Reggie Fils-Aime: Wii Supply in U.S. Still Not Adequate

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Reggie Fils-Aime: Wii Supply in U.S. Still Not Adequate
The Nintendo of America president says that Wii consoles only sit on story shelves for about an hour before they get sold, and that North America needs more supply to adequately meet demand.
Posted by David Radd on Thursday, April 24, 2008


Speaking to Wired, Nintendo of America's president Reggie Fils-Aime said he's still not pleased with the U.S. allocation of Wii consoles. He noted that while the U.S. gets 40 percent of the 1.8 million Wii units made every month, the consoles are on average only on store shelves for an hour before being purchased.

"We are passionately upset about the lack of product relative to demand," said Fils-Aime, adding that Nintendo of America tries to remind the Kyoto HQ of "missed opportunities" in this territory. Fils-Aime also noted that North America is the only territory that still has a supply problem, as the Wii can be found readily in both Europe in Japan.

This is not the first time that Fils-Aime has vented his frustration about the Wii supply problem in North America. Last year, he called the shortages of Wii units "highly, highly unfortunate" and added a week later how he wanted greater allocation of the Wii units produced.

A number of analysts have suggested that Nintendo is deliberately allocating more Wii units to other territories because of the weak American dollar. Wiis being sold in Europe or Japan make more money for Nintendo.