Nintendo: Plenty of Wii Consoles This Holiday Season

Nintendo reports that consumers should have no troubles locating a Wii console this holiday season.

While Nintendo remained tight-lipped on whether consumers would face Wii shortages again this year, the company pressed in a PR released today that the amount of consoles available from October to December would be considerably higher than the same time period last year. Nintendo also reassured consumers that the portable Nintendo DS Lite handheld system would also see a significant rise in available units beginning this month as well.

“We have new games and new experiences for every kind of player this holiday season, and that will certainly fuel increased interest in Wii and Nintendo DS,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “While there’s no way to gauge total demand for our hardware systems, we’re trying to satisfy as many of those players as possible.”

Up until this month, consumers found it difficult to locate the Nintendo Wii system. Retail outlets such as Toys-R-Us, Best buy and Circuit City have had trouble keeping the console in stock ; once the shipments arrive, they’re quickly shuffled across the checkout counters. During the 2007 holiday season, the console seemed all but extinct, with retail outlets such as GameStop offering rain checks and promises of a delivery after Christmas. Some critics argued that the unavailability of the console was purely a marketing ploy to raise anticipation and consumer demand.

Currently the Nintendo Wii outsells Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 since its November 2006 launch, with more than 11 million units sold in North America alone. Nintendo recently announced a few new titles hitting store shelves this holiday season including Wii Music, Animal Crossing : City Folk and various Wii Ware titles. The Wii Speak channel, set to hit the console’s dashboard on November 16, will allow Wii owners to speak to up to three other people online using the Wii Speak microphone (sold separately for $29.99).

This week Nintendo also revealed a few upcoming titles from its 2009 lineup including a new Punch-Out !! and Sin & Punishment 2 for Wii, and Fire Emblem : Shadow Dragon and Mario & Luigi RPG 3 for Nintendo DS.