And by “poppy-cock”, I clearly mean “bullshit”. While some reports indicate that the scarcity of the Nintendo Wii is pushing prices through the roof, I believe these to be incredibly isolated events, perhaps greater in areas inhabited by predominantly stupid folk.
While Wii scarcity issues are real, the demand is overly stated by the media. In San Francisco, where Wii-sitting was exhaustive, a few rogue Wii consoles could still be found in certain retail outlets in the very midst of the media hysteria over Wii scarcity. Even when some PS3 units were selling for double their retail price on eBay, the Wii barely managed to bring in fifty to one-hundred dollars above its retail price on similar auctions.
So maybe before Christmas, one or two desperate parents, unable to come up with an appropriate gift for their respective youngsters, shelled out almost a grand for a Wii. They were obviously desperate, however, because the Wii continues to be sold online for much less. My own craigslist auction for a Wii has had no hits at all, despite being online for several weeks, and with my bundle price almost equivalent to the retail price of the included items. In fact, craigslist in San Francisco depicts a rather poor resale rate of Wii systems in general, which is highly contrary to the demand for the console that the media portends.
A more even-handed picture of Wii demand suggests that the availability is pretty consistent with those who want to acquire a Wii. If anything, the demand is only slightly above the availability itself, which is still causing the occasional line to form outside a Best Buy near you, but not much of one if at all. And really, who can blame consumers? The Wii console is still selling rehashed titles from successful systems, instead of offering gems from the Saturn, Dreamcast, or Jaguar. Exclusives on the Wii have been pretty poor to date, with Mario Galaxy being the only “must-have” on the system since the Zelda game released along with the Wii.
2008 may very well be the year that the Wii comes into its own, but frankly, I’m tired of hearing how cool Smash Bros is going to be, when the dumb thing should have shipped long ago. There’s a reason my Wii is getting no play-time at all, and that reason is poor product execution, ala BeOS. Just because the Wii has potential, doesn’t mean it’s being utilized, which is why we still don’t have a clear online strategy, and why titles like Guitar Hero III and Rock Band are usurping the “party” genre that the Wii was meant to monopolize.
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