As Wii's overwhelming success continue, Nintendo expects demand to exceed supply through Christmas and the beginning of the new year.
To deal with the problem, Nintendo announced a "rain check" program that will "guarantee consumers can get a Wii after Christmas."
Consumers who buy an out of stock Wii from GameStop after December 20, 2007 will receive a "rain check" certificate which guarantees them to have a Wii before the end of January.
This offer is available only through GameStop because "they have the ability to track specific purchases and where shoppers go in terms of specific stores", Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime explained. "As you can expect, the way the system needs to work is certificates need to be matched to Wiis and individual stores, and only this retailer can do it."
"We're working with all of our retailers to make sure that every last available system hits stores for the holidays. But we expect no slowdown after the end of the year. There are temptations for consumers to pay more than they want to to resellers. If you can hold out a little bit longer, there will be more and more product available in January; we are not slowing down", said Fills-Aime.
"When will we meet demand? There's no way to answer that question until we actually meet it", he concluded.
