What’s the availability outlook for Wii Fit?
Posted on May 19th, 2008 – 11:22 AMBy Randy Salas
The much buzzed-about Wii Fit debuts here Wednesday for the Nintendo Wii, but will you actually be able to find it? No online retailer lists the groundbreaking exercise game at its normal $90 retail price — that I’ve seen, at least. Wii Alerts says 
much the same thing. Yet, as usual, many sellers on eBay already have the hot title listed, where it’s selling for almost twice the MSRP.
The pre-release scuttlebutt was that Wii Fit and even the Wii would be easier to find in brick-and-mortar stores upon its release, at mainstream retailers such as best Buy and Target. But will that be the case once it comes out in the Twin Cities on Wednesday? Best Buy lists that availability date on its website, so we’ll see how things look in stores once it comes out.
What has been your Wii Fit experience? Did you preorder it online or in-store? Or are you hoping to find something once the Twin Cities release date rolls around?
12 Responses to "What’s the availability outlook for Wii Fit?"
I believe that the WiiFit is not released until the 21st (Wednesday) The 19th was uncorrectly communicated. I have mine preordered from Best Buy and that is what I was told. Not sure if anyone else has been able to find it.
It’s only available today at the Nintendo store in New York City. It hits other retail outlets on Wednesday. Does Randy not look at the Sunday ads in his own newspaper?
Terry, yes, you’re right, of course. I was going by Nintendo’s release date on its press site and failed to note the non-New York release date.
What’s a newspaper?
question about the Wii Fit–do you have to have the full-on Wii game console in order to use the Wii Fit, or is it a stand-alone item?
Yep, you need the Wii console to run this badboy.
Wow. I’m fairly ignorant about videogames, but after searching Amazon, the Nintendo site, Google, Wikipedia, etc., for a good half hour before I posted my question here, I will say that none of the product descriptions state that you need the Wii console to run Wii Fit. Maybe that’s just an assumption I should have made, but this should be made clear in the ads (e.g. “Wii console sold separately”) for those of us casual videogamers who are interested in Wii Fit. Unfortunately, as excited as I was about Wii Fit, I don’t think I’ll be shelling out $400 –if I could even FIND a Wii console. Rats.
Here’s an easy way to tell on Amazon. If it’s listed under ‘Game’ and has a ‘Platform’ associated with it, you need to have the Platform to play it.
If it’s listed under ‘Console’, it’s a stand alone machine.
Guys, thanks for answering Jean’s question.
Jean, here’s one thing to consider: Yes, it would cost about $350 to get a Wii console and Wii Fit (assuming you find them at “normal” prices). But that’s not much compared with what health clubs cost. Yes, there are many more options and services available at a club, but Wii Fit would pay for itself in less than five months, based on what my wife now pays for a club membership.
I was able to pre-order Wii Fit online at amazon.com last month. I had signed up for email alerts to let me know when it was available. I see that they do not have it available for pre-order anymore.
I pre-ordered at GameStop. The person working there said they stopped taking pre-orders a few weeks ago due as they were sold out of initial release date inventory. She said they get calls all day long about availability.
Well, Randy, I took your comments to heart. I found a Wii console, new, on Craig’s List yesterday, and scored a WiiFit at Target this morning (the store had 30, and there were around 30 of us in line). I can’t wait to get home and try it out.
