Nintendo Further Explains Wii Shortages, No Plans for More First-party Studios in the US

For the third time this week, Nintendo has spoken out on the shortages afflicting its ever-popular Wii console, which is still difficult to find on store shelves after over a year on the market.

"Typically, we'd have begun stockpiling console hardware back in August [for the holiday rush]," Nintendo senior VP George Harrison told Wired. "But this year, we were selling all the Wii we could get, and we got all the way through the summer with basically no inventory in our warehouse."

Nintendo currently produces about 1.8 million Wii units a month. About a third of those are allocated for North America, where the $250 system sold more than 350,000 units last week.

Harrison also commented that, based on the strong performance of Western third-parties and developers, the company has no incentive to acquire or found more first-party studios in North America. The company has previously stated a general intention not to pursue further first-party studios.

Most Nintendo-created titles are developed by the company's Japanese division, with NST and Retro Studios being its only two Western studios.

"I'm not aware of any plans to push for more [Nintendo-funded] software development here in the US," Harrison noted. "The actual decision about producing more software and who should do it is driven by Satoru Iwata and the management team, including Mr. Miyamoto, in Japan."