I just got off a press call with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime where the focus was on the availability of the Wii console. Reggie made it clear that Nintendo never expected the success that Wii has been enjoying since launch, and therefore has remained hard to find despite ramped up production. Nintendo is hoping to help out just a bit with a couple of short-term initiatives.

First, if you are prepared to get up early and wait in line, Nintendo will be pushing a large number of Wii units to six large retailers this weekend. Those six retailers are Best Buy, K-Mart, Sears, Target, Toys R Us, and Circuit City. You can get more details from those retailers in their weekend circular. Wal-Mart will also be getting a large allotment of Wii units, but they do not publish a weekly circular, so Nintendo didn’t include them in the list of stores who would be advertising Wii as being in stock. This may turn out to be your best bet.

Secondly, Reggie announced that Nintendo has teamed up with GameStop on a short-term rain check program that will guarantee purchasers a Wii system sometime in January. You would go to GameStop and pay for the Wii in full and walk out with a voucher that Reggie said you could even “put under the tree.” GameStop would let you know when your system came in, and you would have until January 29th to pick it up from there store. There should be “tens of thousands” of these vouchers available across GameStop’s 3,000 or so stores across the country. The vouchers will only be sold on December 20 and 21. Expect lines.

We will have full details from the conference call with Reggie Fils-Aime up in just a bit.