How many are Wii getting?

So we all know by now that Nintendo has had a really, REALLY good November. If you didn’t know, Nintendo made sure you could by issuing a press release that trumpeted all their latest achievements. Over 55% of the hardware sold in November has the Nintendo name on it. 70,000 US Wii systems sold a day for the 7 days included in the NDP numbers. Miyamoto is now, officially, a deity. All things Nintendo is proud of and should be bragging about. But see, the problem with bragging is that sometimes you get a little carried away. Originally Nintendo said something like this…

“Despite some spot shortages in some locations, well more than a million Wii systems will be available in the United States by the end of the year.”

Then they alerted the media that the statement should be retracted and ignored. So it looks like Nintendo may not make it to 1M before January 1st. With pre-launch rumors of production numbers being higher than originally thought, what could be the reason for this retraction? Maybe there is a shortage of those hard to produce wrist straps? Perhaps the Wii machines have unionized and decided to strike until they get better grease?

My bet is that Nintendo doesn’t want to see a repeat of the DS Lite launch, where we were swimming in them in N. America but the Japanese were almost being impolite to each other to get one. Hopefully all you Wii hunters out there can get one before Christmas… but look at it this way. They could’ve promised 2,000,000 by the end of the year and only delivered around 200,000. Ahem.

source: GameDailyBiz