TOKYO - Nintendo's president acknowledged Friday that the shortage of the hit Wii game machine was "abnormal," and promised production was being boosted to increase deliveries by next month.
"We must do our best to fix this abnormal lack of stock," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told reporters. "We have not been able to properly foresee demand."


The comments came a day after the Japanese manufacturer of the Wii — which comes with a wand that can be used as a sword, tennis racket or fishing rod depending on the game — reported that sales nearly doubled for the fiscal year, lifted by robust sales of the Wii and the DS portable, a handheld video game.


Kyoto-based Nintendo Co.'s net profit jumped 77 percent to 174.29 billion yen ($1.47 billion) in the year through March, up dramatically from 98.38 billion yen a year earlier. Sales soared 90 percent to 966.53 billion yen ($8.13 billion).


The Wii has pummeled its rivals in a head-to-head battle in next-generation video game consoles involving Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/finance/ap/ap_on_hi_te/storytext/japan_nintendo/22800357/*http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=sne&d=t) - news (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/biz/ap/ap_on_hi_te/storytext/japan_nintendo/22800357/*http://biz.yahoo.com/n/s/sne.html)).'s PlayStation 3, which has been plagued with production problems, and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Xbox) 360.


Iwata refused to disclose the monthly production capacity for the Wii, and said it was too early to say by how much the production was being raised.
But he said efforts were under way to increase production, and more machines will get delivered to stores around the world.
"We will do our best to offer the machine for those who are waiting," he said at a Tokyo hall.


The Wii's motion-sensitive remote control wand has made it hit even with people unaccustomed to playing video games. It faced some minor problems early on with its wand, which flew out of the hands of some zealous players, snapping the strap and at times crashing into TVs. But that hasn't dented profits, and the console is still flying off store shelves.


Nintendo, which also makes Pokemon and Super Mario games, is planning to sell 14 million Wii machines for the current fiscal year through March 2008, having sold 5.84 million Wii consoles worldwide in the five months since its release late last year.


Sony has sold just 1.84 million PlayStation 3 machines so far worldwide, while Microsoft has shipped more than 10 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide.


The PlayStation 3 went on sale late last year in the U.S. and Japan, and in March in Europe. Xbox 360 beat rivals to market in 2005.


Nintendo also has a big hit in the DS, selling more than 40 million since its launch in late 2004. The machine comes with a touch panel, introducing new easy-to-play games such as raising a dog that players can pet on the screen. Nintendo expects sales of 22 million more DS machines this fiscal year.


Iwata said Nintendo is now producing 2.5 million DS machines a month to meet bursting demand, the highest production ever for a Nintendo game machine.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_hi_te/japan_nintendo

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I'm so glad to read that both the DS and Wii are doing so well for nintendo, they really are the best consoles out there at the moment.

Yeah I'm very surprised Nintendo managed to sell that much in a certain time.. They've even bought a developer company (Monolith soft), something which they haven't done in a while. (tough luck sony fans, no more xenosaga for you :XD: )

Iwata also said that nintendo is planning to sell 122 games this year of which 45 games are wii and 79 are for the DS. Most of them are games designed for gamers (unlike the recent trend of non gaming games such as the brain age series)

But honestly they need to make production for the wii even higher as it is still sold out. I was hoping this issue would die down before summer but it doesn't seem like it will. But anyways, I managed to finally play with the wii at compume egypt, and it was quite amazing and felt strange. The only thing that appalled me was the price. As you know, the wii is sold for $250 US. Compume however decided to sell it for 4000 egyptian pounds (700 US dollars) while at the same time they're selling the xbox 360 for 3660 egyptian pounds (or 640 bucks).. they told me the wii was more expensive "because it is still a brand new product".. seriously it ticked me off when he said that..

I'm certainly not gonna pay 700$ just for the wii alone.. These are all the games that I'm gonna be buying this year (or the next) alongside the wii.

Metroid prime 3: Corruption
Super Mario Galaxy
Super smash bros brawl
Battalion wars 2
Mario Charged Strikers
Project HAMMER
Disaster day of crisis
Scarface
Resident evil: umbrella chronicles
Resident Evil 4 wii edition

all of these games cost about $480 (resident evil 4 only costs $30).. add this up with the wii and you $730.. that price makes the wii in Egypt not worth buying.. the only problem is buying a wii from the US if its gonna keep on selling out

get your self a multi system and enjoy the copies with 2 rials or less ;) i'm gonna get this machine for sure :)

^ I don't think buying fake games is a good idea..might ruin your console.

^thats why they modify the console in order to play the fake games..

but me personally, games are the only thing i never pirate n play..

^ exactly, I hate buying pirated games..somehow it doesn't feel as special.

anyways..I think I'm going to finally get my Wii once 'Mario Galaxy' is released. That's the main reason I am getting it seeing that i'm such a huge mario fan.

good luck.. the systems are still sold out everywhere =\ i thought it might end by summer but it seems it isn't the case.. it could go till the end of the year for all we know.. nintendo needs to figure out a way to lessen the demand..

strangely i keep thinking that the people who snatch up the consoles decide to sell them at ebay for a higher price for their own gain.. then again i am paranoid... -_-

I've seen some consoles over here actually..I very much doubt that anyone is going to bother buying it in this dull country. :p

well i don't think it will do any harm to your console as they give a year warranty on it ...i don't care about buying original games but final fantasy i might cause there is a game i didn't play on the gamecube....

i don't know how spacial you guys feel when you buy original games after all the games wastes sometimes the time so why waste so much money on it :p

^I still play all the old games I have you know.. heck i still have my original gameboy and i still play metroid 2 and super mario land and they're ancient