After three years of shortages, Gamestop's supply of Wii video game consoles is catching up to demand, to the point that the retailer is no longer worried about having enough.
"You know, three years later, we finally have enough inventory on the shelf, and we've got a couple of weeks in supply of this," Gamestop Senior Vice President of Merchandising Bob McKenzie said in a Gamasutra interview. "That's good because we can finally determine and gauge it before we get into the fourth holiday season."
While all three consoles were in short supply following their launch, demand for Nintendo's hit console never quite went away. For three years, consumers had to scramble to pick up the Wiis as they trickled in, especially around the holidays.
The shortages led to accusations -- from the media, consumers and Gamestop itself -- that Nintendo was intentionally limiting supply. A simple reason for this might be the greater perceived value of a scarce product, but it's also been suggested that Nintendo sent more consoles to Europe, where the market was smaller but the profit margin was greater. Nintendo has insisted that they didn't limit supply on purpose; they were simply caught off guard by how many people wanted the console.
In any case, it's not clear whether this holiday season will see the elimination of shortages; McKenzie's comments merely suggest that Gamestop will have a better handle on holiday demand. We'll probably find out more in the summer, when Nintendo typically starts talking about these matters.
