Fils-Aime: We wont meet Xmas Wii demand

Speaking to the

Mercury News

, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has stated that after seemingly overcoming the stock shortages that plagued retail for so long, the huge level of demand anticipated for Wii this Christmas will lead to shortages once more.

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,” Fils-Aime stated. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record we won’t.

What I can tell you is that typically, our inventory is lasting a day. The issue is not a lack of production. The issue is we went in with a curve that was aggressive, but the demand has been substantially more than that. And the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on.

The only other pragmatic advice is that we’re aware of the situation, and we’re working very hard to address it. Believe me, I’m constantly pushing for more capacity and more volume.”

In other comments, Reggie also questioned the ability of Microsoft’s recent smash-hit Halo 3 to help boost sales of the Xbox 360.

Will they sell a lot of software? Certainly,” he added. Will it sell hardware? I think it’s an open question. I think that the Halo 3 consumer already has the hardware, because they’re playing Bioshock and Crackdown and a variety of games that are, in the end, quite similar: first-person shooter experience, multiplayer capable online. Tell me what’s new?”