Nintendo failed to supply promised Wii units to UK stores?

Wii News | Nintendo dismisses claims from Virgin.

Nintendo has today spoken against claims that they failed to supply Wii units to some UK stores. Virgin MegaStores complained they hadn't received correct stock supplies of the Wii, when questions were raised about the company's PlayStation 3 pre-orders program. According to reports, when customers pre-ordered their PlayStation 3 console they were guaranteed a console but not necessarily on launch day.

A Virgin customer service representative stated, "We can't make a commitment to the 23rd because Sony hasn't made a commitment to us."

Apparently, Virgin were trying to avoid some problems they had endured during the Wii's launch day.

"It's because there was an issue with the Wii. Some stores didn't get the allocation they were promised until the next day after launch," a Virgin representative stated. Other representative's also stated: "The full amount of stock we were promised never turned up." Some even expressed stock hadn't been received from Nintendo until several weeks after launch.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Nintendo were quick to defend themselves however with a spokesmen stating: "All UK retailers were notified of their initial day one Wii allocations in October 2006, some six to eight weeks before launch. Nintendo delivered exactly what we said we would to retailers for day one and in many instances over delivered against the initial numbers retailers were expecting. Nintendo made multiple and regular deliveries to retailers across the UK in the days following launch to try and meet the huge demand for Wii as much as possible."

Related Content

No plans for budget Wii range
27 Aug, 2007 RIP Player's Choice?

Wii almost UK's top seller
16 Aug, 2007 Gaining on 360 fast.

UK and European Nintendo figures released
16 Jan, 2007 Ching, ching, ching goes the till.

6 Comments

Nev

5 years ago

I know the guy down at my local game store (small town) was expecting at least a dozen units and ended up with 3. He wasn't even able to keep one in the store, because the systems were preordered.

But if you can show me a console launch where everyone who wanted a console got one on Day One, I'll be impressed.

And no, the N-Gage doesn't count.

NeoSanity

5 years ago

I think if Mircosoft or Sony or Nintendo held off launch for just 1 month to compile console numbers then shipped it all out a week before launch then you'd have a far better launch.

It's something I've yet to see a company sucessfully manage.