Nintendo’s president acknowledged Friday that the shortage of the company’s Wii game machine was “abnormal,” and promised production was being boosted to increase deliveries by next month.

The comments came a day after the Japanese manufacturer of the Wii — which comes with a wand that can be used as a sword, tennis racket or fishing rod depending on the game — reported that sales nearly doubled for the fiscal year, lifted by robust sales of the Wii and the DS portable.

The Wii has pummeled its rivals in a head-to-head battle in next-generation video game consoles involving Sony’s PlayStation 3, which has been plagued with production problems, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Iwata refused to disclose the monthly production capacity for the Wii, and said it was too early to say by how much the production was being raised.

But he said efforts were under way to increase production, and more machines will get delivered to stores around the world.

The Wii’s motion-sensitive remote control wand has made it hit even with people unaccustomed to playing video games. It faced some minor problems early on with its wand, which flew out of the hands of some zealous players, snapping the strap and at times crashing into TVs. But that hasn’t dented profits, and the console is still flying off store shelves.

Nintendo is planning to sell 14 million Wii machines for the current fiscal year through March 2008, having sold 5.84 million Wii consoles worldwide in the five months since its release late last year.

Sony has sold just 1.84 million PlayStation 3 machines so far worldwide, while Microsoft has shipped more than 10 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide.

The PlayStation 3 went on sale late last year in the U.S. and Japan, and in March in Europe. Xbox 360 beat rivals to market in 2005.

Source: Casper Star Tribune