GameStop says Nintendo held back Wiis

Me at GameStop
hey_suburbia, first in line for Wii Pre-Order, yeah.

During GameStop’s quarterly conference call, COO Dan DeMatteo said that he thinks Nintendo intentionally caused Wii supply shortages:

“I don’t think [Wii supply] going to be an issue going forward, and—it’s just my opinion—I think [Nintendo] intentionally dried up their supply because they made their numbers for the year,” said DeMatteo in a Q&A session during GameStop’s quarterly conference call. “[Nintendo's] new year starts April 1st, and I think we’re going to see supply flowing.

“We were concerned about the dryness [of Wii inventory] in March, but it looks like April is going to be good,� he said.

Could Nintendo be so sinister? If this is the case we could see an end to the Wii shortages. Which makes this good news?



Around The Net:


  • http://shanoboy.com/ shanoboy

    Well, given that Nintendo is a publicly traded company in Japan, maybe they were simply playing the numbers.

  • http://shanoboy.com shanoboy

    Well, given that Nintendo is a publicly traded company in Japan, maybe they were simply playing the numbers.

  • Bryan

    What I have heard from employees of Gamestop is that the shortage was caused by the wiimote strap issue. Once they decided to offer stronger straps they went back through all unshipped inventory to change the old straps to the new ones. A major operation like that would disrupt supplies for quite awhile. He was told by the Nintendo Rep to not expect steady supplies until around April (back in Jan. when he talked to the rep)

  • Bryan

    What I have heard from employees of Gamestop is that the shortage was caused by the wiimote strap issue. Once they decided to offer stronger straps they went back through all unshipped inventory to change the old straps to the new ones. A major operation like that would disrupt supplies for quite awhile. He was told by the Nintendo Rep to not expect steady supplies until around April (back in Jan. when he talked to the rep)

  • Will

    That sounds like a more logical conclusion to Gamestops claims. That’s a stretch to say that a company would risk not meeting demand, I don’t care who’s numbers you’re looking at.

  • Will

    That sounds like a more logical conclusion to Gamestops claims. That’s a stretch to say that a company would risk not meeting demand, I don’t care who’s numbers you’re looking at.

  • Shitan

    My local retailer here in Germany told me that in his opinion Nintendo has often (and especially in the case of the Wii) held back supply in order to create a sense of shortage which would cause people to want the product even more, which would make sense to me. Perhaps it´s a combination of both theories.

  • Shitan

    My local retailer here in Germany told me that in his opinion Nintendo has often (and especially in the case of the Wii) held back supply in order to create a sense of shortage which would cause people to want the product even more, which would make sense to me. Perhaps it´s a combination of both theories.