The WII shortage fiasco

[Ookii]

To reiterate my earlier comment, Nintendo is also increasing demand for their product simply because of its scarcity.  It's "rare".  It also helps pull the wool over people's eyes as to how mediocre most of the system is.

Also.  I still say this whole thing is intentional.

This is exactly how Redbull got popular as well, and the marketing department later admitted it was intentional.

It also seems that it's common knowledge nowadays that DeBeers does this with diamonds.

[HaemishM]

If tons of people want to pay you whatever you want for your product and you can't supply them, you are losing out on money regardless of profits and that money goes to your competitors making substitute goods.

Except you won't lose that money because there isn't a substitute for the Wii. If you want Wii Sports or other Wii-zy mini-game things, no one else is making games like that on the other systems. It has carved its own special niche away from what Microsoft and Sony are doing, so they really don't have to be that concerned with people buying the other systems because of a Wii shortage.

That's why it was a brilliant move to go after the casual market instead of trying to "Me-Too!" with Sony and Microsoft.

[Jain Zar]

To reiterate my earlier comment, Nintendo is also increasing demand for their product simply because of its scarcity.  It's "rare".  It also helps pull the wool over people's eyes as to how mediocre most of the system is.

But its not mediocre.  Its fucking awesome.  Its just missing the graphics whore OMG TOUGH GUY GANGSTER AND FPS shit I utterly despise.

[schild]

It's missing a whole lot more than graphics, hombre.

[Soukyan]

...

[Phildo]

The system has tons of potential, sure.  The problem is that so far it's failed to live up to most of it.  There are a handful of truly fun games and a whole bunch of awful ones that were forced to use the motion controls before anyone really figured out HOW to utilize them in a game.  There's a reason that (nearly) all the fun games for the system are first party.

Also, Super Mario Galaxy sucks.  Yeah.  Sometimes you walk up to a cliff and you're supposed to blindly jump off of it to experience awesome, gravity-defying action.  And other times, it's just a cliff.

[Fabricated]

If tons of people want to pay you whatever you want for your product and you can't supply them, you are losing out on money regardless of profits and that money goes to your competitors making substitute goods.

Except you won't lose that money because there isn't a substitute for the Wii. If you want Wii Sports or other Wii-zy mini-game things, no one else is making games like that on the other systems. It has carved its own special niche away from what Microsoft and Sony are doing, so they really don't have to be that concerned with people buying the other systems because of a Wii shortage.

That's why it was a brilliant move to go after the casual market instead of trying to "Me-Too!" with Sony and Microsoft.

Except you're wrong.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/wii-shortages-could-cost-nintendo-1-billion-this-holiday-ndash-analyst/18858/?biz=1

Business fucking 101 people.

[Strazos]

It's not relevant, Fab.

Sure, if they built more production capacity, they'd sell a ton more systems...

And then, as others have said, the demand will die off, and they'll have to run their lines below max capacity. It's similar to how fuel companies just will not build more refineries, instead preferring to run their existing refineries at max; it's not worth running something as expensive as a refinery or production line much below max capacity.

Only thing is, the Wii situation is worse than with fuel, because once you have a Wii, you don't need to buy another. The fact that Nintendo could supposedly sell $1.3b worth of systems this year is a completely moot point in the grand scheme of things.

[schild]

Better to sell 1.3B in systems now. If you know what I'm saying.

[Strazos]

Better to sell 1.3B in systems now. If you know what I'm saying.

Hehe. /evil

I also agree with Schild's earlier sentiments that the system is missing a lot more than simply nice graphics.

Such as quality 3rd party games.

[Soukyan]

Better to sell 1.3B in systems now. If you know what I'm saying.

Hehe. /evil

I also agree with Schild's earlier sentiments that the system is missing a lot more than simply nice graphics.

Such as quality 3rd party games.

Aside from the XBox 360 and PS2, who else has a good number of quality 3rd party games? I thought both the Wii and the PS3 were lacking in this department.

[Strazos]

You say that as if it's not a big deal.

And to a certain extent it's not, depending on your tastes.

[Soukyan]

You say that as if it's not a big deal.

And to a certain extent it's not, depending on your tastes.

It is a big deal. Then again, both the Wii and the PS3 offer new avenues for game developers to explore, so you had to figure that it would take some time for the games to ramp up with the technology, no?

[Strazos]

Not being fully acclimated to the new technology does not excuse shit like Wing Island or fucking Chicken Shoot.

FFS, it's a flash game some 3rd year college student could make over the weekend.

EDIT: Fixed code.

[Phildo]

Yours for only $29.95.  Visit your nearest Best Buy today!

[Azazel]

Hehe. /evil

I also agree with Schild's earlier sentiments that the system is missing a lot more than simply nice graphics.

Such as quality 3rd party games.

Heh, I've added 50% to my Wii library over the past two weeks.













...bringing my total number of discs to six.

I had more games for my 360 before I had my 360...

[schild]

Are you counting Wii Play? I mean, really?

[geldonyetich2]

The games on the Wii are a strangely mixed bag.  On one hand, we've got Chicken Shoot and ancient games that should have stayed buried.  On the other hand, we have our Metroid Prime 3 and re-release of Super Mario World.

The wildcard is the motion remote.  Sometimes it's unnecessarily clunky and other times it's indespensible to a game concept, but one thing's for sure: it's going to fish in a lot more people to try it that would never have touched a console before.

[Jain Zar]

Wii Virtual Console is full of games, much like the 360.
I have around 15 VC titles and about 30 XBLA.

In both cases they outnumber full price retail SKUs by a 3 to 1 ratio.

Shit, its why I bought a Wii, and I know a few Microsoft haters that grabbed a 360 for Pac Man CE alone.

Isnt this whole YOU DONT OWN SHIT BITCH!  online sales thing something everyone spooges over anyhow?

What's the difference?

I know to people who buy a couple games a week this aint shit, but most people are lucky to buy 4-6 games a YEAR.

[schild]

Nintendo charges as much for NES and SNES games as Sony charges for PS1 games and original titles. Instant fail.

Why?

R to the O to the M to the S. Fo' rizzle.

[Margalis]

Ooh $5! Think of the children!

[schild]

NES game != PS1 game.

[Roac]

Nintendo charges as much for NES and SNES games as Sony charges for PS1 games and original titles. Instant fail.

Your concept of fail is fundamentally broken.  All you're missing in life is an I Am Legend PS3 port.

[schild]

Not really. Sure, I get that they're milking the most out of people. But if the VC were reasonably priced, I'd buy more games than... well, probably anyone.

AND My Wii wouldn't have been unplugged for more than a full year.

[Margalis]

Yes, a game for 2 cups of coffee is really back-breaking. It's like to afford a few games you might have to do something radical like shovel a driveway.

[schild]

It's about cost to quality. I can play NES games on my PC plugged into my TV using an original NES pad or a superior Saturn USB pad or something for uhhhh oh

free.

[Margalis]

Rich people like myself don't care about value, only absolute quality.

[Velorath]

Nintendo charges as much for NES and SNES games as Sony charges for PS1 games and original titles. Instant fail.

Why?

R to the O to the M to the S. Fo' rizzle.

Didn't Sony try charging the same amount for fucking Q*Bert as they did the PS1 games?  And even with a 25 year old game, the PS3 still managed to get a half-assed port.

[schild]

So, you found one game that was badly priced vs say... all of the virtual console games short of Sin & Punishment. wtg.

Seriously though, that just show you how much awesome the price point on the PS1 games are. And god help the 360 the moment Sony starts letting PS2 games be downloaded/dropped on the HDD. It's inevitable.

[Azazel]

Are you counting Wii Play? I mean, really?

1) Wii Sports (packin)
2) Wii Play ($10 more than the 2nd controller alone)
3) Rayman Raving Rabbids
4) Super Monkey Ball

additions:

5) Big Brain Academy (another controller for the Fake Bowling tourneys over summer) (was discounted slightly)
6) Mario Party 8 (wanted it regardless, but discounted at less than half price)

tomorrow (Maybe)

7) That Wii Zapper/Link Crossbow thing (which costs less than half the price of a new Wii game)


I disagree with you on the System Hate, but agree with you on the lack of softwares.

[Velorath]

So, you found one game that was badly priced vs say... all of the virtual console games short of Sin & Punishment. wtg.

Seriously though, that just show you how much awesome the price point on the PS1 games are. And god help the 360 the moment Sony starts letting PS2 games be downloaded/dropped on the HDD. It's inevitable.

Actually, I find price for most of the PS1 games to be complete rip-offs because there's only about two games currently available that I'd ever want to play again, and given that you can play PS1 games on PS2's and PS3's, I'd rather just track down the actual disk anyway.  Plus it took them the better part of the year to even get the downloadable games working on the PS3 instead of just the PSP.  This really isn't the example you want to use when trying to prove PS3's superiority to the Wii.

[Azazel]

While I don't disagree with Velorath's post, I feel the same way about downloading huge XBox games onto that 20gb HDD. I'd rather just buy the discs.

Seems almost like a way to push some 120gb HDD sales...

[Margalis]

Azazel, the Wii does not have a lot of AAA titles but FFS buy a few of what it does have.

Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime 3
Twilight Princess
RE 4 (if you haven't played through it already)

I've also played a bit of Zack and Wiki and it seems very enjoyable. Mario Strikers is also good. Super Paper Mario (whatever it was called) was neat also. Then there are the Trauma Center games and that game I forget the name of which is like a 3D Herzog Zwei meets Advance Wars. (Sequel to GC game)

The lineup is not stellar but there are games to play other than party games.

[Roac]

It's about cost to quality. I can play NES games on my PC plugged into my TV using an original NES pad or a superior Saturn USB pad or something for uhhhh oh

free.

Same with a PS1 emulator.  Additionally, it's also about game library - the Wii has as many downloadable games as the PS3 and 360 combined.  It's also 100% compatible with GC games, while the PS3 started with issues and is only getting *more* issues as they remove hardware support.  XBox is even worse, but not sure anyone actually cares about the original XBox (well, besides that one guy).

[stray]

I think the PS3 and Wii have an equal number of quality exclusives. The PS3 has a fuckload better 3rd party stuff and general features though.


Ummm... Not sure why I'm posting this. Just saying.