Possible Early Release for the Nintendo Wii

ForensicPenguin writes "CNN has an update on a possible early release for the Nintendo Wii console. From the article: 'While Nintendo has not made any formal announcements about the launch date for the Wii, most of the industry has expected the machine to hit retail at approximately the same time as Sony's PlayStation 3 (which is set for November 17). Now, industry observers — and insiders — say they expect the system to be available in October, with late September a dark-horse candidate.'"

Re:Speculation

[Anonymous Coward]

But Microsoft didn't really get enough units manufactured for launch and Nintendo may have learned from their mistake.

Is it possible that Nintendo is not manufacturing Microsoft Xbox 360s and their units/day capacity might also differ?

Re:Will it run...

[neonprimetime]

Why RTFA when you can post a question to /. and have hundreds of /.ers rush to point out how stupid you are (and in the process answer your question)?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Market Share

[whoop]

The simple way to spin that so Sony/MS can think they are better is for the media to just talk about dollars of sales rather than number of units sold. Watch about a week after each launch, they'll tell Nintendo's sales as "10 million consoles sold the first day" and Sony will ensure the press releases are like "The PS3 had $500 million dollars in sales in it's first week, setting a new record for the company."

And in other news, the Gates Foundation has bought six billion Xbox 360s for every person in the world, making the Xbox 360 clearly the market leader.

They can exist in third place all right

[ianscot]

They can't exist in third place for much longer...

Nintendo is profitable. They make money on their current consoles and games. By contrast, Microsoft's lost $7 billion in the last four years trying to gain market share with the Xbox and stuff like MSN.

It may be that Nintendo needs more market share -- I've heard arguments either way. You could make just as good an argument for MS's XBox division being in crisis as for Nintendo, though.

Lowered Expectations of why Wii wins

[WillAffleckUW]

The thing is, console gamers have been preconditioned for late released few-games-at-intro consoles like the PS and xBox series.

All Nintendo has to do is wait until September and then start an all out assault by releasing their consoles in certain markets, with full introduction in October, to complete total console domination.

The main reason to hold off on full release is to ensure there are lots of games for many different types of gamers available, and to stagger the announcements so it feels like everyone is going Wii and noone cares about PS3 and xBox360 any more.

Strategy beats tactics every time. Well, except when you've got the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch ...