Nintendo sees steady Wii price, strong demand

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - For George Harrison, head of marketing for Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) U.S. operations, trying to meet high demand for the company's Wii console is only half the struggle.

The other half is trying to convince Nintendo headquarters to allocate enough supply to the U.S. market, which is expected to snap up as many of the gaming machines as stores can stock this holiday season.

"We are somewhat in a selling mode to get our fair share, or more than our fair share," Harrison said when asked how Nintendo planned to allocate Wii consoles across Japan, the United States and Europe.

"We're still working on it. Decisions for November/December are just being made now," Harrison told Reuters. "It's 10 days on the water to get from China, and the holidays start a little earlier in the U.S. with Thanksgiving."

The Wii has been an unexpectedly huge hit due to its unique motion-sensitive controller and low price, and Harrison made waves back in July when he told Reuters that Nintendo expected supply shortages to last through the holidays.

Demand for the Wii had been strong through the last couple of months even as Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Sony Corp (6758.T) cut prices on their rival machines and rolled out big new games such as "Halo 3", Harrison said.

At $249, the Wii is the cheapest of all the latest gaming systems, and a growing line of quirky and easy-to-learn games are attracting older people and women, two groups that have been outside the company's traditional customer base.

"We'll stay at $249 for the foreseeable future. We are still selling everything we can make," Harrison said. "We think we're in a great position. Both our competitors took price reductions and it hasn't stalled our momentum at all."

"Most importantly, we're going after an expanded audience that they are not in a position to capitalize on."

The company recently said it planned to make 16.5 million Wii worldwide in the year through next March, up 18 percent from 14 million expected previously.

"The goal is to try to have reasonably steady production over the course of the year. Suppliers don't want to shut down and do nothing in the early part of year," Harrison said.