The Wii Fit definitely drives sales... cool product that again reaches well beyond the normal gamer market to plumb the VERY broad consumer fitness market.

But I don't think that Guitar Hero is going to drive Wii sales... who's going to look at GH on the Wii, compare it's crappy graphics to the great looking 360 or PS3 the next aisle down and say "I've got to have the Wii version of Guitar Hero"

Complete capitalist bullshit... I know people who work at IBM bromont where they manufacture Wii chips. Theses chips are inexpensive, very simple and quick to make and they have plenty of them in stock... Nintendo is controlling the offer to increase prices and make a lot of $$$. The hardware they use for the wii is so cheap and simple that they could sell it 1/10 of its price and still make an excellent profit! Really, Nintendo managers are more evil than $ony and Micro$oft together when they got the puck.

I believe Guitar Hero is more about the gameplay than the graphics. From what I recall there aren't all that many spectacular visuals in those instrument playing type games. It's not like playing FarCry 2 or anything. Plus, the Wii is a very broadly appealing platform, which many own, and people who don't usually play on consoles (such as myself--I don't own X360 or PS3, but I do have a Wii) but might want to play Guitar Hero/Rock band (very appealing games) would rather not spend $300+ for another platform just to play one game. It would be very convenient for them to just pick up a copy for Wii.

Do you want them to make less money than they can? Even if the chips are cheap, they still need factories to actually construct the units and put them in boxes. The whole economy is supposed to be based on supply and demand, so if the public would stop buying them, Nintendo would drop the price. Would you sell your car for less than someone was going to pay you? The only bullshit on here is your implication that Nintendo should be selling for less than they are because they are already making a profit. Think before you type.

I've got to go with SMR on this one. What was the PS3 when it came out, $600? The XBox 360 was what, $400 or $500? The PSP was also $400 if I recall. Sure, after a couple years those prices dropped, but the Wii has ALWAYS been less than $300 ($250 now). The fact that Nintendo can make a product that is technically less advanced (and thus cheaper to make), yet still more popular then their competitors should mean they get to make a profit.

Let's face it, Sony and Microsoft only made headway against Nintendo during the previous generation (XBox, PS2, GameCube) because Sony and Microsoft were able to throw more money at game developers. Hell, Microsoft bought an entire company (Bungie) just for Halo! Don't forget, Nintendo has been around for decades, so they obviously know what they're doing. Microsoft, on the other hand, has lost billions trying to muscle into the console market with the XBox.

its just a ploy to raise the prices for the xmas season thats all.

I heard there's warehouse in Tacoma, WA full of Nintendo Wii's and that Nintendo intentionally cut supply...

You can't compare a PS3 or a xbox 360 to a wii, because Wii have perhaps 1/3 or even 1/4 the computing power of them. A xbox 360 in Canada is about 399.99$ and a wii, at least 430$ IF YOU FIND ONE! Nintendo is creating a shortage just to prevent its console's price to drop and that's the problem. All the factories and other things needed for manufacturing were already available, they didn't spend a lot of money to create the wii, unlike sony with the ps3...

"The whole economy is supposed to be based on supply and demand" - YES, BUT WHEN YOU INTENTIONALLY CUT SUPPLY THEN YOU SCREW UP THE WHOLE SYSTEM

"Would you sell your car for less than someone was going to pay you?" - No, because if the person don't want to pay my price it has thousands of other offers which are in direct competition with mine, but if u want to play Super Smash Brawl, then u have NO others possibility but to buy their console, so abusing of custumers like that is a shame.

"The only bullshit on here is your implication that Nintendo should be selling for less than they are because they are already making a profit" - I dont care if Nintendo drop its price, the problem is only that they are using anti-consumer tactic to make more money by creating a shortage. If the wii is cheap, simple and they can sell 2x more of them for a little bit lower, fine, everybody whould have a wii, nintendo would be richer and sony would try sell its ps3 1/3 of their cost price and then we would have a real fair market.

The Wii cost to much no matter what its price is even if it was free it still is what it is & that's old tech in a new box. Then again I consider the PS3 & the Xbox 360 old tech no too because the tech in the PC world is ahead of any production console at this point but at least the PS3 & 360 started out with good hardware that could play the next gen games without the dev's having to lower the overall game quality just to get it to play on the Wii console. I find it hard to believe that Nintendo would be having shortages for the xmas season because they pretty much had all year to stock pile for a holiday that comes at the same time every year so its not like they didn't know that there would be a lot more demand at this time of year.

Just a personal thought to those that buy a Wii at these higher prices when they could get a 360 for pretty much the same price should go out & buy a Apple PC because Apple likes to over charge to for their lack luster product line so you will fit into Apples folds too. lol

Folks, face it the Wii is in shortage because it is in HIGH demand. They haven't been able to stockpile because they've been selling out like crazy. I saw Wiis in stock at Walmart in the summertime but even then they were only on the shelves for a few days whereas the other consoles tend to collect dust. Also anyone who has studied Business 101 knows why Nintendo can't just ramp production to meet demand. Put it this way, it costs millions to open a new factory. If you flood the market with Wiis that will drive down the price and risk killing demand. If that happens you can actually go into debt instead of making a profit. It's a common business error.

It's sure that Nintendo should not flood markets with wii because they would make it wort less than it's cost value... the demand is high, yes, but the supply could be just a little bit increased to allow a fair price. A Wii for 250$ can would be a perfect deal.

okay...for one...if you pay over retail for a wii your retarded. they are 249.99 all day everyday. even mom and pop computer stores are selling the system. so demand may be even higher than you think. i know for a fact a gamestop will sell 40+ wiis a week compared to about ten 360's and literally one or two ps3(if that). in the end though, its all business. nintendo is doing a fantastic job of proving that. they own the market and the gamecube they did infact put all of the companies faith in, has paid off. it took a name change and new controller scheme but it worked.

DeadlyPredator, you don't know any of the details. Who are you to tell Nintendo how to run their business? If you don't like it that there haven't been any price drops, don't buy one until the price drops. If you're willing to spend $250 on a Wii but think you should only have to pay $25, then you're being the greedy one here, not Nintendo.

Why does everyone get so upset about how Nintendo runs it's business. Last time I checked, the Wii is NOT a necessity. If the milk and bread companies were trying to create shortages to jack up prices, I'd be pissed. But I don't think anything entitles me to have a Wii at whatever price I think is fair. The "I have to have one" thought mentality is what has the U.S. in a "recession" right now.