what's up with Wii???

sucks2beme

Being an old ****, what's up with Nintendo Wii?? It's been out a year.
Granted, it might be a cute system, but what idiot pays
$400-500 for one? The PS3 kills it when you get to that
price range. And the PS3 is in stock everywhere.
I'm NOT looking for one. Just seeing the normal
XMAS scalpers at work on CL. And I don't get it.

shadowofnight

You would have thought Nintendo would have made a LOT of them this summer and cleaned up bigtime this Christmas...they would have sold as many as they could have produced to the drooling public. I've had just about every gaming system from the getgo ( PS3 now ) and it seems this motion controlled gaming...even with sub-standard graphics ...has caught on like wildfire. Everybody I know with kids has Wii on the brain.

I do remember my 3DO system coming out with the interactive gun shooter game Demolition Man....it was one of the most addictive games I have ever played...the light gun worked so well ...so I can see how they have gotten hooked on these types of games.

bobman1235

Who's paying that much for them? They cost 250, don't they? Or are you jsut talking because of limited availability people are overpaying on eBay?

Beyond that, just because the PS3 is better in terms of horsepower doesn't mean it's better. If you have younger kids, or have a lot of parties, the Wii is probably better for you. A friend of mine has a Wii, I'd much rather play a goofy Wii Bowling game at a party than sit around and play SOCOM or something.

Jstas

I don't understand the allure of video games at a party. If I'm going to a party, the last thing on my mind is video games.

sucks2beme

bobman1235 wrote: »

Who's paying that much for them? They cost 250, don't they? Or are you jsut talking because of limited availability people are overpaying on eBay?

Beyond that, just because the PS3 is better in terms of horsepower doesn't mean it's better. If you have younger kids, or have a lot of parties, the Wii is probably better for you. A friend of mine has a Wii, I'd much rather play a goofy Wii Bowling game at a party than sit around and play SOCOM or something.

There's not one in a store anywhere. My kid has been working in Gamestop for XMAS, and parents show up with even a rumor of a system coming in.
And the Craigslist scalpers are throwing them out there at $400-500.
It might be keen, but at that price, I think not.
I won't pay list for anything, and sure as hell won't pay double.
If I had kids that age, I'd would not kill myself or the budget to
get one. Yet, somewhere there's someone that has to get little Johhny
one or die. There's a lot of people that need to get real.

bobman1235

Jstas wrote:

I don't understand the allure of video games at a party. If I'm going to a party, the last thing on my mind is video games.

I usually agree, but you play regular games at a party, yes?

In the summer we'll usually have a whiffleball or volleyball game. In the winter, depending on the house, maybe shoot some pool. The Wii is just another type of game that doesn't require you to be antisocial, people just play a quick sports-type game, you're jumping around... it's surprisingly fun.

BaggedLancer

I bet some people on this forum play with their Wii daily....oh wait which wii are we talking about?

PhantomOG

I've read articles saying Nintendo left $1.3 BILLION on the table this holiday season by not be able to produce enough Wiis. That's just plain dumb.

bobman1235

As someone who works closely with electronics production... sometimes you just can't make enough. And most of the time it's not really "your fault." Having suppliers, fabrication houses, assembly houses, and everyone come together for you is a HUGE pain in the ****. While I'm sure Nintendo has a lot more pull that my piddly little company, they all deal with the same issues.

Music Joe

An interview on Nightly Business Report, Nitendos spokesman told Susie Gharib they managed to get production up 25% but finished units are limited by chip availability. And chip availability is tougher to increase. She posed the question in a few ways...is Nitendo keeping prices high with thin supply...to which he answered we're in business and don't like leaving cash sitting on the table.

Jstas

bobman1235 wrote: »

I usually agree, but you play regular games at a party, yes?

In the summer we'll usually have a whiffleball or volleyball game. In the winter, depending on the house, maybe shoot some pool. The Wii is just another type of game that doesn't require you to be antisocial, people just play a quick sports-type game, you're jumping around... it's surprisingly fun.

Define "regular games". 'Cause most people don't view things like beer pong as a regular game.

PhantomOG

bobman1235 wrote: »

As someone who works closely with electronics production... sometimes you just can't make enough. And most of the time it's not really "your fault." Having suppliers, fabrication houses, assembly houses, and everyone come together for you is a HUGE pain in the ****. While I'm sure Nintendo has a lot more pull that my piddly little company, they all deal with the same issues.

Very true, and I would accept that as a valid excuse for say, the first 6 months of production. However, its been out for a year plus now. I'm betting if they had planned earlier, production could have been higher than it is now.

Unfotunately, alot of the lost sales probably won't be able to be made up as shoppers will settle on M$ or Sony under the tree. Its seems like the Wii will be remembered as not only a great success for Nintendo, but also a very big what might have been.

POLKOHOLIC

hmm...wasnt that hard to get one for me. im in nyc so everyday on the way back home i would step into the local gamestop and on the third day they said im in luck. got it. played it. got bored. sold it for a profit on ebay last week.

jflail2

I guess I got lucky, but I strolled into the local BB (when I was still in Va) and there was one sitting on the shelf all lonely like. Couldn't have that so I brought it home to occupy my ps3 when I'm not home. Obviously the 2 systems are apples and oranges (graphics versus interaction) but if I had a kid I'd definitely choose the wii 1st. More family friendly titles and :gasp: you actually break a sweat occasionally!

If I had to choose 1 console for myself, it would be the ps3 all the way, but the wii is nice to have around the house for a change of pace.

sucks2beme

POLKOHOLIC wrote: »

hmm...wasnt that hard to get one for me. im in nyc so everyday on the way back home i would step into the local gamestop and on the third day they said im in luck. got it. played it. got bored. sold it for a profit on ebay last week.

This is what the point is. IT's a low tech gaming system. Other than the
small kid friendly interface, nothing special. Not worth $500 clams
Not that I would pay 50 cents for any damn game system.

bobman1235

Please, in years past people paid hundreds of dollars for Furby's or pogs whatever toy was a fad. At least the Wii has some electronics in it!

BaggedLancer

Pogs were badass. I always played for keeps. I had the best slammers....torpedos and shredders, all kinds of good stuff. I still have thousands of pogs somewhere around here.

sucks2beme

bobman1235 wrote: »

Please, in years past people paid hundreds of dollars for Furby's or pogs whatever toy was a fad. At least the Wii has some electronics in it!

And I didn't buy THOSE either. I do have a beanie baby kicking around.
I pulled the tag off; it's the cat's favorite chew toy.

tommyboy

sucks2beme wrote: »

This is what the point is. IT's a low tech gaming system. Other than the
small kid friendly interface, nothing special. Not worth $500 clams
Not that I would pay 50 cents for any damn game system.

don't mean to be rude, but if you won't pay 50 cents for any "damn" game system, then why did you even make this thread? Since you say you are not a gamer, you wouldn't understand why someone would pay so much for a gaming system anyways.

sucks2beme

tommyboy wrote: »

don't mean to be rude, but if you won't pay 50 cents for any "damn" game system, then why did you even make this thread? Since you say you are not a gamer, you wouldn't understand why someone would pay so much for a gaming system anyways.

I guess I'm looking for an insight.
I really don't get it.
$200 extra to have one now, when you can have your pick in January?
Guess that makes me out of touch.
Jflail2 bought one at list, played it, and sold it for more money.
That I understand. If you have kids and they want it, that I understand.
But to pay twice what it's worth?
Never let your "want" get the better of you. I buy stuff, but
I shop around, wait for the deal.
Both my boys would wait for the deal.
ANd no, I'm not trying to insult you. The thread is just what
it says. I don't know what's up! Enlighten me!

jflail2

Actually, I still have mine. I am enjoying it for the price I paid, and will definitely be keeping it. That being said, the people paying double are out of their collective gourds. You can get a ps3 for that price and have a next gen gaming system and a br player to boot.

I doubt there will be any "deals" for a few more years, but I would certainly expect supply to catch up at some point in 2008.

And while the graphics are low tech, the concept is definitely not. They may be crawling through a new door, but at least they're opening it.

Systems

I bought a Wii for the kids for Xmas. I already have a PS3. I suspect the Wii is going to get hit 10000x more than the PS3 did for the 5 and 7 year old

The PS3 is just not kid friendly as was the case with the PS2 and XBOX. Nintendo has always targeted the younger market and did well at it. They also changed the Wii up a big to even break the market niche and has been popular main stream... sure.. not with hard core gamers.

I actually spend 0 time playing games on my PS3 over the past year but I am just aching to get my hands on the Wii and play it with the kids.



But I completely agree, what the hell is up with Nintendo. This thing has been almost impossible to get for a year strait. You would think they would have ironed out this problem half a year ago and rolled into Xmas with huge numbers of them. They MUST be artificially holding back production to create the situation for the “wow” factor when people actually find one. I just can believe that the thing would be hard to produce.

rskarvan

I bought one on sale for $199. Sold it on E-bay for $465 (black friday weekend). Shipping cost me $18. Profit = $247.00

PhantomOG

The same could be said for whatever hot item is in low supply each Christmas, right? There will always be dumb people who are willing to part with their money... no need to lose any sleep over it.

bobman1235

Nintendo is a PUBLIC company, and a very smart one at that. There is no way any company with the business smarts of Nintendo is going to lay down 1.3billion in losses just to create a mystique, and there's no way stockholders would let them. Gaming consoles don't have that long of a shelf-life, the faster you can get them to market the better (aside from the first few weeks or maybe months where some companies would want to create a buzz, but we're a YEAR into this product now).

As I said earlier, I guarantee whatever problems Nintendo is having producing these is not under their control. As with most leading edge products, you rely on a bunch of suppliers, and chances are there's some chip in there that someone can't supply enough of to meet demand.

PhantomOG

I don't doubt the shortage is real. I just doubt that 6-7 months ago there were absolutely no steps that could have been taken to make things better now.

I find it funny that people believe it's so easy to create a "fake" shortage. This thing has been out for over a year and its outselling the PS3 and XBOX by a wide margin. It would be pretty hard to do that on false hype alone. I could see hype driving the first month or two of a product, but not one that has been out for a long time and gotten reviewed by unbiased sources. The PS3 is a fine example in the opposite direction.

edbert

My wife was actually looking to get me one for Christmas, and after very little searching discovered that if she wanted one it would be $500+. I would consider myself in the demographic of when the really good systems starting coming out and therefore still enjoy playing video games to this day. I have an XBOX(not 360) that I haven't used probably in about a year. Do I enjoy playing it? Yes. But with a one year old, my free time is mostly now just a few hours at the end of the day with my wife and there isn't anything that we can play together on it. The Wii though actually caught her interest and she thought it would be something fun that we can both play during that downtime we have sometimes.

To answer your question, no it's not worth double the price. That's also part of the reason that I haven't gone HD yet. I knew that at some point everything would be broadcast digitally and therefore driving down the price of the TV's, programming, everything. That's why last year I got a home theater started, because good audio doesn't change(theoretically speaking). I can upgrade the receiver to pre-amps, amps, etc., LSi's, SVS's, etc. but that has nothing to do with waiting on a technology upgrade, it has to do with a pocket book upgrade.

(steps off soapbox and places it back on the shelf for other fellow polkies to use)

edbert

PhantomOG wrote: »

I don't doubt the shortage is real. I just doubt that 6-7 months ago there were absolutely no steps that could have been taken to make things better now.

I find it funny that people believe it's so easy to create a "fake" shortage. This thing has been out for over a year and its outselling the PS3 and XBOX by a wide margin. It would be pretty hard to do that on false hype alone. I could see hype driving the first month or two of a product, but not one that has been out for a long time and gotten reviewed by unbiased sources. The PS3 is a fine example in the opposite direction.

I also think part of it is they just did not foresee such a big push for these for the second year in a row after such a great year selling them. Of course this is all speculation and based solely on absolutely nothing but the voices in my head.

sucks2beme

My boys are hard core gamers, but they bought their own PS3's.
And they didnt' pay the premium. It's just too hard to scrap up $250
bucks for something, much less $450 to have it today.
My ol' man grew up in the depression, and he would of come unglued
at such a concept. I'm not far behind.

jabrax

This product is truly in that high of a demand. With xbox and ps3 spike in prices, the ninetendo's popularity went through the roof last year for mommies and daddies that want to make little jimmy happy. Word of mouth spread really fast for how much family fun it actually is.

From what I understand, they even outsourced production with major electronic suppliers and just can't produce them fast enough due to lack of critical parts. I don't think that microsoft nor sony has experienced this type of demand for their units for sooo long. I wonder what the new price point would be to lower the demand. Holiday scalpers are testing those temporary price points now, as they will surely drop back after xmas. Ninetendo is smart enough not to do that....i think

cambir

The Wii scalping is out of control. They are on CL local here in Seattle at a rate of 100-200 a day for anywhere from $350-$1000.

Somebody compiled the craziest local ads and posted this reply to the madness (no, wasn't me wish it was):
http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/ele/511588380.html