Nintendo Promises Wii Rain Checks

Reprieve for those looking for a Wii, at least in the US.

If you're an American hoping to buy a Wii before Christmas, the end of 2007 is looking very much like the end of 2006, but Nintendo has come up with a plan.

Fils-Aime at last year's Wii launch

Rather than watching its customers go off to pay above the retail price for a Wii on auction sites such as eBay, Nintendo is introducing a rain check program in the US that will allow customers to pre-pay for a Wii with delivery guaranteed in January.

GameStop stores in the US will take orders for the Wii on 21 and 22 December . Customers who pay in full will get a unique Wii certificate, matched to a console that will be theirs after the Christmas rush.

It's an unprecedented move for a hardware maker, a deal that was made possible by the extensive logistical set-up offered by GameStop, which is why Nintendo has tapped the retail chain as its exclusive partner in the program.

The plan was announced on Friday by Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Nintendo's business in America.

During a conference call, Fils-Aime made frequent mention of "overwhelming demand" in the weeks after Thanksgiving in the US. Combine that with the atypically strong sales over the usually quiet summer months, a time when Nintendo would like to have been stockpiling consoles, and you have a recipe for the waiting game Nintendo fans are playing right now.

It's not for Nintendo's lack of trying that supplies are so low. The company is cranking out 1.8 million Wiis a month from its Far East production lines, twice what it was doing when the console launched last year.

The Wii is an example of the modern way of hardware manufacturing, with several companies each working on separate components that are then assembled into finishing consoles. There is not one particular component that is holding up the line. Nintendo says the shortages are simply the product of its inability to judge the strength of demand for the console.

That's reflected in Nintendo's sales forecasts, which have been revised twice this year already. Though that is scant consolation for people waiting in lines, hoping to snag a Wii.

And even the rain checks aren't a full stop-gap. Fils-Aime said they're limited in quantities, and refused to say exactly how many of them there would be to go around.

"We're doing everything we can," he said.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo