Wii consoles, on average, sit on the shelves for just an hour before they are purchased.

That stat comes straight from Reggie Fils-Aime (pictured), Nintendo of America's president, who visited the Wired.com offices Wednesday to discuss the company's strategy.

The conversation was dominated by discussion of the fact that Wii is still sold out in North America, 17 months after its launch.

"We are passionately upset about the lack of product relative to demand," said Fils-Aime, who hit the points that Nintendo has been reiterating all along about its runaway hit game machine: The production numbers are determined by Nintendo's Japanese parent, and Nintendo of America does its best to remind Japan of the "missed opportunities" when it doesn't have enough product to go around.

Fils-Aime noted that North America gets about 40 percent of the 1.8 million Wii consoles Nintendo manufactures every month. The Americas are the only territory in which supply and demand are out of whack for Wii: Fils-Aime said you can walk into stores in Japan and Europe and find Wii on shelves.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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