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Planned Wii production boost blocked?

Nintendo may not be able to boost Wii production as planned, it has been alleged - and it's all thanks to the industry-wide components shortage that appears to be hindering notebook production.

Unnamed Taiwanese component makers today told DigiTimes that Nintendo has been forced to delay its plan to ramp up Wii output, a scheme that should have kicked in this past June but, according to the sources, didn't.

In April, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata admitted the company had been unable to foresee the strong demand for its latest games console. Some estimates put the worlwide sales of the machine at more than 10.1m units.

Iwata pledged to "fix this abnormal lack of stock", though he didn't say by how many units Wii production would be increased.

If the latest claims are correct, that increase may not have taken place. The report's sources said there is unlikely to be any significant increase in Wii availability through the rest of 2007.

Still, if Nintendo can indeed rack up sales of 10.1m units or thereabouts - a figure right behind the Xbox 360's tally, and that machine's been on sale for a year longer than the Wii - it's not doing so badly from the so-called shortages.

That said, as the 360 and potentially the PS3 become cheaper to buy - the basic Xbox 360 now costs the same as the Wii in Australia, for example - consumers who can't get a Wii may be tempted to buy an alternative. ®

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