Wii Will, Wii Will Rock You

Nintendo launched a new channel in Japan last month and it was a hit there so now it will be coming to the rest of us in May. Everybody's Nintendo Channel will be called simply Nintendo Channel in the U.S. and UK and will be integrated into the WiiWare service. But the way this works is that there will not be any downloadable demos. Instead, gamers will play the games that they buy and if they wish, they will then write a review about the game on the channel, as long as they have played a full hour of it. Then others will be able to read about the game from the reviews instead of playing a demo.

According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, this service will give others a feel for the games and help them make a buying decision. We think that someone needs to tell Reggie that though reviews do help influence a buying decision, demos go a lot further to influencing that buying decision than a non-professional review will. But that is the opinion of a professional reviewer.

More news out of Nintendo is that the console is still having a hard time staying on retailer's shelves for any reasonable amount of time. They keep selling out as quickly as they come in. Some retailers say that they don't even get the game console onto the shelves but just let the customers know that the shipment is in and by the time the pallet is wheeled to the sales floor, the stock is gone.

Nintendo hopes to rectify this issue for the summer sales season by ramping up manufacturing prior to the summer slam demand hits. The company is increasing its output from 1.8 million units to 2.4 million Wii consoles monthly starting this summer. About 40 percent of this number heads to the Americas for resale while the rest goes to Europe and Japan. Let's just hope this will stop the fights between the angry soccer moms over the last Wii at the local Toys"R"Us.

Wii Will, Wii Will Rock You

Nintendo Channel coming in May and Wii production to increase for the summer slam in demand.