Nintendo: Can A Wii Shortage Do What Sony And Microsoft Could Not?

Nintendo says that it will not have enough Wii’s to go around for the holidays. The game console has been beating the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony (SNE) PS3 to death in sales numbers all over the globe. The Wii is cheaper and considered easier to use by all of those people who are not hard core gamers.

Nintendo management may have forgotten to take "Marketing and Manufacturing 101" at the local business college. Big time companies like Apple (AAPL) would not be caught short on iPods with the holidays coming along.

The Nintendo problem opens the door for Microsoft. It has just launched "Halo 3" which has sold $300 million in product already and is pushing up Xbox 360 sales by double. Given that Redmond lost $1.9 billion in its device business in the last fiscal year, it now has an opportunity to bring that operation into the green.

But, the question now is whether Sony has the guts to make a move to drive up PS3 sales. It has kept the price of the console fairly high, making it more expensive than the Xbox and the Wii. Sony just cut the price of the PS3 in Europe. If it does not do the same in the US in the next couple of weeks, it will have lost a golden opportunity.

If Sony passes on a price reduction on the PS3, it can join Nintendo sitting in the corner wearing a dunce cap.

Douglas A. McIntyre