Aussie Wii shortages possible

SYDNEY--While North America gloats over its milion-unit launch, Nintendo Australia has refused to disclose how many Wiis it will be bringing into the country for its December launch and has not ruled out the possibility of shortages come launch day.

Nintendo Australia spokesman Vispi Bhopti says that while the company is bringing in a significant number of consoles for the Australian launch on December 7, it cannot guarantee "total supply."

"We will be guaranteeing preordered stock at retail--so that's definitely the way to go to secure it because we can't guarantee total supply because we don't know how many consumers are going to go wild over this," Bhopti said. "We are bringing in a significant number of Wiis into Australia--it won't be a small drop. But at the same time, our expectations are so big for this product that we would, to err on the safe side, recommend that people preorder."

Australian gamers had to suffer through a next-generation console shortage earlier this year when the Xbox 360 launched in March. Within days of the official launch, 20GB Xbox 360 bundles had all but sold out across the country.

Nintendo announced last week that the Wii would hit Australian shores on December 7 for A$399.95. Bhopti said pricing for games, accessories, and virtual console titles was still being finalised for Australia, although they would be "relative to overseas pricing." In the US, first-party Wii titles will retail for $50 (A$66.50).

Bhopti said that while the number of launch-day titles was also still being finalised, he did confirm that Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would be a launch title locally. The GameCube version of the game would arrive in early 2007, he said.

And for those still holding out hope that the Wii will be a region-free console, Bhopti has some bad news. "You won't be able to play overseas games on an Australian unit," he added.

Bhopti says Nintendo is gearing up national road shows to promote the Wii in the weeks leading to launch. The shows will be similar to its recent DS Connection Tour, which had Nintendo visit major shopping centres around the country. Consumers will be able to get their hands on the Wii and its unique controllers during these shows, Bhopti said.

The Wii's use of wireless controllers means free-standing in-store demo units, however, will not be part of the promotional campaign, Bhopti says.

"We can bolt things down as much as we want, but when we do that it ruins the experience of the wireless controller. You really don't want to pick up that wireless controller unless it really is wireless," Bhopti said.

"Some of these experiences are also quite unique, and we want to be able to explain the experiences to people when we're there. So it's important that when we do have in-store units, they will be manned demonstrations."