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Reggie: Wii won't meet holiday demand

Nintendo of America exec says supply constraints of console will continue until after the holiday season.

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Unbeaten in the console sales charts since April in the US, Nintendo's Wii has consistently outsold its competitors by healthy margins. However, far from reaching its saturation point, the Mario Factory has yet to meet demand for its console. According to Nintendo of America president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime, that situation isn't going to change as the already-booming gaming industry heads into its busiest time of the year.

In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Fils-Aime unabashedly admitted that Nintendo isn't meeting the demand for its console. "We have been sold out worldwide since we launched," he boasted. "Every time we put more into the marketplace, we sell more, which says that we are not even close to understanding where the threshold is between supply and demand...Our inventory is lasting a day."

Not mincing words, the outspoken exec said that a lot of children will be left wanting this holiday season. "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," he said. "As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record we won't."

As for why, Fils-Aime noted that it is a game of economics that it is hampering supply, not the console maker's ability to produce. "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," he explained.

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