Wii Fit preorders jog away from retailers

by Candace Savino { May 8th 2008 at 12:00PM }

If you plan on getting Wii Fit without being trampled by Oprah-watching woman types, you better have secured your preorder already, as pickings are getting slim.

Not only has Amazon stopped taking them for Nintendo's popular fitness game, but IGN reports that GameStop has also suspended preorders for the title and Game Crazy is nearly tapped out. GoNintendo notes that Toys R Us (dot com) has run out of preorder stock, too, leaving Walmart's online store as one of the few options left -- although we're sure it's only a matter of time before that ends, as well.

This sounds eerily similar to what happened in the UK a few weeks ago, and now retail copies of Wii Fit seem to be more scarce than holy grails there. The one lesson that we can take away from all this? Nintendo is really good at printing money.

Gallery: Wii Fit

Tags: amazon, game-crazy, gamestop, preorder, toys-r-us, walmart, wii-fit

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jimbo @ May 8th 2008 12:28PM

Stopped into GameStop last night to put money down on Lego Indiana Jones and I heard 3 people trying to pre-order Wii Fit. I guess the email went out from GameStop HQ to the stores yesterday morning saying to cut it off.

It is like printing money for Nintendo. Heck of a month here with Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit isn't it?

clif @ May 8th 2008 12:35PM

Man nintendo really knew how to grab the casual gaming market and run with it!

The DS is also a huge seller too. I hope the next wii or handheld is better then this generation since nintendo has all this money in their bank accounts now.

It shouldn't be that surprising that wii fit is doing as well as it is. But thankfully I'm not going to spend 90 bucks when it comes out. I'll wait for a 50% off deal to get it at 45 bucks. I feel 90 is still a little to high for something that I won't play all that often.

Scotty @ May 8th 2008 1:01PM

I picked one up from Walmart, they're still available there right now.

Sidenote: I didn't have a lot of interest in WiiFit, honestly. But I watched the video on the Nintendo Channel, and now I feel like I desperately need it.

SoshiKitai @ May 8th 2008 2:10PM

1. Nintendo Channel rocks

2. Walmart = people avoid it for bad customer service and unforgivable mistakes = last place anyone looks for a game/system = best place to look for a game/system

Droford @ May 8th 2008 1:29PM

I preordered yesterday from Game Crazy using a 2 year old Gift Card that I wanted to get rid of and the Manager said that they had plenty but also gave me the wrong release date (28th) so I dont know if he knew what he was talking about or not.

Lars @ May 8th 2008 4:53PM

Game Crazy is kind of the underdog of game stores. They often don't get first dibs on shipments and such. A lot of times when I buy through them, they don't get new releases until at least a couple days after the actual release date... at least that's been my experience. I still go there because they tend to have better pricing than GameStop/EB plus they're generally not as clueless.

SoshiKitai @ May 9th 2008 1:23AM

@Lars: Most (if not all) EB Games and general Gamestop stores are kinda' clueless and dimwitted...
But go to their "sister/daughter/cousin" stores like Planet X, and you'll find an effective team of salesmen/saleswomen.
--at least, the Planet X around my area have an awesome team that KNOW their inventory. (Plus, since we're preferred customers, we get special treatment)