[scs0]

I've seen lots of reports on the net talking about this issue, but when you see it firsthand, it's very surprising. This weekend I went shopping and saw some interesting things firsthand on the condition of the Wii and PS3 shortages. First off, the PS3 really is easy to find, at least here in central Florida. I went into a Best Buy and a Target and both of them had 2 units on the shelf. The shelf space was limited to two units, so it's possible that more may have been in the back. Circuit City also had PS3 units available, but they didn't have any physically on the shelf. Instead, they posted a sign saying they had them, so you had to see an employee to get one.


I was also in couple EBGames / Gamestop stores, but unless you ask an employee or see a console unit behind the counter it's impossible to know what they have. I did see a PS3 in a bag behind the counter, but with all the empty game and system boxes they have floating around, and usually seen months in advance of a release, who the hell knows what they really have?


None of those stores had a Wii or even a component to a Wii controller. In the EBGames store, a guy grabbed a Wii box only to find it was an empty display box. He grumbled and walked away (and rightfully so, seriously, what is the deal with those stores and their misleading empty display boxes?). Later at Best Buy an obese middle-age woman was asking an employee about getting a Wii and even offered to pay now, but he said they couldn't help her like that. In no store did I see someone attempt to purchase a PS3, but saw two people attempting to buy a Wii, and a failed attempt to buy a DS-Lite too.




Unless Sony has dramatically improved their supply chain since the end of the Christmas shpping season, Sony has a problem. Microsoft's original xbox didn't have nearly the fanbase of the PS2, yet the 360 remained unavailable for months after the New Year. It seems to me that Sony has managed to managed to sell a unit to all their hardcore fans and are now Sony's struggling to sell to the mass market. The reverse is true for Nintendo. Unless Nintendo's supply process has dramatically worsened since Christmas, Nintendo is on an incredible roll. It seems that high demand for their system continues to exist, and that will eventually translate into better 3rd party support for us.

 

[Caswell]

Similar situation to the east of you in Brevard county.


There's one Best Buy for all of Brevard county's 500,000 residents, and it had 50+ PS3's when I went to return a CD last Friday morning. Went in late yesterday afternoon and it appeared that only a handful had sold. The Targets all seem to have them as well, albeit in smaller numbers.


I've yet to even see a Wii, let alone have the chance to purchase one.

 

[goatwuss]

Same in Massachusetts.


BB had TWELVE ps3 boxes in their "console cage." Zero wiis, or wii accessories anywhere.

 

[CPanther95]

Same situation in Charlotte. Still can't find extra Wiimotes in stock - need to spend BB bucks or I'd just order directly from Nintendo.

 

[Monger]

Same in Albuquerque. No wiis or controllers. PS3s have been available for a while, tru has had the same few for 3 weeks now.

 

[scs0]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CPanther95 /forum/post/0


Same situation in Charlotte. Still can't find extra Wiimotes in stock - need to spend BB bucks or I'd just order directly from Nintendo.

A few weeks ago I thought the whole wiimote situation was resolved, but apparently it wasn't. Two days before Christmas I was up in Roanoke Virginia and visited two Best Buys on the same day for issues unrelated to videogames and both stores had plenty of nunchucks and wiimotes. After seeing them so plentifully I assumed that issue was resolved, but apparently it was not! Those were the first and only times I have seen those accessories since launch day.


I wonder if Nintendo's holding back the shipments to repackage them with the new strap or to place them into the Wii Play bundle.

 

[scs0]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Caswell /forum/post/0


Similar situation to the east of you in Brevard county.


There's one Best Buy for all of Brevard county's 500,000 residents, and it had 50+ PS3's when I went to return a CD last Friday morning. Went in late yesterday afternoon and it appeared that only a handful had sold. The Targets all seem to have them as well, albeit in smaller numbers.


I've yet to even see a Wii, let alone have the chance to purchase one.

That may even be more dramatic than my experience. I've seen 'the cage, but my Best Buy doesn't have one so all I can say is that the store had 2. I live on the I4 corrodor and have three Best Buys and three Circuit Cities within 25 miles. I probably have half a dozen Targets too. In other words, it sounds like I may have more sales outlets than you yet you are still seeing a huge surplus.


I was really interested in finding one this weekend, not to buy one but just to see it. A month ago it seemed more likely that you'd find a real unicorn in a Best Buy than either a PS3 and Wii. So I really wanted to see if I could find one. When it comes to a Wii, I'd have to say a plaid unicorn seems less elusive.

 

[kcabhsalf]

Same in Ohio here, Walmart has had the same 6 PS3's on the shelf since X-mas (so I was told) but they literaly laughed at me when I asked if they had a wii.


I was told by a game store employee they had gotten an email to expect "heavy shipments" of wii's the week of the 15th. I dont know if this is correct just what he told me.

 

[cantseetheclock1]



Quote:
Originally Posted by scs0 /forum/post/0




I was also in couple EBGames / Gamestop stores, but unless you ask an employee or see a console unit behind the counter it's impossible to know what they have. I did see a PS3 in a bag behind the counter, but with all the empty game and system boxes they have floating around, and usually seen months in advance of a release, who the hell knows what they really have?

I asked, and Nintendo pays the stores to leave those empty boxes out as advertisement. Both GameStop and Toys R Us do it...

 

[wokisan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CPanther95 /forum/post/0


Same situation in Charlotte. Still can't find extra Wiimotes in stock - need to spend BB bucks or I'd just order directly from Nintendo.

This weekend in Roanoke and Lynchburg I found only 1 store (A Gamestop in Lynchburg) w/Wii remotes. It is still very hard to find them for us.

 

[andreo]

I've not seen any PS3s in the Best Buy that I go to. However I have seen them at 2 different Wal-Marts. I was in a Gamestop this weekend and forgot to ask if they had any PS3 systems in stock.


What I find strange is that all the stores that I go into never have the kiosk for the PS3 running. I've seen the demo models sitting there, powered off with the red light on. But I've yet to see one running.


The Wii has the same looping video playing over and over. And normally there will be at least one person watching it.


As for accessories... I've seen nothing. I'm glad that I didn't wait to buy the extra controllers when I picked mine up. I had no idea that the Wii was going to be this hard to find. What's strange is, when I came back home from picking up my preorder. Another store that had me on their pre-order list called to tell me that they have one for me. I told them that I already picked one up at TRU. Who would have known that the next day nobody would see another Wii in stores again for going on over 2 months now.

 

[DanLW]

PS3 shortage? (as indicated in the title) Here in Colorado Springs they are easy to find. However, I haven't seen any Wii units at all. I can sympathise with those whose heart skipped a beat as they reached to pick up a Wii box... only to find it to be empty. I did that on release day. I didn't get one until a week later when I camped a Best Buy. Speaking of which, is that still going on, or are we now to the point where they aren't held for ads, but are rather just put out as they get shipped?


An a sidenote, although it didn't happen the same way as it did with Nintendo, it looks like Sony has managed to find themselves firmly in third place as far as the console race goes. While Nintendo had it happen because of lack of games and the expense of the cartridge format with the N64, Sony is likely having it happen because of the expense of the PS3.


I got a PS3 because it's the cheapest Blu-Ray player. I also got three games - all PS2 games. (Final Fantasy X, X2, and Dragon Quest VIII) Currently no PS3 offerings interest me.


My concern is how badly the PS3 will do. Will it simply be not as popular, or will it end up an utter failure? My main concern is what it could mean for the Blu-Ray format.


My guess is if sales slow down even further, Sony will be forced to drop the price early and take a huge cut on hardware in order to try to save the game and Blu-Ray departments.


As far as Nintendo goes, it looks like they are sitting in the catbird seat. It looks like Sony is going to remain in the #3 spot for this generation. While Microsoft is currently #1, Nintendo looks on track to have sold 5 million units in the first three months of it's existence, while Microsoft looks to have 10-11 million units sold after over a year of existence.


The real winner is all of us. Because this proves that whoever has the most money won't necessarily win. Nintendo stayed in the game when people thought they should go the way of Sega. And what we have is a change in the way we play games. This fierce competition between the "Big 3" is wonderful news for all gamers, because it means that the innovation envelope will continue to be pushed.


Of course, I won't be a Nintendo fanboy if I didn't mention that Nintendo seems to be the only company that is even trying to push the innovation envelope. I don't consider HD gaming an innovation. Better graphics are merely a by-product of ever advancing technology. Motion capture (albeit rudimentary) is an innovation.


Okay, this is the last chapter of this post. I wonder who will have the best motion cpature in the next generation? I highly doubt M$ and Sony will stick with their standard controllers. I want to see 1:1 full 3-D motion capture of the remote. That way the next Zelda game (more likely the next next Zelda game) could feature swordfighting where you swing the sword, as opposed to twitching the controller to activate a pre-determined swing. Better yet would be eliminating the controller altogether in favor of an image capture system that can track your every movement.

 

[MathewM]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DanLW /forum/post/0


Better yet would be eliminating the controller altogether in favor of an image capture system that can track your every movement.

Interesting. You would still have to wear some sort of sensor though. Otherwise the system would track the cat jumping on the sofa.


I thought about re-introducing the powerglove but to use that properly you have to keep your hand waving up in the air which would be tireing.

 

[polymorphic]

I'm in Dallas and my gf is in Houston. According to our investigations, most stores are hoarding them for one-day sales. Nintendo is not to blame. Nintendo U.S. told my gf that if you find stores that are holding Wiis in stock to call Nintendo and report the store and manager. They will not ship them any more Wii consoles.


Generally they won't admit it because they know they are violating Nintendo's sales agreements, but, if you know someone with a nice chest and low cut blouse, the geeks at some retailers can be known to babble some info on the dl...

 

[Low Roller]

We keep getting info on the PS3 and 360 shipments like two roosters in a **** fight.


.....yet we all just assume Nintendo sells every Wii the very second they are available at retail. I'm just wondering, but the PS3's are at least meeting demand.(easy to find) But that doesn't mean they aren't selling. Sony could be cranking them out hand over fist for all I know.


I wonder if Nintendo is actually selling the numbers of Wii's it has forcasted, or has their production line ran into a snag? Meanwhile, the Big N watches Sony take sustained barrages from the media and tries to slip through the back door with its pants down. Reported Wii sightings are about as common as those of Elvis.


Note: Everything posted above is based on wild conjecture and speculation, in true AVS fashion.

 

[joekun]



Quote:
Nintendo U.S. told my gf that if you find stores that are holding Wiis in stock to call Nintendo and report the store and manager. They will not ship them any more Wii consoles.

Just out of curiosity wouldn't that be bad for you? Sure they may be hoarding them for ads or whatever, but if they don't get any more due to your reporting them there's no guarantee that they'll go to another store in your community. Then you may have a really hard time finding one

 

[polymorphic]



Quote:
Originally Posted by joekun /forum/post/0


Just out of curiosity wouldn't that be bad for you? Sure they may be hoarding them for ads or whatever, but if they don't get any more due to your reporting them there's no guarantee that they'll go to another store in your community. Then you may have a really hard time finding one

I believe in suffering for a cause. If you don't stand up to those who do you wrong, you will always remain in the same position. I've noticed in my 31 years that customer service and the rights of customers in this 'consumer's' market are severely eroding. The customer is not always right anymore, and the retailers don't care to hear your side. Plus, I'm really patient. I can wait for the Wii to go to $50. My gf is the one who is getting antsy.

 

[Videoeditman]

I picked up a Wii last week although I went to the mall 3 consecutive days at lunchtime to await their UPS shipments. One day a lady returned a PS3, she told the salesman that she couldn't sell it on E-bay. He said they were having a hard time selling any PS3's. If E-bay is selling few at or around cost you know they are fairly easy to find. I saw a rumor that Sony might release a PS3 without the Blu-ray drive probably just a DVD-ROM, if that is true they must be really lacking in sales!

 

[shook2323]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Videoeditman /forum/post/0


I saw a rumor that Sony might release a PS3 without the Blu-ray drive probably just a DVD-ROM, if that is true they must be really lacking in sales!

Why would they do that, since all their games are BDs and can't be read by a DVD-ROM? Understand you said it was a rumor, but seriously...

 

[ghughes20]

I thought the blue ray disk was integral to the games. I thought that the games were written on Blue Ray, which could jam a lot more detail on the disk vs DVD-ROM; granted, I'm not a gaming expert.


I've seen a lot of PS3s at Best Buy in Paramus, NJ. Still can't find a wii, although some people I know have been able to buy them if they visit the stores soon after the truck arrives.


I really think Sony misjudged the market for a $500 to $600 gaming system.