Interesting turn of events in the last couple of days regarding retailer Gamestop (not to be confused with Gamespot) and the persistent Wii shortages. During a discussion following the financial reports for Gamestop, COO Dan DeMatteo said that he believes Nintendo "intentionally dried up their supply because they made their numbers for the year" with the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo's new fiscal year begins April 1.

Today, Nintendo's George Harrison gave a response saying "No, that's not at all the case. We have worldwide territories that are all competing over the available production. The Japan and European markets are doing extremely well with the Wii. People in Japan at NCL [Nintendo Co. Ltd.] are making the best decisions that they can about which products get shipped to which market and when."

I think Nintendo is the one telling the truth this time. As clever as it sounds to "not make money today in order to make money in a few months," it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Althought the delay of opening up other worldwide markets in order to adequately supply your current ones would also seem to be a little smarter.

Source: Gamasutra
Source: Next Generation