Santa prepares another batch of IOUs.
By Ben Silverman

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Don't get your hopes up.

In an interview with Gamedaily, GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo predicted a third straight year of holiday shortages for Nintendo's stark white Wii console.

"I've never seen this type of demand before," he said. "I know they're making more, but we're still short like everybody else. I think we'll have a continued shortage this Christmas."

DeMatteo goes on to claim that even with the increase in console production, sales are still outpacing manufacturing.

"I don't see a near-term end in sight for Wii shortages, not unless they really ramp up supply. I think they've ramped it up 20 percent or so, but Nintendo is fairly cautious by nature. They ramped it up 20 and it's still evaporating."

If this all sounds eerily familiar, it should. Released in November 2006, the Wii has yet to meet consumer demand. Big box retailers like Best Buy and Target still claim to be entirely sold out of stock both online and in-store, leaving many aspiring Wii owners to simply pass on Nintendo's family-friendly console and instead pick up a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 (which, incidentally, is now the cheapest of the three).