Welcome to

Fans and would-be buyers of the Nintedo Wii gameset are confronting shortages for the second year in a row. This is surprising to many, since while you might expect shortages immediately after launch (ie. last year), you wouldn’t expect shortages a year later.

There was an article in the WSJ on this the other day, as well as plenty of blog chatter. (What are Nintendo Wiis so hard to find?). There are a few theories as to cause-

• unexpectedly high demand (maybe)
• supply chain problems (maybe)
• Nintendo purposefully keeping down supply because they are evil (not likely)
• Nintendo holding down inventory so as not to lose their shirt if the popularity suddenly dies off (very possibly maybe)
• Nintendo is deliberately limiting supply so as to maintain the Wii as something to be sought-after and aspired-to, not to mention keeping it in the news. (Bingo– very, very likely).

Sorry, Wii fans, but limiting availability is a fantastic, albeit unpopular, way to maintain the popularity of a product. That’s why everyone wants to go to the club with a doorman and a long line.

The trick for Nintendo is to pull this off without either a) pissing off its fan base too much, or b) sacrificing too much potential revenue.

I read once (and I have no attribution for this, but I’ll repeat it anyways since it’s a nice story) that Ferrari estimates annual demand for its vehicles, and then sets production plans to make perhaps 90% of demand… thereby guaranteeing shortage.

You want most the thing you cannot have. That’s one consumer behavior which will never change.