Wii scarcity boosts demand

Games consoles are always popular incentive rewards, and here at IncentiveDirect we have had plenty of iD-points End Users contacting us to ask when they will be able to buy a Nintendo Wii console in the iD-points store.

The truth is, we still don't know. While we knew we were unlikely to get any stocks when the Wii first launched back in December 2006, we thought that new stocks would be arriving by late February, early March, and that there would be availability in the incentives channel. But for there to be no units available by the end of April, shows something is up.

As we discovered with the Sony Playstation and the PSP, the incentives channel is hardly the top priority for the console manufacturers. Getting hold of units is tough. Even so, the shortages of the Wii, both in the retail and incentive channel, is unprecedented.

Occassionally units do come online for sale - there are a number of online stock trackers that will alert you whenever a Wii is in stock - these typically sell out in a few minutes. But for there to be so few units available 5 months after launch either shows either a disastrous manufacturing schedule by Nintendo, a complete disregard for the UK market, or ... a deliberate tactic to keep demand for the Wii high.

On the Freakonomics website, Paul Kimmelman ponders the Freakonomics of Wii shortages, and wonders whether such acute shortages of Wii's are good or bad for Nintedo's PR and marketing, and long term sales. Elsewhere, conspiracy theories abound.

In the laws of supply and demand, scarcity increases demand, and can keep a product 'hot' longer than when there is a surplus in the sales channel. But there is only so long before consumers will switch off a new hot product comes along. That demand for the Wii has survived the European launch of the Playstation 3 is testament to the desirability of the product.

Of course, we're looking to get one for the office too, for, uhhh, evaluation purpose.