If you follow me on twitter at all, you will know that I recently purchased a Nintendo Wii. I have been a long time Nintendo fan. In my adult life, I have owned every console they have produced. And, I have been a big fan of all of them. But, that streak may soon come to an end. Because to this point, the Wii has been the most disappointing console I have owned. And honestly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the system itself.

I am disappointed because I cannot purchase games for the system—specifically, Wii Fit and Mario Kart. I can understand production issues with the console itself. Consoles often are challenging to produce because they are new and technologically complex.  However, production issues with games is not acceptable. The Mario Kart game consists of a DVD disc and a cheap plastic accessory. These items are not new and not technically challenging to produce. The Wii Fit is just as disappointing.  While it is a little more complex to produce than Mario Kart, the game has been out for almost 5 months with continued stock problems.

As to why stock is low, I really do not care. I do not make any concessions for the declining dollar theory as to why supply is low.  I understand currency differences might make it less profitable to sell games in the US.  But, this is not an excuse.  I would guess that fans of the console are more than willing to pay a few extra dollars if necessary to cover the difference.  And, I am not sure that Nintendo would be willing to make a few extra dollars now to risk future profits due to lost sales from disgruntled fans.

So, as a result of these shortages, if you are thinking about purchasing a Nintendo Wii, my recommendation is don’t purchase the system until Nintendo fixes all the stock problems.  If you think it is frustrating trying to find a Wii in stock now, then think about how frustrating it is going to be trying to find games to play.  And, if you are reading this and work at Nintendo, I recommend that you fix the stock problems soon.  Because if these problems continue, I will not be purchasing the next console Nintendo produces.

I believe that I speak for a lot of Nintendo customers, when I say
Wii are disappointed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.