Over at 4colourrebellion Vinnk has posted an interesting article on the similarities between the new Nintendo Wii launch as compared with the old one a few decades ago. This surprising reminded me of Sony Playstation3 's launch which also had quite a number of similarities with the Playstation 2 launch. Such as how both had a Ridge Racer for launch. Both had competition from the Microsoft Xbox which had better internet gameplay capabilites. However the PS3 is doing far worse this time.

I've taken out the useless info and kept the main points but you can read the full article here.

The Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS has both surprisingly remained popular since it's start four months ago and has still remained sold out all over. If you didn't preorder then chances are that they were sold out by the time you decided to buy one. However this is nothing new.

Hiro’s shop opened in 1982 and was a toyshop run by his mother. When the Famicom launched, the store knew this was the next big thing and shifted focus to electronic games. They also changed their name to Famicom Dojo to reflect this change.

The Famicom was a cultural phenomenon when it was released, and Hiro tells me that it was constantly sold out for more than 3 years! He could keep a good stock of games, but the systems would fly out of the door the moment they arrived. Just imagine the Wii shortages in the U.S. with people waiting outside the store for new shipments to come in, and then imagine that going on for more than 3 years.

I had no idea that the supply of Famicoms was constrained for that long. It seems that the big cities got the bulk of the shipments, and the smaller stores in smaller towns had to beg Nintendo to send them more. Hiro said people would come into his store everyday asking, “Ya got any Famicoms today?” The answer was always “Sorry, sold out again”.

After a while Hiro was tired of sending people home empty handed, so he started selling a rival system that was in ample supply, the Epoch Super Cassette Vision. Customers would ask him, “What’s the difference?” and he could tell them it was the sub par graphics or the weird duel knob controls, but he gave them the correct answer: it was the games. And that was where the conversation would end. No Mario, no sale.

Now it is more than twenty years later, and Hiro still sells has Famicom systems and games at his store along with all the new hardware and software. Today he has more than enough Famicoms to go around, but he can never keep the Wii or DS lite in stock for more than a few hours. Just as I was talking to him, two different customers came in asking if he had any Wii systems. He said “Sorry, sold out again”. He has had a Playstation 3 behind the counter for the last 2 months and sometimes people ask about it. They ask, “What’s the difference” and while he could say Blu-ray or the SIXAXIS, he gives them a familiar answer. It’s the games.