Interesting theory, but I thought console manufacturers either broke even or took a loss on their consoles to begin with? So Nintendo's not making more profit by selling in Europe, it's minimizing its losses. Plus if Nintendo sells fewer Wiis in the U.S., they'd ultimately end up selling fewer games here too.

The most annoying thing about it all is the fact that most Wiis purchased wind up on eBay, then the console is bought by people who want one because others want it, and finally the people that actually have a use for it get what is left in the stores.

I know way too many people with Wiis that don't play with them, they just sit there in living rooms, and far too many are on eBay still. I'd hoped to get one a while back, but still no luck.

Interestingly enough, the Wiis on eBay seem to be going for barely more than the price in stores.

I can't stand Pachter but he's right about this. And yeah, the lower price point of the Wii combined with how much it actually costs to make one means that it's one of the only consoles in history not to be sold at a loss. Other companies just factor that into their business model and make the most off the licensing anyway.

Even though supplies are tight, if you want a Nintendo Wii, you can get one. You still have to search for them, but every single person I know who could not initially get one when it first came out, has one by now, and I live in California.

In fact, one friend will be showing me the newest version of Smash Brothers this Saturday...

Guiguibob80,

1.) CAD dollars haven't been above USD for very long.
2.) CAD dollars are still lower than Euros, pounds etc. It would still apply.

Please nintendo was not ready to handle the WII it was to much dck for all(I kid), and nin has always "sold below demand" to push sales.

Getting a Wii isn't hard if you got a plan, and the plan isn't really all that hard. It just requires getting up a lil earlier and then grabbing the sunday paper. From what I've seen, Wiis ONLY come out on Sunday. Coiceidentaly, the ads come out ON SUNDAY. Stores only advertise the Wii when they have them. Newspaper typically comes around 5-7am (at least ours does). Stores that carry the Wii typically open around 9-10am. If you get to the store an hour or 2 before it opens, then congratulations you pretty much got yourself a Wii.

*note* if theres more than 20 people in the line, its probably a lost cause since from what I've seen most places only get 13-20 Wiis anyway. This guide need not apply to people that can pull strings and get their buddies to hold one till you get there *cough*me*cough*

But overall though, I'm fairly unimpressed with the Wii. Yea theres a few gem games out there (Brawl, Metroid Prime 3, No More Heros) but the majority of the systems games are dominated by the casual market and marketed to people that don't know a GREAT game from a Poorly made game. Casual system, marketed to casual people, produces casual developers, which means less quality since the developers don't need to please the ones that have a better eye for quality which, in the case of the Wii, are the minority.

This soft dollar policy has been one of my biggest problems with the Bush administration. The Wii shortage is only the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks, OIL COMPANIES AND ROBBER BARONS! Not only are they ruining our gas prices, now they're reducing the dollar!

Now before we talk profit, I want to know is it Profit or PURE Profit?

Profit is Sell - Production Cost. (labor and all that fun stuff)
Pure Profit being all the money that is left over from covering costs of making the system.

Just saying "They made profit y0!!11oneone!2" doesn't mean much

@Ebonheart

It's pure profits, paying for the overheads and production costs can hardly be counted as profit. Why would it make any difference though? Shareholders deserve a return on their investment and future console development needs to be paid for with profit.

I don't think Nintendo are price gouging if that's what you mean, the consoles wouldn't sell as well if that was the case.

Gift.

Uhm, shouldn't the price in each country take into account the exchange rate, thereby ensuring the same profit no matter where the system is sold? No?

In case he's talking about dollar value falling over time, that wouldn't be much of an issue, since I'm sure a large company like Nintendo would be hedging that sort of risk.

sell where the money is, i'm sorry but americans tend to forget the world exists and i'm actually happy this is happening

I'm glad that I finally got a Wii (got it yesterday) although I had to call my local gamspot every day for a couple weeks and when I did get it (at around 3 pm) it was their second to last one (they got their shipment earlier that same day).

Nintendo don't convert Dollar sales back to Yen straight away, a sizeable portion of their profits comes from financial transactions, moving foreign money reserves to Yen at just the right time to maximise the exchange rate.

I woudl give this more credit as a plausible theory, if the Wii weren't selling faster than the other two consoles. If North America is getting short changed on Wiis, but they are still selling so many of them, then Sony and Microsoft have bigger marketing issues than it seems.

This seems to be as accurate as my father's conspiracy theory that Nintendo does it on purpose and sells them on Ebay themselves, despite selling more in stores than the other two.

But then I trust Pachter's analysis about as much as I trust Jack Thompson's 1st Amendment expertise. I think Pachter gets more media coverage than his accuracy deserves. He always seems to have some media grabbing analysis coupled with an industry shocking prediction.

Yeah but what he does not say is that shipping and handeling will most likely be $300. :)