NarrowPath
Member
I guess they learned a thing or two from the Wii U. Made far too many, they won't make that mistake again.
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Jimquisition: Nintendo - A Shit Distributor And Fuckheaded Toymaker (Nov. 28, 2016)
- Thread starter L~A
- Start date
MrCunningham
Member
I thought the supply shortages were because of Nintendo going with a German factory instead of a Chinese one.
fabricated backlash
Member
Do they hold you at gunpoint to buy an NES mini? What was your point again?
So you insisted that the quote I mentioned, the one where the kids parents would buy another Nintendo product when the hard to find one is still out of stock, is not relevant because today's market is different and the parents would just buy something else, like a 3DS or Wii... which is still the same thing, and this is how you refute it?
C'mon son. I am disappoint.
Mushroomer25
Member
"Man With Benefit Of Hindsight Brags About His 20/20 Vision"
Seriously, it's so easy to see him being just as much of a braggart if Nintendo overstocked this device - claiming "Of course, it's just a box of emulators!".
Blame the retailers for buying low stock on this. They've seen a million of these plug-and-play boxes fill the clearance section, you can't blame them for being hesitant.
Seriously, it's so easy to see him being just as much of a braggart if Nintendo overstocked this device - claiming "Of course, it's just a box of emulators!".
Blame the retailers for buying low stock on this. They've seen a million of these plug-and-play boxes fill the clearance section, you can't blame them for being hesitant.
I don't see how deliberately understocking an item is a smart business move. If there's not enough stock to meet demand then money is being left on the table. Customers would just stop trying to find the item and spend their money on something else.
Back in 2007 I was going to buy a Wii to complement my Xbox 360. I called everywhere but stores did not have them in stock. I ended up spending my money on a PS3 and never bought a Wii.
Back in 2007 I was going to buy a Wii to complement my Xbox 360. I called everywhere but stores did not have them in stock. I ended up spending my money on a PS3 and never bought a Wii.
I think overall it shows how Nintendo themselves don't understand the appeal of their own products. The main answer seems to be at least incompetence. I never was able to even see the Fire Emblem Amiibo in stores and now they are gone for good. Making tons of Animal Crossing Amiibo which is a different brand entirely doesn't seem like a good idea. People that want an Ike toy are probably different than those that want a Tom Nook toy.
The frustrating thing is that it's a recurrent problem with Nintendo. Some peripherals were hard to find. The Fire Emblem LE sold out in minutes, the limited edition 3DS sell out in minutes, the boxing day 3DS had very few units shipped to store and sold out in minutes and the NES classic is more or less impossible to find and they don't seem to be shipping more to stores very often. I mean if I want to buy something from then I shouldn't have to F5 websites every 5 minutes until it's up or line up at 5AM in front of the store and yet this is what is required often with their products.
I fail how people try to defend this as a customer. I don't care about them overshipping items, I'm there to acquire them. I have no stakes in Nintendo. It's more frustrating for me to not being able to buy an item I wanted but couldn't because Nintendo is bad at this than being sad because Nintedo overshipped Animal Crossing Amiibos. Not only you waste time and resources to try to get what you want, you might not even get it and then employees from stores then get a hard time. It's a pretty big lack of respect and probably a missed opportunity business wise. They didn't even have NES classics on store shelves for black friday and not enough N3DS. Kind of a lose/lose situation.
My point is that if you want a 3DS you can buy one right now from Nintendo. There's no reason to cry about stock levels of some limited edition special-price promotional unit.
To address your question though, it's not at all clear that reducing the 3DS to $99 would result in enough extra sales to make up for the drop in per-unit price. That's assuming Nintendo makes money on the thing at $99. It could be the case, for example, that the $99 3DS is a loss leader intended to drive sales of the full priced unit.
Except Nintendo has been doing this for years with several other products as well. It's not even a kept secret. They are intentionally creating artificial demand for their products and it's worked really well in the past. The Tickle-me-Elmo was the first ultra major success of a company doing this.
Alex
Member
Being in a small echo chamber isn't buzz
DerekOfTheDykes
Member
This is GENERALLY true, however, I can state for a fact that a large number of Nintendo's own employees knew well in advance that the NES Classic Mini would drastically undership and this exact situation would arise. This isn't a "hindsight is 20/20" thing, people inside the company called it upon announcement.
It's literally a running joke among NOA's own people that Nintendo will undership everything. I know a few of the retail marketing employees who have worked there for 20+ years who say it's just the way the company has been as long as they can remember. It's literally so baked into the company that the common response by anybody who has been there longer than a couple years is a weary, defeated sigh. I know a retail marketing supervisor who is so used to it that they had literally become hardened to it... "that's just the way it is, and it's the way it'll always be".
EDIT: I don't know where the bottleneck is, but considering I know of at least a few fairly high level management types who share this same mindset, I'd assume that it boils down to some very high level executives. Itagaki's explanation that it's based on the company's bonus structure does seem like it would explain the systemic undershipping of anything that isn't a core Mario/Zelda/Pokemon title.
Dr. Black Jack
Member
Nintendo sold all of the units it expected to and turned a profit, yet this makes them a bad distributor? They produce a product people want so badly that people will line up around the block to buy one, yet they're a shit toymaker?
Because a manchild who makes his living screaming at a camera surrounded by toys is the business analyst we should be listening to.
Because a manchild who makes his living screaming at a camera surrounded by toys is the business analyst we should be listening to.
Didn't it take them until Christmas 2014 to sell through their first order of Wii U's?
I think that's been behind everything. Manufactured shortages are stupid for any manufacturer unless they are also the direct seller, Nintendo's leaving money on the table even if they *might* help a retailer who's willing to be unscrupulous and hike price above MSRP, but they mostly just benefit scalpers. There's no cause for Nintendo to do this deliberately, and more that their confidence is still shot.
I think that's been behind everything. Manufactured shortages are stupid for any manufacturer unless they are also the direct seller, Nintendo's leaving money on the table even if they *might* help a retailer who's willing to be unscrupulous and hike price above MSRP, but they mostly just benefit scalpers. There's no cause for Nintendo to do this deliberately, and more that their confidence is still shot.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
I dont know how many times nintendo has to do this for people to believe its true.
ZSaberLink
Media Create Maven
Btw, we know that Nintendo sold like 250-260K of the Famicom minis in Japan in its first week. To me that sounds like a reasonable first shipment. Do we know how much it's sold in the rest of the world?
The performance of the Wii U has zero to do with the NES Classic and its proliferation in the marketplace. Its a more fair point if the Switch release doesn't meet initial demand since they are more similar.
I also think that Nintendo didn't overship the Wii U, the demand for the system was much much much lower than forecasted, sort of the opposite of what happened with the Wii
Nintendo sold all of the units it expected to and turned a profit, yet this makes them a bad distributor? They produce a product people want so badly that people will line up around the block to buy one, yet they're a shit toymaker?
Because a manchild who makes his living screaming at a camera surrounded by toys is the business analyst we should be listening to.
lmao the fuckin salt in this post
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
I was Legit racking my brain trying to wonder why this thread was moving this fast. Jim is respected on here but the threads never moved as quick. Than I realized who he was calling out Nd it all makes sense. Why ppl will defend this with no stock in the company is beyond me
Alex
Member
Wii U was actually a little tough to get out of the gate, it wasn't Wii level crazy but it was commonly out of stock in most stores and being lightly shipped to a lot of spots.
That faded away fairly quickly though, within the first month. Feels like they were trying to pull this stunt and it blew up in their faces.
That faded away fairly quickly though, within the first month. Feels like they were trying to pull this stunt and it blew up in their faces.
The Albatross
Member
I'm with him considering that this NES Classic shipping fiasco is currently adding unneeded stress to my Christmas shopping.
I don't know, I expected the NES Classic to sell like hot cakes since after the reveal there were people at my workplace who don't play videogames (or maybe played games many years ago but don't anymore) talking about it and considering getting one.
Paper Sparrow
Member
Just a word of advice, you can disagree with someone without resorting to personal attacks. Like, take a step back or something.
Professor Beef
Banned
for real, god damn
TheVoidDragon
Member
Nintendo sold all of the units it expected to and turned a profit, yet this makes them a bad distributor? They produce a product people want so badly that people will line up around the block to buy one, yet they're a shit toymaker?
Because a manchild who makes his living screaming at a camera surrounded by toys is the business analyst we should be listening to.
Did you not even bother to watch the video? The reason they "sold all of the units" and why people have to line up to just try to get one in the first place are because there were hardly any distributed to stores. That is in no way a good thing for customers.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
The thing that gets me is you'd think they'd be prepared to ramp up after one of these things go BOOM on them. It's happened a ton in the last decade. It's money left on the table.
^^^ This.
edit: yall want that SR3 dildo bat and you want it bad, doncha?
^^^ This.
edit: yall want that SR3 dildo bat and you want it bad, doncha?
At least in regards to Wii, Nintendo shipped more at launch than any system before. They also ramped up to over 1 million produced per month.
Wii literally sold that fast.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15949419/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/nintendo-sells-consoles-days/
https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-promises-more-wiis-31213.phtml
There's a difference between "defending this" and coming up with a logical, reasonable and sensical explanation. The other choice is believing something that makes no sense, has no benefit, and generally struggles to pass the smell test.
It's amazing he still has his account, considering how often he does it.
SirClinksAlot
Member
Jesus hardcore Nintendo fans are the fucking worst. Nintendo fucked up this launch, BAD. They fuck up OFTEN. Why/how is certainly worth talking about. Nintendo 'aint gonna give you a free switch for riding their dick so get off of it.
Correlation is not causation.
That is my new favourite graph.
ZSaberLink
Media Create Maven
I don't think anyone's arguing they screwed up. The question is whether they limited stock intentionally because they totally misjudged demand (aka being incompetent) vs. they're keeping stock low on purpose to build hype.
I lean towards incompetence as do some of the posters here. A lot of crap stems from mistakes and incompetence as opposed to people having evil business schemes lol. I've seen enough incompetence in big companies to realize this happens a lot.
WrenchNinja
Member
I was chuckling just looking at the title cause I knew how mad people would get over some badmouthing
SolicitorPirate
Member
Because there's a difference between fucking up at estimating demand, and deliberately manufactured scarcity? The former is a mistake businesses make all the time, and the latter makes zero business sense in the context of a low value entertainment product
there are people saying nintendo does this on purpose as some sort of psychological operation.
that is who is being argued with.
also can we get a gauge on the many here who are calling everyone nintendo fanboys, of how the fuck you supposedly know this about us? is anyone with a nintendo avatar who disagrees with you guys a fanboy?
fuck right off with that shit. please, show us substance, because calling people fanboys it couldnt be any more obvious you have no argument
UberTag
Member
Whether it's intentional on Nintendo's part or not frankly doesn't matter and isn't worth arguing.
The fact is Nintendo's manufactured scarcity is PERCEIVED to be intentional by the public... and perception trumps everything.
As for whether there's some logistical rationale on Nintendo's part to undership small-margin products to get everyone anxious as all hell to jump in full force for something that has a high profit margin and/or needs an immediate install base to jump start a product cycle (i.e. the Switch) - or whether they're just incompetent - that remains up for debate.
Alebrije
Member
Nintendo sold all of the units it expected to and turned a profit, yet this makes them a bad distributor? They produce a product people want so badly that people will line up around the block to buy one, yet they're a shit toymaker?
Because a manchild who makes his living screaming at a camera surrounded by toys is the business analyst we should be listening to.
AntraxSuicide
Banned
People keep saying that manufactured drought is illogical, but you keep ignoring all of the industries that use it to drive up brand recognition. Literally none of the arguments against it as a strategy are targeted at that facet of it.
Toy companies are famous in business for doing this. It makes you want to grab the next product ASAP because the last one sold out and never came back (or at least, came back with a few more, but not in great stock). If Nintendo actually sold a few million more of these things, then they'd be looking at crap pre-orders for the next retro cash-in they try to sell.
People line up for shit that sells out, not for stuff that floods shelves for weeks. Saying "Manufactured drought isn't real" is at odds with hundreds (if not thousands) of businesses that literally admit to using it.
Regarding Wii U and the idea that Nintendo needs to undership because they were burned by Wii U's market research and they're rightly afraid to get burned again...
Wii U was projected to sell 5.5 million in it's first year. It sold 3.45 million. People told Nintendo that this should be a wake-up call, that they should realize that there's something wrong with Wii U (namely that it's an HD Wii five years late to the party, with a tablet controller nobody wants and a pile of brand confusion), but Nintendo said no, the unsold first year stock meant that Nintendo could increase their second year projections. People said "You do realize that PS4 and XBone are coming out this year, right?" and Nintendo said that PS4 and Xbone will only boost Wii U's sales, once everyone sees how crappy PS4 and Xbone are and compares them to the greatness of Wii U.
Wii U was projected to sell a sky-high 9 million in it's second year, but it sold a pathetic 2.72 million.
That's when Nintendo stopped bullshitting. The next year was projected to sell 3.6 million, and it sold 3.38 million. The year after that it was projected to sell 3.4 million, and it sold 3.26.
Wii U is not a case of bad market research (or the entire concept of market research being flawed), it's a case of arrogant Nintendo thinking they can defy reality and dictate the market.
SolicitorPirate
Member
Said 'man child' also makes what appears to be making a very comfortable living spouting stuff that would have made me fail business school. So I'm not sure who the real winner is.
ok but do you see how you can't just say "manufactured drought is real" and not back it up without it being totally justifiable to not believe it? just because something could be true doesn't mean it is, especially when there are a bunch of really normal, realistic explanations for things that match up more with reality. thats pretty much every conspiracy theory. a motive that makes sense, in a hypothetical scenario that makes sense, is not a fact. there are religions and conspiracy theories that indoctrinate people all the time based on the fact that it could be true and some things would be explained if it were.
whether or not its real we may never know, but it should be pretty common ground that its extremely unlikely. consider the alternative. they produce a lot sell a lot make more money and generate more word of mouth, which is the most effective marketing. makes a hell of a lot more sense that they underestimated demand than purposely underproducing in order to stir up some "hype" for a product you cant even buy because its sold out. and thats if you even believe theres some huge hype in the mass market for the NES classic being caused by it being sold out?
SolicitorPirate
Member
Does any of that surprise you? This is GAF. We trivialise game design and development despite ostensibly being a forum filled with well informed gaming enthusiasts
It's the easiest way to dismiss an argument without having to come up with a good argument. It also makes that person look childish.
"There's a defence force for everything."
"X-fanboys are the worst"
I just remembered having that shit recently with someone whining that he'll sell off his amiibos and not buy the Switch because "Nintendo fanboys are the worst".
NintendoGal
Member
I just have to laugh at people who truly think it's in Nintendo's best interest to purposely hamstring their supply just to make it seem more attractive to consumers.
Supply can be a tricky beast, especially with a global company.
Supply can be a tricky beast, especially with a global company.