We've just been informed by GAME that Nintendo's Wii is "Back in stock". Stap our vitals, we were aware of the fact that the little buggers were difficult to find, but we didn't realise that they were totally out of stock.
So, of course, we phoned Nintendo to try and get the low-down. We were told in no uncertain terms, "Look, I know you never believe me, but we've been shipping in as many as we can on a regular basis."
We asked him whether GAME's announcement meant that additional stocks had been produced and were now being shipped in to the UK/Europe. "There's no new shipments over and above what we usually get in - and we don't break down those figures by region for obvious reasons of commercial sensitivity."
We then called GameStation to see if it had new stock coming, we were told that GameStation as an entire organisation is getting 3,000 Wiis in this week. Our local branch told us that it already has 20 pre-orders to fill and it doesn't expect to receive any more than to cover this.
Therefore, on the upside: More Wiis are coming! And on the not-so-up-side, if you've not got pre-orders in, you might still have to go round to your mate's house and play with his sister - on her Wii, for gods' sakes! Oh, stop it.