NES Classic

[isiolia]

Sounds to me like demand has outpaced the supply.

It'd probably help if Nintendo could manage to send even double-digit quantities of them to large retail stores and the like. It's not like it's an expensive device to produce, yet I've only seen managers have to explain to customers hoping to buy one that Nintendo simply didn't send them enough. The polite ones accept that. Others curse the managers and blame them, when it's all on Nintendo.

Getting customers in the store can make that worth it, but only if they're actually open to buying something else. Bringing people in with a cheap TV or car is one thing, when there are a bunch of others they could be talked into. If Nintendo wanted to "help" retailers, they'd have sent supply to brick and mortar stores and not Amazon (hypothetically, not like Amazon has them either).

If it was Nintendo's first time failing to meet demand, that'd be one thing. They repeatedly have failed to. It's something mentioned as a strategy going back to the NES, at least from stuff like Console Wars that tries to explain Nintendo's dealings with retailers.
As Polygon and others have pointed out, either Nintendo is incompetent and has done nothing to learn from past mistakes...or it's intentional. The latter seems more likely.

It serves to make them a "omygoshtheyactuallyhaveone, buy it, buy it!" attitude, but if it ends up meaning they sell a fraction of the number they could have it's probably not very logical. Maybe their stock dropping is more a reaction to that than Mario Run.


Still, yeah, at least not worth paying over retail for. For what they seem to be selling for, people could be buying modern consoles and picking up retro collections or virtual console stuff.

[stickem]

My wife was one of those psychos 2 weeks ago at target, they had 10. She got there at midnight and waited till 3 to get a ticket. She was mainly there for a hatchamil or what ever they are for our daughter for christmas. She was able to get both.

[Tanooki]

I get it too, it's for someone with memories who still has not got on board. It's for those who have kids they would rather not have jack up their 30 year old original stuff. It's for those wanting portability and one click play with a TV. That's the audience. It's not those with real games who don't care what happens, nor for those with some means to run ROMS on another device. They'll never get it, or at least say they don't.

I wasn't rude to the kid who told me I felt bad for him the manager is acting like a child. I get the fact he wants to do a line. I can get and respect that. It's not allowing people to know they have 4 or 40. You just make people line up in the sub-freezing weather for hours with a number with a chance to get something. That's despicable.

There's no harm in saying 'We have 4' and then you roll by at 4:30am and see 6 people there hoping someone gets bored, has to pee, or whatever and leaves. But if they get 4 and have 40 people out there, you're going to have 36 very pissed off individuals who froze for hours for no reason. That's not going to endear them to the store, or make them want to go back the next time, perhaps ever, to give them a dollar when there are other retail spaces or just online to save the frustration.

I squarely blame the manager for that choice and for what isiolia wrote about Nintendo as that's the truth of it. This tactic is not going to get the losers in the store in a happy mood to buy added HDMI cables, movies or other side grabs while inside. This isn't Black Friday with hundreds of mega deals, just one cheapo emulator NES box.

Polygon has it right, and it's not gross stupidity. It's tactical. I had this one explained to me with Nintendo when I was at Midway. My brother has been exposed to it from multiple companies who published for them as well. That's why I put it the way I did yet when responded last said I can't prove it. Like they'd actually admit they do that on purpose as it would start a real media shit storm among gamers.


My wife can play the crazy lady if she wants. If it's not under my tree, then I can wait until January or March for all I care. If it takes the Switch coming out to divert the scalper scum to the next best thing it's just a few months, not the end of time itself. If she does got and gets one, good then I'll have fun tomorrow as I'm good either way.

[marurun]

Nintendo is a very traditional, staid company. They are very conservative with their finances. Why do you think all their handhelds use 5 year old tech? They want to hit their price points safely. They do deliberately under stock, but I don't think it is to jack up demand but to control manufacturing costs and their supply chain. You NEVER want idle inventory if you can help it.

[BogusMeatFactory]

The system is awesome. The games look spectacular on an HD TV and has a little bit of everything for everyone. Controller cable is stupidly small, but outside of that the appeal is real. The system looks cool, feels cool and plays cool. My wife opened it up early the other day and played punch out for the first time ever. It was adorable.

Managers are not telling people numbers is for a variety of reasons.

1. They want people to still come in and maybe buy something else. It is a method that works.

2. If they tell you how many they get, they worry that the customer will bring their entire family in to get one a piece.

3. It may be a deterrent for resellers to have to wait so long. The hardcore people who genuinely want it will do it.

4. People lose their shit when they hear they are only going to have 10. People think that a store can get 1000 units and just don't.

[dsheinem]

I can't prove it, I just go by what I get told and I don't mean from the internet.

Ok, then. Cool story, bro.

[ElkinFencer10]

Nintendo is a very traditional, staid company. They are very conservative with their finances. Why do you think all their handhelds use 5 year old tech? They want to hit their price points safely. They do deliberately under stock, but I don't think it is to jack up demand but to control manufacturing costs and their supply chain. You NEVER want idle inventory if you can help it.

This. A thousand times, this. There's no insidious plot by Nintendo to create artificial scarcity; they're just erring on the side of caution. You'll rarely ever guess equilibrium price on release, so if you're going to err, err on the side of shortage rather than surplus.

[Tanooki]

I can't prove it, I just go by what I get told and I don't mean from the internet.

Ok, then. Cool story, bro.

Exactly just a cool story based in reality from years before I even found this site and nothing more or less.

[marurun]

Tanooki, I just think you are assuming some kind of market manipulation or malice where a simpler answer will suffice.

[Tanooki]

No I'm assuming they're doing a classic Nintendo game of CYA, nothing more or less. They underfeed the market so that they're not left with stock lying around, and they'll pump out and put to retail more as they see fit. It's not a conspiracy, it's just being too conservative and slow for their own good and the consumer good as well.