Wednesday 14 November 2007

whining about the wii

so, reading through http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094069.stm

... some of these commenters want a little too much to believe in conspiracy theories. (Thank you, Sony, for making these conspiracy theories sound reasonable, by pretending that the PS3 was in shorter supply than it was.)

But look at, say, that last comment:

I ordered a Wii mid October for my son. The retailer now cannot guarantee delivery for Xmas. I have had to explain to my son that he may not get the Wii he has been desperate for, for months. I checked out the prices on Amazon and seven retailers have stock but prices for the console and Wii sports start at £369. I am disgusted at those who are cashing in on the shortage and angry that Nintendo have failed to plan for Xmas demand. I also wonder if Nintendo have done this on purpose to push up prices as the difference between their console and the new PS3 is quite significant. Rather than pay inflated prices, I'll wait until after Xmas to buy.

Why does she think that Nintendo would intentionally fail to make enough consoles to cover the Christmas demand? Surely they WANT to sell as many consoles as they can? The jacked-up prices are, indeed, people trying to take advantage of the situation... but the extra money doesn't go to Nintendo, it goes to people who managed to get their hands on one of the consoles and are then reselling it for a higher profit. If you buy a console straight from nintendo for $50 and then sell it to someone else for $500, *you* pocket the extra profit - Nintendo only gets the original $50 you paid.

On the other hand, waiting until after Christmas is perfectly reasonable. :)

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