In a recent sit down with the L.A. Times, Reggie Fils-Aime talked about the appeal of Nintendo products and if you will be able to find them this Holiday season. Of course the DS will sell like hot cakes and will be available throughout the season in every store but what about the Wii and Wii Fit?
Last year Nintendo was producing about 1.6 million units per month. This year Nintendo has ramped up production of the Wii to 2.4 million units per month worldwide, that’s a 33% increase according to Reggie’s math. Reggie was also able to get a bit of a jab in on an unnamed competitor,
“One of our competitors projects they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that’s three months of production. We’re producing an unprecedented level of hardware to try to meet demand.”
Even with increased production it still might be difficult to find a Wii come December.
As for Wii Fit, the sales numbers have been extremely strong selling somewhere around 3 million units thus far. Nintendo hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand of this product either. Reggie states that they intend to dramatically increase shipment numbers but only 3 out of 10 stores will have Wii Fit in stock at this time.
This is a warning in some way to all of you parents, children and grandparents who want a Wii or Wii Fit this year, if you see either one on a store shelf gobble it up because it might be your only opportunity this year.
[Via L.A. TImes]
The Wii has some storage issues. Just a bit. Personally, my Wii memory is full and so is my 2GB SD card. If you buy a few WiiWare and Virtual Console games, you’ll be running out of space pretty damn quick. We know Nintendo is working on a solution, but we now know it won’t be a hard drive. Here’s what Reggie said in an interview:
We are working on a storage solution … We have never said that it will be a hard drive nor have we mentioned how we will fix this issue, but we are going to deliver a better way to store the games.
Ummm, ok Reggie. Unless you enable USB storage from flash drives and allowing us to use the SD card to load things in-game, you won’t be coming close to a hard drive. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
Nintendo North American boss Reggie Fils-Aime dropped a little bombshell on his recently in an interview with Gametrailers. He speaks of a brand new game that is coming out and we all will be very, very, excited. Here is what he said:
All I can tell you is what we announce during E3 is gonna be fantastic. The gamer is gonna be excited and the expanded audience is gonna be excited.
Let’s see. It won’t be another Mario game. It won’t be Metroid either. No way its anything Metal Gear. What other beloved characeter have we not seen? I am going to say it right here. I think it will be a new Donkey Kong game. Widely regarded as the best SNES game of all time and a favorite of Billy Madison, this game would turn all kinds of heads. We should all venture our guesses and see what it will be. We shall find out this summer. Hopefully Loot Ninja will be there.
Yeah, Reggie has a tough last name. He’s getting tired of you screwing it up. So he went on record with MTV’s Multiplayer Blog to set the record straight.
Just remember, Reggie can and will whoop that ass if you say his name wrong to his face.
If you want to get a Wii for someone for Christmas, you better get a move on. Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed that they still can’t keep up with demand.
“We’re working very hard to make sure that consumers are satisfied this holiday, but I can’t guarantee that we’re going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record that we won’t,” he said.
“What I can tell you is that typically, our inventory is lasting a day… I don’t think we will know when supply crosses with demand until after the holiday season,” he said.
The Regginator said there’s no problem with production and that people are just cookoo for Coco Puffs for the Wii, which is causing the supply issues. No matter what the cause, if you don’t want a disappointed loved one on Christmas morning, start pounding the pavement now.
Everybody has to crap on everyone else. That’s the way the video game industry goes. It’s usually Sony ripping on Microsoft, or Microsoft ripping on Sony. Everybody likes Nintendo… mostly. Today, Nintendo fired back when Reggie Fils-Aime stepped up the plate.
In an interview with the Mercury News, Reggie took his turn and ripped on the Xbox 360. When asked how the Wii is standing up to the competition in Europe, Reggie had this to say:
Well, there’s no PS3 yet . . . 360 is selling well only in one country: UK. Across the rest of Europe, it is not performing well. Wii, on the other hand, is selling exceptionally well all through Europe.
Gotta take stabs where you can. When Reggie throws down, you better run. He’s a big, scary dude.
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