts, seemingly unrelated to the size of the store, or the number of preorders. Looks like Nintendo Benelux is the major culprit here, as in other EU countries the situation isn't quite as bad.
Another little thing I noticed: I have yet to see a Wii Racing game WITHOUT the plastic steering wheel bundled.
Gamertag: Custardo
Media Market sounds like a really fun store. We have lots of chain stores in the US that sell games and computers. Probably the best known are Best Buy and to a lesser extent Circuit City (CC recently stopped selling computer games, at least here in St Cloud). In my limited experience, Best Buy is the best. There's another one called CompUSA or something like that, but I've never been in one. Most malls have a Sears, JC Penney, Radio Shack, and some type of game store (usually Game Stop or Electronics Boutique). Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart have small computer game sections and lots of stuff for consoles. The big discount stores are usually the best place to find "bargain bin" stuff, though BB and CC vary in this regard.
Surprisingly, I hardly ever buy games from game specialty stores. The prices are usually just as high if not higher than stores like BB, and the used games are mostly overpriced and in poor condition. I've often seen a used game selling for only $5 less than the new version, even though it is lacking a box, instructions, and perhaps even have minor scratches on the CD!!
There seems to be a single company that specializes in repackaging games for bargain bins. I've acquired quite a few games for $10 or less that have been repackaged in a "generic" jewel case in a cardboard box. These are small enough to put on a CD-size rack. They are obviously packaged by the same company, but they must have deals with all kinds of companies. I've found many Adventure Company titles this way, but also games like Bad Mojo and Syberia.
I live in Virginia (USA) and got a tip from a friend that games are 5-10 dollars less at your local CostCo store. I went to check it out, and sure enough, he was correct. One of the store reps said they usually don't have new releases until a week after everybody else gets them, but to save 5-10 dollars a game I think I could wait.
The average Dutch consumer is left with fewer options, smaller assortments and less of a choice. It does vary from European country to country, but things are quite different here. Especially compared to the US consumer situation.
Probably won't get a Wii untill after March 2007. Might actually get a PS3 first as that also runs pretty quiet and has backwards compatibility with my ps2 games.
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
My gametag
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I'll probably get a PS3 and Wii at the same time, probably by April-ish. In regards to the PS3, I'm actually very disappointed in the almost universally poor framerates of all the launch games. I didn't expect the games to look better than Xbox 360 games until at least the first year has passed (assuming it can look much better), but I certainly didn't expect frame rate issues, even from ports. The Blu-Ray features do nothing for me, as does the Xbox 360's HD-DVD add-on, since there is no hope for a two market hi-def DVD format. One or the other will have to win out eventually and we'll need a standard that supports both in the end. Probably the thing that most intrigues me about the PS3 beyond the optical disc and hard drive capacities is the Six Axis controller. I actually like the concept a bit better than that of the Wii in theory, since it tries to implement something new in a more traditional form factor. However, I'm still not sold on the "necessity" of either one.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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I had a question that I've been trying to find the answer to, but haven't had any luck. Ok, the PS3 has Blue Ray DVD technology. Do you need a Blue Ray capable TV in order to obtain the Blue Ray detail/resolution? If you don't have a Blue Ray capable TV, what does the PS3 downgrade to, or what is it the equivalent output on a standard HD-equipped TV? I'm assuming you can't view the output in HD.
I was pretty amazed at the frame rate issue as well as I played one of the offroad racing games on the LCD screen at my local Best Buy. The video would actually glitch for a split-second to catch up about every 30 seconds or so. It might have been the game, but at any rate, it did pause regularly to catch up...the video that is.
I had a question that I've been trying to find the answer to, but haven't had any luck. Ok, the PS3 has Blue Ray DVD technology. Do you need a Blue Ray capable TV in order to obtain the Blue Ray detail/resolution? If you don't have a Blue Ray capable TV, what does the PS3 downgrade to, or what is it the equivalent output on a standard HD-equipped TV? I'm assuming you can't view the output in HD.
That's a good question. I know that there was some talk that these hi-def DVD's wouldn't output over anything less than an HDMI cable connection due to copy protection schemes. However, I know that Microsoft backed off from them with their HD DVD add-on for the 360 and it can output hi-def signals over standard component video cables with the claim that no titles now or in the forseeable future will be implementing the digital protection. It's my understanding that you can't do 1080p over component cables (just HDMI), though, but most TV's save for the newest ones don't even support that resolution. The PS3 is able to output at various resolutions, so there's no reason why blu-ray HD movies couldn't be enjoyed on 720p or 1080i HD sets (issues the PS3 has been having recently with resolution aside). However, I too would like to hear if anyone knows about digital protection schemes and whether HDMI cables are required to enjoy blu-ray movies at even 720p resolution... (my guess is not)
My Sony DVD/surround sound system is supposed to upscale regular DVD's to hi-def like resolutions, but it refuses to do it over a component video connection - it will only do it over HDMI, which I'm not going to bother with at this time. I'm actually dissapointed that the last major 360 update didn't offer this, as I heard it was. Perhaps in the future it will offer upscaling.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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