Having just wrapped up my holiday shopping Friday afternoon (yes, I’m all done with over a week to spare!), I thought I’d chime in real quick with a few observations I’ve made from personal experience regarding availability of the big three consoles. Over the past few weeks of shopping around, every store I’ve stopped by in three major cities here in VA have had shelves and displays of PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles, games and accessories fully loaded as if not a single customer had touched them (with stacks of Rock Band and Guitar Hero bundles looking equally untouched wherever I went). But when it came to the Wii, there’s been nothing. The console itself being damn near impossible to find isn’t an unexpected scenario, but even accessories – especially the new Wii Zapper — have seemed scarce once again.
Like when I was at Best Buy last weekend. There were two stacks each of at least 15-20 boxes apiece for both the PS3 and 360 lining the aisles surrounding the video game section. But when looking at the Wii section, it was almost totally barren… games, accessories and all. It’s been pretty much the same situation at various Walmart, Target, EB Games/Gamestop and Toys R’ Us stores I’ve been to within the past month too (one Toys R’ Us shop has actually been the only place I’ve even seen a Wii Zapper in stock, and they only had a couple sitting all lonesome like locked away behind the counter).
I’ve been kinda surprised by just how dominant the Wii craze has been once again this season. I knew the demand would be high and supply would be low, but still. Even with cheaper models of the PS3 and Xbox 360 on the market in time for the holiday shopping crush, it doesn’t seem like shoppers even care about anything other than getting a Wii. Given increased sales numbers for the PS3 and 360, there are obviously a lot of shoppers picking these consoles up, but compared to the Wii both seem WAY behind in terms of consumer buzz, at least in these parts. What’s been your experience with console availability in your area? Same trends, or has there been anything non Wii releated that you’ve actually found difficult to find?
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
