Report: Wii Manufacturing Ahead Of Schedule

According to a report from financial firm UBS, production of the Wii console is proceeding ahead of schedule, and Nintendo may be able to ship more than the expected four million units by the end of the 2006 calendar year. An article on Briefing.com quoting the UBS report states that two million consoles were completed in the three months from July to September, with alleged plans for “at least seven million and potentially as high as nine million more units” during the rest of the year. Nintendo’s plans had called for 4 million units to be available end of the calendar year and a total of six million shipped by the end of the company’s fiscal year on March 31st, 2007. The UBS report now speculates that the company may be able to deliver as many as eleven million units by the end of 2006. Although Nintendo is committed to a near simultaneous worldwide launch before Christmas the company has never given official estimates on how many units would be available in each territory, only going as far as to suggest that stock will not be as severely limited as during the Xbox 360 launch. A comment from Nintendo of Canada boss Ron Bertram did suggest that one million units of the console would be available in North America on day one, but this has never been verified by Nintendo of America, who have also refused to comment on the latest rumors from UBS.