Admittedly, I am probably a little behind in the game, but apparently I am not the only one. Earlier this year I barely bought myself an XBox 360, which of course is currently at Microsoft being repaired (shocking, I know); I have enjoyed it tremendously but it was only a matter of time before I decided I would like to own the apparently very ellusive Nintendo Wii.

Now, I’m not ignorant, I read the news, I stay ontop (for the most part) on what’s going on in the gaming industry and I know the Wii is a hot item, but I honestly thought that now 3 months past the holiday season the Wii would be a little easier to obtain. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. I have been going to, calling, and visiting the websites of Best Buy, Circuit City, FYE, Shopko, KMart, Smith’s Marketplace, Toys ‘R’ Us, Gamestop, EB Games, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Amazon.com, and I swear to you, no one within a 50 mile radius of my hometown has a Wii (aside from buying one online in a “bundle” of a bunch of games I really don’t want for $600+). I have been calling multiple locations of mulitple stores literally everyday to ask if any Wii’s are in stock; I get the same answer everytime:

“No. And we don’t know when we will be getting anymore in.”

So I, like I’m sure thousands of others, have been asking the one billion dollar question: “Why?” Why can no store keep the Wii in stock for longer than a few hours, maybe a day or two, and on top of that, never know when they will be getting anymore. “We get them when Nintendo puts them at our back door.” is the favorite saying of every employee at FYE (douchy chumps), and similar sayings are spouted by every other person I talk to at every store I call or visit. So, maybe I am asking the wrong people, maybe the source needs to provide some answers, maybe the maker should be able to supply their devoted-for-20-plus-years fanbase with reasonable access to their new product. Yes,

I’m looking at you. There have been many rumors, theories, and “facts” about why Wii’s are so hard to come by. The first is that Nintendo claims that a certain chip for the Wii is very difficult to mass produce and that slows down the whole production of the entire console… now, how true this is is beyond me, this is just what two dudes at FYE told me, sounds kind of dumb and frankly, doubtful. The other theory is a classic conspiracy theory that Nintendo and merchants are intentionally holding back Wii stock to create shortage and thus a higher demand. Personally, I doubt this as well.

I think that the right answer, and the answer that most people including myself just don’t like to hear, is that people just want the Wii. It’s a great product, very family and party oriented, and people want to own. This simple reason seems to be the most simple, not to mention most logical, of answers. With that being said however, I think Nintendo should make efforts to step up production and make the console more accessable to their loyal consumers. If I had invented a product that seemingly everyone in the GD world wanted to give me $250+ for I would try my best to make sure people could get it. Nintendo seems to be okay with the idea of “You can buy one if you can find one. Good luck.”

There are tools out there to help, I have been utilizing wiialerts.com to try to see if I can’t snag one of the internet at maybe circuitcity.com or amazon.com, but check out how long the Wii stays in stock at these places once they get a shipment, it’s a hard play, especially with all the assholes out there that buy the Wii just to throw it on EBay and try to make a profit off it (seriously, if you do this, you’re an ass). I guess where there’s a will there’s a way and if I want to shell out “market price” or pay a lot for a bundle I will just have to be patient, do some leg work, and be prepared to punch out old ladies and children at the store for a Nintendo Wii.