Nintendo wii Fever

Posted by Heidi Shelton-Jenck Nov 26, 2006

We’ve had wii fever ever since Nintendo announced the November 19th launch date. My tweens love doing research on the web, so they’ve been comparing the Nintendo wii with the Xbox and new Playstation 3 for a while. They are serious about their games, so they did a lot of reading.

In the end, the tweens and adults in my house agreed – Nintendo wii was the winner for these reasons:

• The $249.99 price tag – less than half of what Sony’s PS3 is going for – is manageable.
• My boys have been using Play Station for years, but they are also passionate Nintendo Game Boy users. They were open to both options.
• The wii has cool motion sensors.
• It’s smaller, compact, and more mobile.
• The new controller system allows full-body action.
• The controllers don’t need wires – they are controlled remotely.

The big question now is: Will we be able to buy a wii in time for Christmas?

I know lots of other families are asking the same question. There are supposed to be 4 million units hitting the store shelves before the end of the year. That number sounds big, but when you consider how many people around the world want this product – and want it now – it’s not really a very big number.

When wii fever hit, we went into high gear. The first place we went is techbargains.com where you can monitor wii sales at all the major U.S. retailers. At the moment, there are no wii in stock at any retailers.

Next, we signed up at each retailer site for wii sales reports. This will give us at least a shot at being in the right place at the right time.

With four kids in the house, I’m not willing or able to go hang out in lines for hours at a time. We’re also not willing to pay more than retail on ebay. So, we told the kids from the start that they may not have the wii under the tree. They know it’s coming, but maybe not on the big day.

We tried to score a wii at Costco and Target on the 19th, but, like thousands of others, didn’t get one. Maybe we’ll get lucky next time.

Post a comment. What do you think about the wii? Do you have wii fever?