Sony, Microsoft will benefit from Wii shortage


Nintendo Wii boxing If you still hope to put a Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) Wii under the tree this year, you best stop reading right now and run out to the mall. Supplies of the breakout gaming console are reportedly slim already, and should virtually disappear on Black Friday.

Bad news for you procrastinating shoppers, but good news for Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Though sales of Microsoft's Xbox have spiked in recent months -- directly attributed to the debut of the Xbox-exclusive Halo 3 game -- sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 were outpaced by Wii last month by more than four-to-one. Expect that to change through year's end as overflow demand for the scant remaining Wiis rings up sales of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, with parents refusing to retreat home empty-handed.

Of course, the real winners in this are the early bird eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) merchants, salivating at the prime seller's bonanza about to unfold. eBay currently lists several lots of multiple Wiis -- perhaps you can get your Grinch on, buy a bunch of 'em up and flip them through the shopping season. I'm just saying.

Then again, you could always get your kid tennis lessons, maybe a Louisville Slugger. No kid's going pro in Wii-sports anytime soon.

Shares of Microsoft were up 2% in early afternoon trading Tuesday, while Sony shares sat 1.37% higher.

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