Wii shortages likely again this Christmas

Nintendo has admitted that shortages of the Wii console are likely to continue for the rest of the year, with retail facing the possibility of a second Christmas without enough stock to meet consumer demand.

Yesterday at the company's E3 conference, Nintendo revealed a host of new products including the Wii Zapper and the Wii Wheel peripherals, and new software in the form of Wii Fit.

But George Harrison, senior VP of marketing has told Reuters that the firm cannot guarantee it won't see the same problems it had last year with supply unable to meet demand.

"There is no guarantee that we are not going to have 'out-of-stocks' this holiday season," said Harrison.

"If you see one, buy it. Don't assume that you can come back later and find one."

Harrison said that Nintendo is trying to find the right production schedule, but the console sells out within days whatever the region.

"We're trying to figure out what's the reasonable monthly level, and as we've seen every time we ship product to the market, whether it's on Japan or here in the US or Europe, it sells out in a matter of days."