Analysts predict you won't get a Wii for 2 years

And Nintendo made more about $1.8Billion (thats with a B) last financial year in profit

The little kid in Japan finally woke up.

Doesn't really surprise - they're a great little console, but only really good if you've got plenty of mates to play it with. It's a communal console rather than something like a 360 where you play it (pretty much) alone.

An absolute must for uni students! Utterly unbeatable fun.

Didn't realise at the time how lucky I was to get one on launch day back in December.

I havent played my wii in over a month, aint touched my psp n about 8 months. My360 gets played every day.... Wii is still quite hard to come by here....

Why would people buy a 400$ xbox360 or 600$ ps3 when 90% of people still don't have a hdtv. I continue to be astounded at people wondering why they are not selling. Because they are complete overkill for the 90% of people that don't have the hdtv to go with it. Not to mention the fact that I do have an hdtv but chose wii based on the price-to-fun ratio. Hel, I hate sony but the ps2 is so dam cheap I am considering grabing one now, I mean it has a ton of good games for it.

Sure, I would like some 1080p gaming on my 1080p lcd, but I just can't justify the cost of the consoles, instead I'll put my money into a gaming rig which will have much more functionality for the cost as it will also be a total htpc with hddvd and bluray when drives are cheap enough.

The PS2 slimline is an awesome console, but don't forget - if you buy a spangly new rig now, it's obsolete in 2 years, the PS3/X360 has a longer life than that, and you'll be able to play EVERY game that comes out for years to come.

In my local town the are about 3 shops with Wii's in stock (even more with ps3's)
Still not getting one though, i have a chronic lack of funds :(

my friend got one early on during the shortage and tbh all he had to do was go to a site which told him which sites had some in stock. wasnt hard he waited 4 days to find on thats it :)

are airports likely to have stock ? as not many people are likely to be able to buy one from there

going to ayia napa in 6 weeks, and hoping to snap one up with the old duty free :)

Originally Posted by Joe Martin
He also went on to outline why he thinks the Xbox 360 and PS3 are struggling, confident that it the PS2 is still this year's console.

looks like a typo to me

well, I'll stick with playing PC games myself, but I wouldnt be surprised if the Wii keeps going strong here

Its not that difficult to get a Wii if you really want one. just join the stock checking sites and you'll be able to order one in a day or two.

By the end of this summer, things will change in the gaming world. PS3 will have Playstation Home and more games coming out, 360 will have Halo 3 along with the Elite version already out along with GTA IV, PC's will have the new AMD/Ati DX10 video card lineup along with DX10 games such as Crysis and BioShock. Personally I think PC gaming is the way to go in terms of content, upgradability and performance. The Wii, to me, is a novelty console, and at $250 and $50 for extra Wii-motes it ain't cheap and sure the controller is fun, but (and I am saying this from the point of view of only playing the Wii 2 times) if you don't have enough friends to play this with, it really will just sit and accumulate dust. Secondly, why are the games still selling for $50? They resemble games on the N64!! I know I know the gameplay is what matters, but how hard is it to make a game look just a little bit better than it's counterpart? Anyways that's my 2 cents.....

Our local Wal-mart and Meijer have always had them in stock. I've never understood this whole shortage thing.

I don't either. I was in Wal-Mart last weekend; saw one sitting on the shelf. I didn't have the money for it but when I asked the manager said they had only recieved 2 that morning, and 1 had already been sold (It was about 2pm).

I can understand their strained supplies, and the fact that they could only get 2 out to a Wal-Mart in a relatively high populted area (Tampa, Florida) I imagine for the most part they truly are experiencing a shortage.

Oh and the PS3/Xbox 360 racks were empty. Not that it really means much given the Wii's strong sales, and this only in my area.

Considering there is no confirmed date for 360 Elite in the UK yet I'm pissed off with Microsoft, there is confirmation on the 120GB but no date, but no actual info on the elite.

Originally Posted by DougEdey
Considering there is no confirmed date for 360 Elite in the UK yet I'm pissed off with Microsoft, there is confirmation on the 120GB but no date, but no actual info on the elite.

Use your own drive?

Originally Posted by pendragon
looks like a typo to me

the PS2 is still the best-selling home console. if the wii can pick up production, i'm sure it'll beat the PS2... but i doubt it'll fall behind the 360 or ps3 for a long, long time.

looks like the glory days of nintendo and the NES are back.

the games for the wii are to expensive at the moment.

Originally Posted by DXR_13KE
the games for the wii are to expensive at the moment.

They're cheaper than 360 or PS3 games. Granted, a lot of the early ones are overpriced for what you're getting, but that's true with most consoles. Zelda was worth the price.

Originally Posted by devdevil85
The Wii, to me, is a novelty console

That's exactly what I thought. No offense to Nintendo or the Wii - it's pretty neat. But that's about it.. it's "neat" for a while and then that's it, whereas the 360 or PS3 can hold me for hours with the games and grafix, etc.

What makes me grin is that people for months and months kicked seven kinds of sh1t out of Sony for lack of supply and poor production numbers for release. Then when the EU launch came and went, there was plenty (subjective) of stock remaining, indicating they had picked up their trousers and actually produced a good amount of product to prevent out of stock issues. Well done. And it's a damned good machine (subjective)

The Wii, on the other hand, was hailed by many as the next best console, with a genius interactive UI, etc. But supply is sh1t, the console itself is mediocre (subjective) in power and grafix and to me, just not attention holding.

So why aren't nintendo getting burned as badly as Sony for their "lack of supply" issues?

Sony have got too much supply for the demand so people are bashing them, Nintendo have finally turned their fortunes around because they focused on entertainment, in Japan family fun is the aim of the game.

Originally Posted by mmorgue
That's exactly what I thought. No offense to Nintendo or the Wii - it's pretty neat. But that's about it.. it's "neat" for a while and then that's it, whereas the 360 or PS3 can hold me for hours with the games and grafix, etc.

What makes me grin is that people for months and months kicked seven kinds of sh1t out of Sony for lack of supply and poor production numbers for release. Then when the EU launch came and went, there was plenty (subjective) of stock remaining, indicating they had picked up their trousers and actually produced a good amount of product to prevent out of stock issues. Well done. And it's a damned good machine (subjective)

The Wii, on the other hand, was hailed by many as the next best console, with a genius interactive UI, etc. But supply is sh1t, the console itself is mediocre (subjective) in power and grafix and to me, just not attention holding.

So why aren't nintendo getting burned as badly as Sony for their "lack of supply" issues?

Well, Nintendo have recently ramped up production to meet demands. The other way to look at it is that Nintendo has vastly outsold the PS3, so when Sony had loads of product laying around thinking they'd be ****-hot and Nintendo didn't it was amusing to see the twist. Nintendo ended up not being able to meet demand and have had to ramp up supply and Sony have been praised with being able to meet demand because they never sold that many to begin with.

I went in shopping at the weekend and asked in the three games shops near the offices how many PS3s they'd sold and have left. Game and Gamestation both told me they had a fair few in and they hadn't sold very fast. The independant shop told me they hadn't had any in and never had got any in. They confessed that when someone wants one they just go buy it from either Game or Gamestation, add a tenner on the price and then sell it. Not exactly good business strategy, but it shows that the reason so many PS3s are laying around may be because of lack of demand.

Oh, but I agree the Wii is more of a family console. It's great for mini-games etc, but I also like a little singleplayer on it. The major thing crippling it for me in this regard is that there haven't been any great 1-player titles. COD 3 was good, but had issues. Zelda I've yet to try.

Zelda TP Is the best 1P game on Wii atm, far better then OOT .

Originally Posted by Lazarus Dark
Sure, I would like some 1080p gaming on my 1080p lcd, but I just can't justify the cost of the consoles

But you can justify the price of a 1080p LCD :|

You don't need an HDTV to enjoy the 360, yes it looks nice, and on some games, like dead rising, text can be hard to read, but the point of the 360 isn't it's HD graphics, it the games, as it's always been, the graphics are still better than the 360's, and there are great games on there that no other console has.

i bought the Wii for my GF for her birthday, off ebay for £20 over asking price + £15 shipping and havnt regretted it for a second it was an awesome buy especially the bowling on Wii Sports!!!

Originally Posted by Veles
But you can justify the price of a 1080p LCD :|

Well yes you can... its not all for playing games... HD movies as well as upscaling of DVDs allow any DVD collection to look impressive on a HDTV; sound is also an important issue with Dolby Digital HD and lossless formats allowing for a crisp and authentic viewing experience... its therefore not just for games and the price can be justified...

Like the console itself, Wii games are in short, short supply; the great Wii drought is upon us and it shows that perhaps many developers are not interested in the Wii-mote and the complications of making a game that works correctly and is tailored exactly to the mote... Third party titles have been pathetic in most cases and the future looks bleak, the new Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is a ON RAILS SHOOTER... a sign of the difficulties of creating games that "work" with the console...

well i have played on all of the consoles now in our local games shop.
PS3 was very dissapointing. It had ridge racer on it as a demo . Although it looked fabulous the gameplay sucked imo. One game might not represent all but i guess ridge race is a fairly good gam so no PS3 for me.
XBOX360 was a whole lot better it had moto gp as a demo. It looked about as good as the game on PS3 but the gameplay was awesome.
and then the wii. If i was to buy anything right now that would be it.
but i'm waiting a few months for price drops and some reasonably priced games on all the consoles.
ps3 just is too expensive. so what u get blu-ray, so what u get a cell processor. WHO NEEDS IT? honestly if i wanted a multimedia system i bought an htpc.
stop putting all that crap in consoles and making them cheaper and only let them play games. leave out the dodgy gismos and i buy it at launch. would make things a lot cheaper if the could just play games and only play games.

Originally Posted by mmorgue
So why aren't nintendo getting burned as badly as Sony for their "lack of supply" issues?

Simple. Sony was getting burned for all sorts of things. They just somehow managed to do everything wrong all at once (DRM, copying motion sensing from Wii, etc). They made an overly complex console with feature overload with an astronomical cost and no really great games except resistance. PS3 only games are few and far between. Essentially, there aren't any stock problems because no one wants to buy a PS3. Sony's name is tagged onto the PS3 and any failures the parent company has trickles down to the PS3 in a way too.

The Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, is half as expensive, has lots of unique games (from both a gameplay perspective and a title perspective). Their console is fun for people who are socially active and aren't computer geeks (aka, the majority of people). The Wii's market is therefore much bigger. They have a big customer base and they underestimated demand. They've sold ~6 million consoles already!

Essentially, the Wii is in demand but being produced quicker compared to the PS3. People understand the Wii is a hot item and harder to make than say, an iPod. People also understand the PS3 is a subpar product (for the price) and there aren't any product shortages because not many people want a PS3. Sony overestimated the impact their console would have and underestimated the competition.

So no one thinks I'm a fanboy, I'm a PC gamer and own none of the current gen consoles, only a dreamcast.

As far as getting burnt for supply problems :

I think the PS3 got burned because it was expected to be a massive hit (if you listened to the sony fans or the sony marketing department at least) and it was delayed by a year on top, then they cut out the biggest region and still only had a small amount of stock to sell, with supplies after the fact merely trackling in.

Meanwhile the Wii has been a relative surprise hit, wasn't delayed and has actually produced and sold quite large numbers, its just that demand is so massive that hasn't been enough, thus no burn.

Myself I want a Wii but I'm not in that much of a hurry, I might just put in an order from someone that will take the money and ship when they get it in and get it when I get it.

I just walked on over to Wally-World one day and saw two Wii's in stock. This was right before the Christmas rush (glad I missed that :D ). Since then, I've never seen them in stock.

Originally Posted by DougEdey
Zelda TP Is the best 1P game on Wii atm, far better then OOT .

blasphemy !! :)


i agree it's good and the level desing is incredible as well as the overall artwork, but the game takes too long to start. Way too long !

However i have to say i really enjoyed the gameplay with the nunchuk and the wii-mote, it works really nicely :)