Fils-Aime: What we can and can’t do with the Wii shortage

 The Nintendo Wii shortage is causing alarm to the hundreds of thousands interested in getting their piece of waggling fun this Christmas. As Nintendo tries its best to please as many people as possible, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime announces a program that will guarantee you your own system. This, however, has a bit of a caveat. He also tackles the possibility of setting up production in the US. All that in the full story.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime recently talked to MTV and answered some tough questions about the shortage that’s currently slowing down sales of their white-hot Wii console. The president talked about a “rain-check” program and addressed the possibility of shifting productions to the Americas.

Pertaining to the supply-demand situation, Fils-Aime says that Nintendo expected sales of their seventh-generation system to be extremely good, but added, “What we didn’t expect is to write an entirely new chapter in that history and have it happen that fast.”

Fils-Aime says that seven major retailers will get huge portions of their US shipments to try and make shopping for the coveted consoles easier for consumers. For those who can’t get hold of one on the spot, Reggie announced a “rain-check” preorder system that will ensure those who are interested a system of their own in due time.

The Rain Check works by pre-ordering a Wii in Gamestop and paying the full price of US$ 249.99 for it on December 20 to 21. The customer is then assured that he’ll get his Wii before January ends.

Asked if Nintendo can step up productions to raise it even higher than their current 1.8 million monthly average, Fils-Aime said, “Believe me, if it were that easy, we would.” He then explained that working with various part suppliers makes it difficult to mark up manufacturing at a whim.

A possible solution suggested to make production easier was to do it in the US, but Fils-Aime thinks otherwise. “We have no plans to manufacture the Wii system here in the Americas. It is a complicated system to assemble. There are quite a number of proprietary techniques that we use to protect ourselves in terms of piracy and security, so production will continue to remain in the Far East.”

Nintendo of America had historic results for November, with the Nintendo DS handheld shattering the all-time record set by predecessor Game Boy Advance for weekly sales. The Wii did almost as well, seeing 980,000 of its kind flying off shelves and into American homes.

Via MTV