Get A Wii While You Can

That's right, get 'em while they're hot. It seems Nintendo's tiny white console may be the first to remain so popular that it sells out during its second holiday season in release.

According to Nintendo of America, the company is still struggling to cope with an enormous demand for the casual gamer's console. Given the usual spike in sales with the upcoming holiday free-for-all, Nintendo expects its hardware will be a rare bird indeed come December.

In a statement, Nintendo of America's president said, "We're working very hard to make sure that consumers are satisfied this holiday, but I can't guarantee that we're going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record that we won't...What I can tell you is that typically, our inventory is lasting a day...I don't think we will know when supply crosses with demand until after the holiday season." (Source: play.tm)

So, who's to blame?

Nintendo is passing the buck on to you, Mom and Dad, the ones buying the console. According to the game company, it isn't their production limits which led to retail shortfalls, but merely the extreme customer demand. Of course, a year later it's only reasonable that the consumer should expect hardware to be plentiful on store shelves.

Regardless of who is at fault, there are going to be some angry kiddies come Christmas morning. Although it's unlikely Nintendo fans will remain bitter with the company, the news of its expected shortages come not long after it announced that an "unprecedented" number of Wii systems would be ripe and ready this holiday season.

Seemingly frustrated himself, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime had this to say: "The issue is we went in with a curve that was aggressive, but the demand has been substantially more than that. And the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on." (Source: digitalspy.co.uk)

Hey, Reg: No one asked for a flick of the switch. After all, they gave you a year.