There’s an article over at Reuters which talks about how thousands of people in Japan waited in shivering cold weather to get their hands on the Nintendo Wii this past Saturday. What I found particularly funny was a quote cited in the article of a person waiting for the Wii:

“My friends and family called me a fool. They don’t see a point of rushing to a store on the launch day when you can get it much easier a while later,” said Junpei Ito, a 24-year-old company employee.

How right they are!!

The Wii launch in Japan underscores the immense popularity that Nintendo is currently enjoying with their latest game console. While the PS3 launch was plagued with component shortages and high costs (not to mention muggings, thefts, and attempts on lives), the Wii launch has been relatively calm. Why? Because Nintendo is actually manufacturing a lot of Wii’s before the year is out.

With the Wii, there’s no specific component shortage – nothing in the product that will prevent Nintendo from making the unit. It’s just a matter of making sure the factories can pump out enough Wii’s to meet the demand.

So although the Xbox 360 and the PS3 can claim better graphics, the Wii has apparently won the hearts and souls of many gamers out there simply by being fun. Ask the thousands in Japan who got the Wii and I bet nearly all of them will tell you it was worth it.

[Check it out]

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