Wii availability reaches new high

Over two years after its UK debut and after no end of shortages, Nintendo’s Wii has now reached a level of open availability for UK retailers.

Koch has told Nindie.com retailers that Wii hardware, which includes Wii Sports, is now freely available and will no longer be restricted to purchase on an allocation basis.

Whilst stock is in better supply than ever, we still have to carefully manage our customer base so that unbalanced stocking is avoided,” Koch MD Craig McNicol told MCV.

We urge our customers to plan their requirements for the next eight weeks, giving us upfront purchase orders week by week if necessary.

We also urge customers to remember that Wii console purchases count towards the allocation of DSi, Wii Fit and forthcoming new releases.”

A Nintendo spokesperson added: We now expect Wii availability to be improved over previous levels.”

Meanwhile, despite the increase in the Wii’s trade price coming into effect at the beginning of the month, there seems to be little indication of retailers adjusting their price.

CHIPS’ joint MD Don McCabe stated: We haven’t put our prices up yet as we’re still able to access stock sourced at the original value. However, this supply is drying up, so we’ll have to see what happens with the extra cost.”