Nintendo Wii Manufacturing Already Begun? // ...

Nintendo Wii Manufacturing Already Begun? // UPDATE

We may have expected too see plenty of Wii release dates flying around all summer long, but I have to admit, I never thought there would be so many of them. Last week it was October 30th, a few days ago November 6th, and now... now, industry analysts believe the system might even come out a month earlier than that! Moreover, whereas Microsoft's first Xbox 360 rolled off the assembly line a mere 69 days before the console went on sale last year, Nintendo may already have a handful of Wiis safely stocked up.

These are but some of the speculations from CNN Money's latest Game Over column, based on statements made by various industry sources. According to a June 21st analyst's note from P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research, Nintendo appears to be already manufacturing final retail units of the Wii, making October a highly reasonable launch timeframe. Other (anonymous) industry insiders went even further, saying they are expecting a September or October launch for the Wii - possibly more than a month before Sony's PlayStation 3 hits retail on November 17.

But unlike Nintendo, there are no reports of Sony manufacturing any PS3 units yet, even though both companies are aiming to ship 6 million next-gen consoles by March 2007. Will they make it? Well, my guess is at least one of them will. And it ain't Sony.

UPDATE: Somebody at Nintendo must be a big CNN fan, because the company has already come up with a response: "There's no change in our plan to release the console in the last quarter of this year. We are planning an announcement in September and it may be causing some confusion." - Yasuhiro Minagawa, spokesperson for Nintendo. [06.07.2006, 19:49]

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)