VideoGame_Discussion

Amazon has back-ordered many of the pre-buys too.

Definitely not opening mine now. Just picked it up digital to play.

Check Walmart in store. They just put them out today at my store, and the lady said they weren't allowed to sell them until today. This is the same store that canceled my in store order yesterday.

Also don't panic buy or pay scalpers. This was never announced as a limited release. Fudge the scalpers. Nintendo will print more.

oh I won't panic buy. I'll wait. I can't find any in stock according to brickseek.

There were multiple copies at my WM, at least 4. I was surprised to see them after my order was canceled yesterday. Went in looking for something else, figured I'd check the pricing on the GTA trilogy and they were hiding in the very top corner.

Do you have the brickseek link? I checked my Walmart yesterday and it was not available. The day before it was 4 available when I placed the order. So while brickseek normally is good for me, I don't think the online count is correct if I bought the first copy today. Might be worth a shot stopping by if near one?

Edit: Walmart's website shows it's still available for pick-up at mine.

Nintendo’s ability to sell overpriced goods through artificial scarcity is impressive in an evil genius way.

Had some at my Wal mart. If you want I can check tomorrow and grab one for you

Yoshi wrote:

So evil that they haven't mentioned even once that it is a limited release, and somehow everyone understood the message anyway.

They are talking straight into your mind with the 5G

benstylus wrote:


Everyone else playing checkers, Nintendo playing 4d Chess.

FOMO!

benstylus wrote:

That's the artificial part. They had to have known they weren't initially shipping enough copies to meet demand. It's not the same method as with Mario 3D All-Stars, but it's the same overall strategy.

Yoshi wrote:

Did they? Maybe they thought people had wised up and would wait for the inevitable trilogy version.

Or they could have thought, "Hey $40 for one game is a bit steep when the Trilogy is still available on Wii U for $20 digitally" and so they were hedging their bets. Seeing how well it performed before committing to a massive overproduction of carts which would sit in warehouses and on store shelves forever.

They could also have been betting on a backlash of people angry about Prime Remastered being released with zero new info about Prime 4, not even a mention of whether it's still even in development.

Maybe Metroid Dread wasn't as successful saleswise as they had hoped, so they are being careful with the Metroid IP.

Or maybe they thought by releasing the digital one first, there wouldn't be nearly such a demand for the physical version.

Next guess? It's a throwaway stopgap release. They didn't make a lot because they didn't expect a lot from a simple remaster that isn't a Wii U exclusive.

Lower physical numbers could also just be part of their overall strategy to nudge people more towards digital.

Nintendo doesn't tend to drive up artificial demand for their standard edition releases. (If you want to make an argument about their LE versions that are Nintendo store exclusives, that's a different story altogether).

The most likely scenario is that Nintendo misjudged the demand because their time from announcement to release didn't give them the ability to properly gauge it. By the time the Nintendo Direct announcement happened, the first run would have already been made and on the boat to the US. You didn't see people crapping themselves shortly after release for Fire Emblem being out of stock, or Mario Odyssey, or Smash Bros. Ultimate, etc. because they all had intensive marketing campaigns around them.

The only non-LE I can think of on Switch that had that kind of trouble was Ring Fit, and that was right before Christmas 2019 when it was also impossible to find a Switch.

I can guarantee you Nintendo would rather consumers be able to buy the games they want at retail rather than having to go through scalpers. It's not like Nintendo owns a huge stake in eBay and is profiting from all the resales.

Obviously, we'll never know for sure, but I would maintain that they are making more money sooner with what has happened. If they sent a lot more units, people wouldn't be FOMO buying and instead rightfully waiting for a sale. Now, people have convinced themselves this will be hard to get and are either paying MSRP or feeding the scalper butt-holes. Nintendo doesn't see any of the scalper markup, but they certainly see MSRP on every copy they produced in a short period of time.

Said differently, I don't believe Nintendo is naive to the fact that their fans are insane not unlike Disney or Apple fans. The limited time nonsense with Mario 3D All-Stars and Fire Emblem is pretty compelling recent evidence.

mcorrado wrote:


That's a kind offer. I checked my walmart.today while grocery shopping. There still isn't a listing.

Yoshi wrote:

Anything "limited time" or "limited edition" sometimes gets people frothing, but my counter to that is it backfired for Nintendo.

Mario 3D All Stars had people far more baffled than frothing and the price of that one was never crazy. Even on ebay, it's only just recently crept up above MSRP as the back stock has finally started to clear out.

The OG Fire Emblem Switch port was digital only, and again was met with far more confusion than anything else (and a little bit of anger that the limited edition which did have some froth didn't include a physical cart).

The whole industry is changing so fast, I don't blame Nintendo for experimenting with different marketing strategies. My thinking is this one didn't pay off like they hoped. Especially with Mario, even though it sold decently, they left a lot of money on the table by putting an expiration date on their sales. Evergreen games have a long tail.

It's certainly telling that Nintendo hasn't tried the tactic again since then. Other well-loved Nintendo IPs with major anniversaries in that same time frame (i.e. since 2020 when Mario and Fire Emblem both happened) that haven't had time-limited releases are:

20th:
Animal Crossing (2021)
Golden Sun (2021)
Pikmin (2021)

25th:
Pokémon (2021)

30th:
F-Zero (2020)
Kirby (2022)
Pilotwings (2020)

35th:
Kid Icarus (2021)
Metroid (2021)
Wave Race (2022)

40th:
Donkey Kong (2021)

They really wanna piss off people, they should re-release All-Stars with Galaxy 2 included.

Something that is kind of silly is that they haven't released a digital version of Ring Fit in the US. They would have made a killing during the pandemic, but they decided to keep that a physical only release. I get that a RingCon and leg strap are needed, but there are 3rd party alternatives that could have filled that gap.

Nintendo gets a lot more money selling the straps themselves. There's also likely a safety risk if the ring isn't made properly.

DarkFact wrote:
😆😅 That comment deserves a combination of +2 and -1

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/02/scalpers...

Nintendo says they'll be sending more stock to retailers.

nonamesleft wrote:

I mean, it's not the first time that've done something like that. See Super Mario All-Stars and then Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World.

Galaxy 2 not being included with 3D All-Stars was puzzling...but I'm sure it's all about the $_$.

More likely about needing more precise Wii Remote functions foe the yoshi-ing.

The blue grabby stars in galaxy are a lot more forgiving on timing than some of the yoshi grabs in Galaxy 2

BloodPuppetX wrote:

Which was obvious to anyone whose neurons aren't shooting blanks, but Nintendo will probably get one more round of panic buying from their cult members out of the deal.

Yeah, I've already said I was expecting more stock. Just pointing out that Nintendo has officially said as much now. I remember that the Dread amiibos were out of stock at first and are now easily available, over a year later.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

In fact, they were $15 on Amazon today.

edit: BTW, my prior comment was in no way directed at you... unless you bought a scalped copy.

Yoshi wrote:

Oh, I know...and no, I didn't. I will patiently wait for it. I'm playing Octopath Traveler 2, which is going to take some time anyway.