Nintendo of America’s head commented on the Wii’s lack of availability, saying it, and not a company conspiracy, is hurting sales.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime conceded in candid comments that the company is losing sales due to supply shortages and denied there was a calculated effort to restrict production.
“They aren’t going to sleep outside of a store overnight or visit a retailer five or six times. It is literally a missed opportunity,” he said.
Nintendo just came off a highly successful Thanksgiving sales week, moving 350,000 of the systems along with 653,000 portable handheld DSes for the week ending November 24.
Fils-Aime said the Wii’s scarcity was simply a function of trying to play “catch up.”
“There is no secret plan to store Wiis in a warehouse to spur demand. The company, after all, is trying to reach out to women and 40 and 50-year olds who aren’t avid gamers,” Fils-Aime said, adding that this demographic is not going to camp out in front of retail stores to buy systems.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz
Published: Nov 29, 2007 03:15 pm