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TT October 17, 2007 at 3:13 pm

Mythbusters: Game companies create demand by limiting consoles

As a video game critic, it’s not unusual for me to receive emails from frustrated parents who can’t get their hands on a hot video game system. “Why do they make us drive all over the city or stand in line for hours to buy their product?” I’m asked. Or “do these game console companies do this on purpose to create hype for their product? They must!”


WiiAs a video game critic, it’s not unusual for me to receive emails from frustrated parents who can’t get their hands on a hot video game system. "Why do they make us drive all over the city or stand in line for hours to buy their product?" I’m asked. Or "do these game console companies do this on purpose to create hype for their product? They must!"

Good question. So I posed it to Nintendo, who are enjoying tremendous success with its Nintendo Wii video game console.

The question was simple:

Does Nintendo purposely hold back inventory on the Wii to create more hype and get more buzz/coverage for their product?

Here’s the official answer from Farjad Iravani, Marketing Manager at Nintendo of Canada.

"Wii was launched to be one of the best performing home consoles in the history of video games. In fact, we expect that after the upcoming holiday season, Wii will match or exceed cumulative sales of any home system in history. Nintendo does not hold back inventory as a marketing tool, we aim to bring gaming to everyone and are working diligently to meet the unprecedented demand for Wii at retail."

So, do you buy it?


Filed Under: Games




Comments (5)

  • none says:

    Wii is the best system out righ now the only bad thing about the system is that it doesn't support full HD (1080p) it only supports up to 480p… but I love it anyways.

    (Report comment)

  • Dan says:

    Are you serious? Wii is the best system out there? The Wii is a fun little toy that wii-ll grow very old as soon as people figure out just how bad the graphics are on that machine. The controllers are very interesting, but ultimately, no one will buy the Wii for Halo, Madden, NHL, Fifa, Grand Theft Auto, etc. They will buy it for tired retreads of Mario Party, Zelda and various cutsy games that are clearly aimed at the very young or the very stupid.
    I see the value of the system for kids though. Adults? Not so much.

    (Report comment)

  • John says:

    I have to think that the three major players (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) want to sell as many consoles as they can . These companies are here to make money and why would they not sell you there box when you could buy from somebody else . I have to disagree with Dan from the previous post that this is not the best system. It is the best for families with smaller kids . I can have four members of my family playing the game and all having fun . we are aged from 6 to 41 . If I wanted to play halo or graphics intense type games then the Wii is not the console to buy the xbox seems to take the lead . The play station is a inexpensive way to get a blue ray dvd player and a gaming machine . So who is the best?

    (Report comment)

  • Michael says:

    I do not believe it at all. Nintendo has purposely limited their supply to make it the "hot" game system. I think it could back fire if people turn to other systems because they can't even find a wii to buy.

    (Report comment)

  • Fitlekext says:

    A little off topic, Guys… I have a question. Two days ago I had fun with this site:
    Rivalspot.com – Xbox tournaments for money
    They say you can play online Madden game tournaments on any console for cash… had anyone tried that before? Looks like a cool idea…
    Are there any other sites where you can play sports games for real moneys? I Googled and found only Bringit.com and Worldgaming.com but it looks these guys don’t specialize in sport gamez. Any suggestions?

    (Report comment)

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