If you celebrate the Christmas tradition of giving brightly wrapped gifts then chances are you’ve gotten a few bad ones here and there. I had a relative who never understood that at age sixteen I wasn’t terribly interested in the Power Rangers anymore. I once received a can of WD-40, probably my most surreal gift of all time. One couple from New Hampshire found their Christmas day ruined by what seems like it wouldn’t be a bad gift at all.

Randi Young purchased a brand new Nintendo Wii for her boyfriend, twenty-six year old Heath Blom. When that fateful day arrived he unwrapped it, hoping for a remote-controlled airplane. Instead of feigning excitement or simply thanking her for the generosity and then asking if she’d kept the receipt, he threw a temper tantrum. Ms. Young promptly punched him in the face and set to pack her bags. Blom attempted to block her exit and after she hit him several more times he seized her by the hair and dragged her down the stairs. The police were called and both of them were arrested when the police noticed that they were both bruised.

“Well the pressure comes from the consumers obviously and so therefore there’s always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the shareholders as well. At the moment there’s a marketplace for PS3 and I think for this particular Christmas, with the kind of quality of games we’re seeing coming out this Christmas, I don’t think the price of the console is going to be an issue at all.”

Now, Sony is certainly at a far, better position price-wise than during the first part of the PlayStation 3’s life. That said, a price drop will only help to sell consoles. For a company that doesn’t buy exclusivity, I find it ironic that they are relying on quality titles to sell their system.

“No videogame machine in three months has ever sold 5m in the Americas at $250. So Wii will likely have the all time revenue record from hardware sales this quarter – and each machine will be profitable at a healthy margin. The amazing part to all of this is that 5m for the Americas is probably no where near enough. Historically, selling ~600,000 in October in the Americas (which may be conservative given October 2007 sales were 600,000 and since 2008 will see better sales) would mean 1.5m in November and at least 3m in December if stock is ample. To actually meet Wii demand for the Americas, something like 750,000/1,850,000/3,850,000 is probably necessary for October, November and December.”

I don’t think that the shortage problem will be that severe, but then again, demand for the Wii has been surprising, as well as consistent. Besides, doing Christmas shopping early never hurt anyone, I assume.