Q&A: Wii shortages

The Wii is selling outside of the traditional gaming market, says David Yarnton

High street retailers are struggling to keep up with demand for Nintendo's popular Wii console - threatening Christmas disappointment for some.

Nintendo UK's Rob Saunders answers readers' questions on the issue.

Q: Having planned ahead and purchased my Wii in September, I have sympathy for those suffering at the hands of unscrupulous retailers. Does anyone know if there is a similar shortage of Wii games?
David, Fife, Scotland

As far as we are aware there are currently no problems in purchasing Wii software titles. Some retailers may experience very minor shortages of in-demand titles, but overall there is a healthy supply of software in the market.

Q: We ordered a Wii from Next for home delivery in early September and were quoted three weeks' delivery time. We are still waiting. Next have not been good at keeping us informed as to what the current situation is.
Kenny Millar, Kirkintilloch, Scotland

Unfortunately I can't comment on your problems with Next directly, but it is an issue you should raise with their customer service team as soon as possible. Next do not deal directly with Nintendo, they purchase their stock via an independent distributor.

Q: I ordered a Wii mid-October for my son. The retailer now cannot guarantee delivery for Christmas. I've seen prices for Wii sports starting at £369. I am disgusted at those who are cashing in on the shortage and angry at Nintendo. I wonder if Nintendo have done this on purpose to push up prices.
Michelle, Cupar, Fife, Scotland

The video games market is a fiercely competitive one and it is not in our interest to withhold stock from anyone. It is illegal for manufacturers to set prices for their products or engage in activity that artificially raises prices.

Retailers ultimately set the price. Unlike traditional video game products, Nintendo Wii is selling well all year round and to an audience outside of the traditional gaming market. This has resulted in high demand all year for Wii.

Wii is the fastest ever console to reach one million units in the history of the UK games market - in just 38 weeks.

Q: I ordered a Wii from Woolworths online back in September. The Wii did not arrive. It took me over two months to get a refund. I registered with Wii-consoles.co.uk and was delighted when they sent me an e-mail saying John Lewis had them. But the John Lewis website showed none available. I am not happy at all.
Tracey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

The best thing to do in order to make sure you get a console is to visit a tried-and-trusted High Street and online retailer and ask them to add you to any waiting lists they have. They will then ring you when stock arrives to ensure that you get hold of one.

Q: Nintendo have also realised that they are able to maintain the price of the Wii if there is a "shortage". I work for a High Street company and were taking names for the console, which we now only sell as a bundle. We took about 70 names in two to three weeks!
Chris Jones, St Albans, Hertfordshire

It is illegal for any manufacturer to both set a selling price and artificially inflate the price of their products. Retailers decide at what price to sell products. Nintendo do not create these bundles, these are created at store level by retailers.

Q: I advise people to use European web sites, pricerunner.de for example. If you are confused just give the shop a call and you will be amazed how many people can speak English when it comes to selling something. A simple two-pin adapter is all that is needed. Warranties are also available EU wide.
Guy, Helsinki, Finland

You are quite correct and within your rights to purchase any item within the European Economic Area for shipment to any other country in the EEA. Your warranty is still valid anywhere in the EEA if the product was bought from any EEA member country.

Recent newspaper articles have talked about buying products from the US and other non-EEA countries. There are several pitfalls to be aware of:

• You are no longer covered under warranty.

• Products from the US and Japan are not designed to run on the UK 240-volts mains supply and you risk damaging your product and hurting yourself.

• Home console games are region coded, like DVDs. This means you will not be able to play any UK-purchased software on a US machine.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my regular Email Updates!

Nintendo warns of Wii shortages

The physical element of Wii gaming has helped make it popular

A chronic shortage of Nintendo's popular Wii console could mean disappointment for those putting it at the top of their Christmas list.

The BBC has learned that high street retailers are struggling to keep up with demand for the console, which has been in short supply for months.

Websites such as Wii-consoles.co.uk have been set up to help shoppers find out when stock becomes available.

Nintendo said it was "doing everything possible" to keep up with demand.

Its push to fill the shelves in time for Christmas will see it ship an extra 3.5 million consoles globally. It is not known how many extra consoles will make it to UK shelves.

Read a selection of your comments

In April Nintendo estimated a yearly shipment of 14m units, but that has now been raised to 17.5m.

Despite this, the gaming giant admitted that not everyone who wants one is guaranteed a Wii this Christmas.

The video games market is a fiercely competitive one and it is not in our interest to withhold stock from anyone Nintendo spokesman

"The demand for Wii hardware globally has been unprecedented and higher than Nintendo could ever have anticipated," said a spokeswoman.

"Nintendo is now in a position in which seasonality demand trends are being broken, therefore the demand for Wii hardware is constant throughout the whole year globally. Due to this phenomenon it is possible that the demand for Wii hardware may outstrip supply," she said.

Slow trickle

From the high street, the message is very similar.

"Although we're receiving regular deliveries from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft and getting the products onto the shelves as fast as we can - it's possible that demand will outstrip supplies on some products, for example the Nintendo Wii, which has been hugely popular all through the year," read a statement from high street gaming specialist Game.

"We're posting daily updates on our website at www.game.co.uk/stock to give customers the latest news on availability, and will continue to do everything possible to help our customers find the consoles they want."

Woolworths said that it was receiving a "slow trickle of stock every week" and also advised customers to keep an eye on their website.

"The Nintendo Wii consoles have proved extremely popular with our customers and have been flying off the shelves whenever we get new stock in," said a spokeswoman.

Website meltdown

As a result of the huge demand, prices are beginning to be hiked, especially among smaller retailers with larger retailers bundling the console with several games.

"It is very hard to buy a Wii console now without two or three games bundled in with it, which can push the price up to around the £300 mark," said Darren McKillop, the man behind Wii-consoles.co.uk.

Mr McKillop said that when stock did come in retailers were struggling to cope with the flood of traffic on their websites.

"In some cases their ordering systems let them down and they end up taking orders for stock they don't have and yesterday a major online retailer announced they had the Wii in stock and their website suffered a virtual meltdown as half the country tried to buy a Wii from them," he said.

Wii-consoles.co.uk had seen a five-fold increase in traffic since the last Wii shortages at the beginning of the year, said Mr McKillop.

He predicted the stock shortages would last well into the new year.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my regular Email Updates!