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[BlackJace]

Call your local GameStop, Walmart and Best Buy. Ask them how many NES Classics they've received since launch.

IIRC, the NES Classic launch distribution was indeed in favor of Japan moreso than other parts of the world. But wasn't that Nintendo believing that the product appealed more to Japanese market?

Call it a misguided projection, but I really don't see what Nintendo has to gain by intentionally making something unavailable. It's in their best interest to make products readily available without flooding store shelves with stock.

 

[eoa-swam]

I got a PS4 at launch by preordering on Amazon immediately after the E3 conference where they announced price and date. Hopefully I can do the same here after Thursday's event.

That's my plan. Amazon (UK) already has a holding page up for the Switch, so once it knows what it can sell it for, that page will take pre-orders.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Why, common sense of course!

I dunno what your getting at but no system has ever sold like the wii during its peak. Nothing has ever even gotten close to some of those numbers. Have you ever worked in manufacturing before? Do you know how difficult it is to double or triple production indefinitely?

 

[akileese]

I was debating between going in late to work on Friday to show up at opening or going at lunch, but this basically made the decision for me.

Coffee and cold (33F) is in my future....

I'm just going to take the day Friday since I've got Monday off. I enjoy four day weekends.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

How is this a surprise to anyone? Did people forget about the NES mini, amiibo, Wii, etc

If Nintendo doesn't want to meet demand then they won't get my money plain and simple. I'm not running around to different stores all over the city or paying a mark up from some opportunistic butthole just to buy your system. When I can walk into my nearest store and pick one up with no hassle you will get my business.

This x1000.

 

[StereoVsn]

IIRC, the NES Classic launch distribution was indeed in favor of Japan moreso than other parts of the world. But wasn't that Nintendo believing that the product appealed more to Japanese market?

Call it a misguided projection, but I really don't see what Nintendo has to gain by intentionally making something unavailable. It's in their best interest to make products readily available without flooding store shelves with stock.

There were two different products. Famicom Mini was a different shell with different programming vs NES Mini. Nintendo allocated under 200k units for all of US and barely shipped any further units. Whether that's a complete market misread, incompetence or scarcity to drum up Nintendo brand before Switch launch I don't know but it's annoying as fuck to consumers.

 

[ChrisMahoney]

Just letting everyone know, if you aren't in line 2 hours+ before Gamestop opens, you're not getting a preorder. Don't complain if you don't get one at launch. It's too expensive to allocate enough production to meet launch demand. If you can't easily get one 6 months after launch, feel free to complain.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Do people still really use physical stores for consoles?.

Why would I pay for shipping and get the console late when I can drive 15 minutes from my house and pick one up?

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Yeah, I've argued before and I'll continue to argue that I really don't understand the "artificial scarcity is a major marketing stunt that pays off for Nintendo!" analysis. To me, the far more likely scenario is just that they want to err on the side of being conservative. Which situation is worse: having a pent-up demand for your early wave Amiibos that you undershipped, or having warehouses full of unsellable Animal Crossing Amiibos that you have vastly overestimated the demand for?

People want to point at the recently released NES Classic Mini as an obvious sell-out product that Nintendo clearly wanted to create hysteria for. But I don't know if this is really all that clear. Honestly, my thought is that this wasn't really conceived as a major product and as such they didn't necessarily have a lot invested in it. It's a total one-off. There was no plan to sell more games or accessories (outside of maybe another controller). It only costs $60. After distribution costs, retail's cut, and third party licensing costs, how profitable can it possibly be? My suspicion is that they are neither kicking themselves at all the lost profits nor is there a grand plan on how to convert that pent up demand into major sales.

I brought this up before in a different thread, but does anyone here remember that that Wii U GC controller adapter was practically impossible to find for some time? Was that them being marketing geniuses as part of some master plan to promote a niche device with incredibly limited applications? Or is it perhaps more likely that it was conceived as a niche device with no long-term prospects?

 

[Kilau]

If it's it sold out, so be it. I'll get one eventually like I do with all Nintendo hardware. Nothing I have seen so far is making me feel the need to get it day one.

 

[Gamer79]

If this is the case Nintendo can shove it. I'm not going to fight for months trying to get one while the scalpers have it for 3x the price on ebay.

 

[Feeroper]

Not the mental gymnastics required to reconcile the cognitive dissonance of "I don't like thing, so nobody must like thing, so the only reason it sells must be Jedi mind tricks"

Lol what?

Nintendo product sell because they are great, and I love them! I will certainly be trying to obtain a Switch for day one. They are a clever company that knows how to drive demand with an effective 1 2 punch - 1. develop an amazing product that is absolutely worth the hype, 2. under deliver and keep demand high.

Seriously, regardless if you don't want to believe it or not, I recommend the Console Wars book, such a good read and very insightful. I'm starting to feel like a commercial for this book now.

 

[outunderthestars]

No, because it still doesn't make sense. The NES Classic is a plastic shell, a tiny logic board, a memory card, and a power supply. They probably cost 10-15 dollars each for Nintendo to produce. There is absolutely no logistical reason that they can't pump these things out faster than they are.

That isn't how manufacturing works. There is no magic "make more ______ now" button. It takes time to have parts fabricated, and more time to book time at a production facility. In order to increase your manufacturing rate you'd need to pay those companies more money (if they even have any additional capacity which is rare as these things are contracted out months in advance), which isn't really feasible on a low cost/low margin item like the NES Classic. Even when they get more, using air freight for systems isn't practical, again due to the low margin of the systems.

Add the launch of a whole new system in 3 months and you can see how Nintendo could have underprojected demand for the NES Classic and not have any great option for getting more to market in a timely manner.

Yeah, I've argued before and I'll continue to argue that I really don't understand the "artificial scarcity is a major marketing stunt that pays off for Nintendo!" analysis. To me, the far more likely scenario is just that they want to err on the side of being conservative. Which situation is worse: having a pent-up demand for your early wave Amiibos that you undershipped, or having warehouses full of unsellable Animal Crossing Amiibos that you have vastly overestimated the demand for?

People want to point at the recently released NES Classic Mini as an obvious sell-out product that Nintendo clearly wanted to create hysteria for. But I don't know if this is really all that clear. Honestly, my thought is that this wasn't really conceived as a major product and as such they didn't necessarily have a lot invested in it. It's a total one-off. There was no plan to sell more games or accessories (outside of maybe another controller). It only costs $60. After distribution costs, retail's cut, and third party licensing costs, how profitable can it possibly be? My suspicion is that they are neither kicking themselves at all the lost profits nor is there a grand plan on how to convert that pent up demand into major sales.

I brought this up before in a different thread, but does anyone here remember that that Wii U GC controller adapter was practically impossible to find for some time? Was that them being marketing geniuses as part of some master plan to promote a niche device with incredibly limited applications? Or is it perhaps more likely that it was conceived as a niche device with no long-term prospects?

Well said.

 

[packy34]

IIRC, the NES Classic launch distribution was indeed in favor of Japan moreso than other parts of the world. But wasn't that Nintendo believing that the product appealed more to Japanese market?

Call it a misguided projection, but I really don't see what Nintendo has to gain by intentionally making something unavailable. It's in their best interest to make products readily available without flooding store shelves with stock.

You're absolutely right... yet they aren't doing it.

It's obvious that the NES Classic is in much higher demand than Nintendo is willing to supply... for absolutely no reason that I can discern. Let's look at what comprises the unit: a plastic shell, a tiny logic board, a cheap 1GB SD card, and a power supply. These probably cost Nintendo $10 per unit to produce. Why aren't they shipping more of them? It's either incompetence or willful and controlled scarcity.

 

[Aalvi]

Anyone here in Canada(Toronto)?

I bought PS4 launch day from EB and PS4 Pro I walked in and got one. This would be my third system I buy launch day(or at least try to).

I bought a Wii a bit back and it was I think a year in and I had to hunt it down to see if anyone had any in stock.

Any suggestions where I should pre-order? An EB is close to me but I'm not sure about deposits or having to physically go there if an alternative of no deposit and doing it online from the warmth of my home. So would Amazon.ca or Bestbuy.ca have preorders up online? Does EB do online pre-orders?

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I don't care about how easy or hard it is to pre-order a Switch at my local GameStop. I want to know how easy Nintendo is going to make it for me to pre-order a Switch online. I'd better be able to go to websites run by Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and yes, even GameStop on Friday morning and pre-order this device. I was able to do just that with 3DS, Wii U, and New 3DS, and I expect Nintendo will allow me to do the same with Switch. If I cannot, there's a problem with how this company currently operates.

 

[Broken Hope]

Shows how much faith they have in the thing if they haven't produced mass quantities.

 

[-Horizon-]

I mean Nintendo themselves said they weren't producing many switch consoles at their last investor meeting or something right?

 

[ChrisMahoney]

It's simple: Nintendo calculates how many Switches they'll sell in 12 months, then allocates production to meet that. A console at launch has a huge amount of wealthy 1st day buyers. If Nintendo allocated enough production to meet launch demand, they'd have a ton of wasted production capacity for months

 

[yyr]

Why not just preorder by phone?

No US retailer will accept preorders by phone.

Pre-ordering requires a deposit. You can't pay over the phone.

 

[serenewarfare]

The thing about the NES Classic is that I'd understand the "Nintendo is conservative" argument if they weren't STILL impossible to get. Nintendo should have seen the interest after the hot launch and immediately started producing more of them, which given the hardware has to be cheap, and shipping them out. Instead they are still only shipping 50 or so every two weeks.

 

[plagiarize]

I will be pre-ordering one on Friday by hook or crook, even if I'm not sure that I can justify keeping the pre-order. Because I'm 100% convinced that if I wait to see if I can justify buying one, that I won't be able to get one for a while.

 

[fluffydelusions]

So fake ya?
Assassins creed Egypt lol
http://gametransfers.com/report-nin...n-2017-leaked-zelda-scheduled-for-17th-march/

 

[Ridley327]

Shows how much faith they have in the thing if they haven't produced mass quantities.

2 million by the end of the quarter is hardly chump change.

 

[Busaiku]

Shows how much faith they have in the thing if they haven't produced mass quantities.

Their goal is to ship 2 million through March 31.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

We don't even know that this is a low supply launch. It's all about those unknown second quarter numbers.

 

[//ARCANUM]

If each gamestop in the U.S got 15 (average) that would be 66k units just for Gamestop. How many PS4's did gamestop get on average at launch?

Best Buy was as high as 100+ per store (including pre-orders) but varied on the size/volume of the store

Exactly. Each GameStop getting 15 or so units for a new console launch sounds.... normal. When GameStop got very few of the Majora's Mask n3DS XL and the NES Classic, they were getting like 2 - 4 per store (handfuls got more).

Also, every time I'm in a GameStop, the employee's are always all "you better pre-order XXX or you'll miss out on release day!" - for everything ever. This "rumor" just sounds more like GameStop jargon than actual leaked info. This feels like trying to convince a bunch of people to line up at GameStop on Friday, meanwhile online retailers will be selling preorders possibly Thursday night right after the presentation.

No matter what, I'm going to pre-order at least 3 of them online from different retailers, if possible. I feel like that's my best odds of actually securing ONE for myself. (If the 2nd doesn't get cancelled, I'll hook up a friend at cost, and if the 3rd doesn't get cancelled - unlikely, but if it doesn't - I'll either return it or help a gaffer at cost.)

 

[OrbitalBeard]

No US retailer will accept preorders by phone.

Pre-ordering requires a deposit. You can't pay over the phone.

I've made multiple payments over the phone in my life.

 

[Broken Hope]

2 million by the end of the quarter is hardly chump change.

PS4 did like a million on day 1 in the US alone didn't it?

 

[Gotdatmoney]

PS4 did like a million on day 1 in the US alone didn't it?

In Novemeber

 

[Graphics Horse]

I mean Nintendo themselves said they weren't producing many switch consoles at their last investor meeting or something right?

2 million forecast for March, they will likely top that but doesn't guarantee a huge amount per region.

 

[//ARCANUM]

So fake ya?
Assassins creed Egypt lol
http://gametransfers.com/report-nin...n-2017-leaked-zelda-scheduled-for-17th-march/

Super Mario Frost Land?

 

[Broken Hope]

In Novemeber

If the product is worth buying time of the month means little.

Sony release games in March and they sell plenty.

 

[Busaiku]

PS4 did like a million on day 1 in the US alone didn't it?

Launched during the holiday season.

 

[PMS341]

This "rumor" just sounds more like GameStop jargon than actual leaked info. This feels like trying to convince a bunch of people to line up at GameStop on Friday, meanwhile online retailers will be selling preorders possibly Thursday night right after the presentation.

You'd be correct. Brick-and-mortar is a dying breed, and Gamestop fears a digital future.

 

[PadWarrior]

I've made multiple payments over the phone in my life.

Gamestop doesn't allow that. At least mine doesn't.

 

[outunderthestars]

The thing about the NES Classic is that I'd understand the "Nintendo is conservative" argument if they weren't STILL impossible to get. Nintendo should have seen the interest after the hot launch and immediately started producing more of them, which given the hardware has to be cheap, and shipping them out. Instead they are still only shipping 50 or so every two weeks.

It is two months from launch. Again, manufacturing and shipping something takes time.

The average travel time for a container vessel from Asia to the U.S. is between two weeks and a month. Documentation, customs clearance, handling, and inland shipping can add 17 to 33 days to the total shipping time from most emerging market regions, and another 6 days once goods reach the United States.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

If the product is worth buying time of the month means little.

Sony release games in March and they sell plenty.

Games and systems are not the same thing. Launching a system in March is different than launching a system in Novemeber.

 

[Broken Hope]

Launched during the holiday season.

So if Sony released it in March it only would have sold 2 million world wide? I very much doubt it.

 

[Jarnet87]

I will walk into Target the morning of the launch and grab one or just wait.

 

[120v]

i think not launching around the holidays will help with availability a lot. you wont see a mad dash of parents trying to Day 1 a Switch for little jimmy. i'll be honestly surprised if it's difficult to get a hold of going into summer

 

[Kintaro]

Exactly. Each GameStop getting 15 or so units for a new console launch sounds.... normal.

My tiny, tiny ass store had like 50 PS4s and XB1s at their launch.

Also, every time I'm in a GameStop, the employee's are always all "you better pre-order XXX or you'll miss out on release day!" - for everything ever.

Going to nip this in the bud. GS individual store inventory is now heavily determined by preorder numbers. This affects even the biggest of games (my allocation of CoD was lower than ever since few preordered). So, if you have workers asking you to preorder, it actually means more now than ever.

But this is just jargon of course. >.>

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Gamestop doesn't allow that. At least mine doesn't.

Well yeah, most retailers don't, though some do.

I was more responding to the notion that it wasn't possible to make payments over the phone in general.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

PS4 did like a million on day 1 in the US alone didn't it?

It did about 4.2 million worldwide in 2013 (about 1.5 months of sales). But there's a couple of things to consider there:
1) The PS4 launch was during the holiday shopping season.
2) It was a wildly successful launch.

I certainly wouldn't look at that and think you need similar quantities of the Switch at launch to satisfy demand. 2 million may not be enough, but it really doesn't strike me as some woefully inadequate initial shipment for a March release (assuming they do indeed have 2 million ready for launch).

 

[wowzors]

Is it the treehouse at like 10pm central US time on Thursday? I think if you really want to get one you can go opening to game stop and plop down to reserve.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Nintendo systems always sell out the first batch of stock to the hardcore ninty fans. We'll know it's a big hit if it has sustained good numbers and is hard to find for months.

I'm thinking the hybrid approach is going to work for them and this is basically going to be sold out until January 2018.

This is gonna be like the defacto tablet device to get you kids for the next 5 years, and the older gen gamers will pick it up to because having such a high quality portable experience will be hard to ignore.

 

[bman94]

Isn't Gamestop just shit on inventory regardless? I was trying to get an arcade stick or a fight pad about two months ago and they said they didnt have any in a 100 mile range and that I would have to order online. If I wanted to order online I wouldn't have came to the store in the first place.

 

[blue_phazon]

Just a straight question. Why would people bother with the hassle of dealing with GAMESTOP (or somewhere like GAME in the UK) when online retailers can get the console to you on day of launch?.

If GAMESPOT aren't going to be a good option, use Amazon.

Trade-in deals, preventing any shipping related damage, etc.

I was able to get $75 off a PS4 Pro from trading in a Wii. A WII.

 

[dickroach]

So fake ya?
Assassins creed Egypt lol
http://gametransfers.com/report-nin...n-2017-leaked-zelda-scheduled-for-17th-march/

lol wat yeah this is bullshit

 

[Qwark]

Dammit Nintendo, you should want me to buy your product. I'm not even going to bother if I have to fight just to have a chance at buying it.

Though Wii U was only sold out for like the first couple days, and then it was easy to get, but I hope this fares better than the Wii U too.