Average response times...

[EricKei]

I can only speak for the GameStore where I worked at the time, but it worked out something like this:

7-8 months before release: Ninty says "We will have 120 units for your store at launch! OK to start preorders for that many!"

1-2 months before: Ninty says "Uhm, more like 60 units"

1 month before: Ninty says "OK OK, 30 but no less. We swear"

Less than a week before: Shipment from Ninty is verified as being en route. TWELVE units.

Had to call preorders in the order they were taken based on how many units actually got delievered: "Pick it up by close tonight or we will have to call the next person in line tomorrow and we'll call you on the next shipment". I don't think anyone failed to show on time

It took us until March just to deal with preorders...and hundreds of people calling/coming in every day asking for the things (we actually kept a tally on paper one day. we gave up at two hundred calls in THREE HOURS) >_< We would have loved to have been able to sell to them, too, but ya can't sell what you don't have. Mercifully, the ravages of time have erased what little I experienced in the way of SC's because of this.

Word has it that the big N decided to favor the big box stores, and looking around IRL/reading seems to have borne that out.

[Lachrymose]

I love when people put in tickets that seem urgent,and then (if we have the time(rare)), we remote into their sessions almost right away and find out that they have shut Outlook down.

[Sandman]

Quoth lordlundar

Good timing I would say.

I held on to it for dear life and everyone was in "OMG must get this" mode, plus nobody knew I had the last one as well.

[Gerrinson]

On topic: I once had two users complain because the response time from their call to me reaching their desks was 15 minutes. They felt that I didn't take their issue seriously and should have made them more of a priority. The issue in question? They were too damned incompetent to adjust the time on their PCs after they somehow managed to turn OFF the automatic adjustment for daylight savings.

Off topic: I got my Wii in the middle of the US drought by going up to see my parents in Canada. They had plenty in stock in every store. I wound up getting it at the grocery store because they had already started marking them down because they weren't selling very well. I wish I had been able to afford a few extras at the time.

[EricKei]

Ger - I never did understand why the Big N felt that stiffing the stores staffed by gamers who would (a) buy Wii's themselves, (b) educate themselves about the systems and games, and (c) move more product (including games), was a good idea.

[draggar]

Quoth EricKei

Ger - I never did understand why the Big N felt that stiffing the stores staffed by gamers who would (a) buy Wii's themselves, (b) educate themselves about the systems and games, and (c) move more product (including games), was a good idea.

Because if you inundate the market right off people quickly lose interest but if you keep the supplies trickling in you keep the hype (and demand & prices) up for quite a while.

[EricKei]

draggar - good point. But, as was mentioned by others above, big box stores tended to get shipments an order of magnitude larger than ours were. GS was still getting 12 units at a time on intentionally unpredictable schedules a *year later*, while WM/TRU and the like were apparently getting 50 at a time from the start >_< They had plenty of games to send us, tho.

[Geek King]

Quoth draggar

Because if you inundate the market right off people quickly lose interest but if you keep the supplies trickling in you keep the hype (and demand & prices) up for quite a while.

Plus you get to talk in the media about how you've sold all your units and demand is still high--even though you caused the shortfall. Most media outlets are not very well versed in supply side issues of business, and don't really understand maker-created supply issues unless someone tells them its important.

You had other consoles outselling the Wii because they put out product, but Wii held the headlines because it was sold out for weeks. Great publicity for the big N among people who don't really pay attention to videogames, normally.

[EricKei]

Quoth Geek King

Wii held the headlines because it was sold out for months to a year, depending on the area.

Fixed that for ya

[Tiberious]

I know... I got my console back in early '08, not long after Brawl released. I still had to wait outside at the bullseye on a shipment day before the store opened.

However, the wait and claiming was orderly, and when I needed to go to an ATM to get the cash instead, they were able to hold on to it while I did.

This was at least April, as I had waited a little bit after the game's release.