Support NeoGAF

[VoltrefferNL]

I think it's honestly both. Nintendo can only make so many systems a day, and it takes time and a lot of money to increase that number. Coming off the Wii U, they were optimistic about Switch for sure but at the same time they probably wanted to be conservative in the event Switch didn't light a fire for people.

Compared to other devices, it's the exact same thing, Nintendo just gets needlessly shit on about it for reasons. When Apple brings out a new iPhone, it's sold out for weeks, if not months. Within hours of them going on sale the delivery dates will slip further and further away from the release dates. Same with the iPad, same with even the Apple Watch. I preordered my Apple Watch within like 15 minutes of them going on sale and it took almost 3 months for them to get it to me. And that's APPLE, of all companies, who has complete control of every single step of the manufacturing process of their products from designing them to putting them in their own stores.

PS4, likewise, was sold out for quite a long time when it launched. I only just saw my first PSVR in the wild like a week ago. Not sure about Xbox but I wouldn't be surprised at all to hear there were shortages there too. It's actually really normal.



No it wasn't. What's with certain Gaffers and the revisionist PS4 history? There were shortages out the yang. Even their barely supported expensive VR headset hasn't been able to stay on shelves since release until very recently. Simply typing in "Playstation 4 shortages" into google, the first three results are about how shitty the supply for the Pro and PSVR is, and then right under that is an article from 2014 where Sony themselves admit that they can't keep up with demand and potentially were losing sales because of it.

Seems clear, then it might only be a numbers game indeed.

 

[Branduil]

Fun ending to my story, I get home and open the Neon JoyCons to plop them on my Switch to charge as a nice little surprise to be waiting for my girlfriend when she wakes up. Open the box and pull out... two Grey JoyCons. Drove back and returned them immediately. What a rollercoaster of emotions that was.

Wait, so they put gray joycons in the box for neon joycons?

 

[Carnby]

Nintendo consoles are all like success->success->fail->fail->success->fail->success.

I'm no Nintendo expert, but I feel like when they have a success it's a monster success, and when they fail it's miserable. There's never an in between. Correct me if I'm wrong fellas.

 

[JustenP88]

"Nintendo should go 3rd party" is the god-tier port beg that is somehow usually ok.

I've got a PS4 Pro so I can continue not buying most big budget 3rd party software on that system. If the Switch builds a huge user base and 3rd parties are still apprehensive about competing on Nintendo's platform with Nintendo's software, that's fine. That's a guaranteed L anyways. I only expect lazy ports and maybe some double/single-A games from the Ubis and Konamis of the world and I'm cool with that. More Bomberman and whateverthefuck Mario & Rabbids is, thanks.

As for hardware shortages, I don't think "hot new electronic device is hard to find in stores in the weeks/months following highly publicized launch" is a phenomenon unique to Nintendo...

 

[slit]

I'm no Nintendo expert, but I feel like when they have a success it's a monster success, and when they fail it's miserable. There's never an in between. Correct me if I'm wrong fellas.

I'd say N64 was "in between".

 

[mazpratim]

I'm no Nintendo expert, but I feel like when they have a success it's a monster success, and when they fail it's miserable. There's never an in between. Correct me if I'm wrong fellas.

I think 3DS might be an in-between technically if you compare it to previous handhelds

 

[UltimaPooh]

No it wasn't. What's with certain Gaffers and the revisionist PS4 history? There were shortages out the yang. Even their barely supported expensive VR headset hasn't been able to stay on shelves since release until very recently. Simply typing in "Playstation 4 shortages" into google, the first three results are about how shitty the supply for the Pro and PSVR is, and then right under that is an article from 2014 where Sony themselves admit that they can't keep up with demand and potentially were losing sales because of it. And that was just for Europe.

Whats with the cherry picking? This thread is about GameStop a US retail store and you post an article about European shortages?

 

[Dre3001]

So just for understanding, is this a case of bad product manufacturing by Nintendo? Or is the demand that insane?

How was the situation compared to other devices? Such as iPhones, iPad, Ps 3/4, Wii (u), Xbox?

The Switch demand is incredible and almost at Wii like levels.

With that said on an anecdotal note in my city the Gamestops are barely receiving any Switch consoles period.

This past week I know for a fact that Target, Best Buy, and Walmart all had huge restocks while the few Gamestops in my city all received maybe 3-5 consoles.

 

[Zedark]

But the numbers out there aren't that insane in terms of previous products? How much ps4's where sold in the first few months? Or DS's for comparison. Or even the ipad?

The product is obviously a massive hit, but producing 5 million units shouldn't be an impossible task? Or is it?

Switch shipped 2.74 million in 28 days, PS4 shipped 4.5 million in 1.5 months, and PS4 was the best selling launch ever. So, these numbers are indeed insane, as they keep pace quite closely with the fastest selling launch ever. And all that coming off of the Wii U so it would make sense for them to be conservative.

 

[CaviarMeths]

I'm no Nintendo expert, but I feel like when they have a success it's a monster success, and when they fail it's miserable. There's never an in between. Correct me if I'm wrong fellas.

I'd call only the Wii and DS monster successes, only the Wii U and Virtual Boy miserable failures.

Gamecube was a bit of a failure too. A permanent price drop to $99 sure as hell doesn't come from a position of strength. I wouldn't call it miserable though.

Everything else was a definite successful product, but not a monster. Jury is out on Switch.

 

[shouamabane]

Switch seems to have found an underserved market and really delivered what that market wants. The concept can work worldwide and to a pretty mainstream level. Nintendo just needs to deliver software now.

 

[WordAssassin]

But the numbers out there aren't that insane in terms of previous products? How much ps4's where sold in the first few months? Or DS's for comparison. Or even the ipad?

The product is obviously a massive hit, but producing 5 million units shouldn't be an impossible task? Or is it?

Keep in mind though that unlike those other products that did in fact face shortages, Nintendo is coming off the abysmal failure of the Wii U here. So far there hasn't been an iPhone or iPad or PlayStation that flopped. So Nintendo wasn't about to come out of the gate with guns blazing trying to flood the market with their new system, when barely anyone bought their last one. They made a conservative estimate, and even then, they bumped up the numbers since launch. They're gonna have to bump them again I'd imagine, but as I mentioned that takes a lot of time and money. Factories have finite space, especially when they aren't completely dedicated to just making that one thing for that one company like in Apple's situation. If a factory is only capable of producing 100 Switch systems a day, they can't just magically start making 150 or 200.

Another company that faces similar issues is Lego, who I used to work for so I learned a bit about production pipelines from there. They have the machines to make a certain set, and they make X number of those sets, and then they have to turn those machines into machines that make a different set to keep up with their release schedule. If something happens like the Jurassic World Lego situation where demand exploded and they sold out within days of release, they have to go and revert those machines back to making Jurassic World sets so that they can product more, and that takes time to do. JW Lego sets were out of stock for like 3-4 months when they first released. There was even a set that never got restocked (Raptor Escape) because they made so few of them and then moved on to the next thing in their product pipeline. And again, that's in a factory that's likely totally controlled by Lego themselves. I don't think Nintendo has their own factory to just make Switches but even if they did, as I said in my example it's not as easy as just magically making more out of nowhere, they have to get more machines and hire more people.

 

[slit]

I'd call only the Wii and DS monster successes, only the Wii U and Virtual Boy miserable failures.

Gamecube was a bit of a failure too. A permanent price drop to $99 sure as hell doesn't come from a position of strength. I wouldn't call it miserable though.

Everything else was a definite successful product, but not a monster. Jury is out on Switch.

I don't how you wouldn't consider the original NES a monster success. It singlehandedly revitalized the American market. You even had parents who loved Super Mario Brothers.

 

[WordAssassin]

Wait, so they put gray joycons in the box for neon joycons?

Yep :|

Whats with the cherry picking? This thread is about GameStop a US retail store and you post an article about European shortages?

It was just the first result I saw where Sony admitted that they were experiencing shortages which you said was not the case, I just stopped looking after that but they absolutely had shortages in the US too. They're having them right now with the PS4Pro and PSVR but let's ignore that because?? You wanna really argue semantics then why are we even talking about Sony at all in a thread about GameStop's Nintendo Switch stock availability? Maybe we should both drop it so we don't drift further off topic and get in trouble? I've never been banned before and I'd prefer to keep it that way to be honest ):

 

[Asd202]

Switch shipped 2.74 million in 28 days, PS4 shipped 4.2 million in 1.5 months, and PS4 was the best selling launch ever. So, these numbers are indeed insane, as they keep pace with the fastest selling launch ever. And all that coming off of the Wii U so it would make sense for them to be conservative.

4.2 million is sold through it shipped 4.5 millon and it was 1.5 month in US and a month in EU, asia mid December, no Japan until Feb. Anyway the system is a huge succes in NA.

 

[milanbaros]

Nintendo were, rightly, simply cautious on production. You can't press a button to double production. The supply chain, production and distribution for a global product like the switch is extremely complex.

Nintendo will have been ramping up from day 1 and will be producing as many as possible.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Wait, so they put gray joycons in the box for neon joycons?

somebody probably bought the same set of Neon Joy-Con and switched out the Grey that came with their console before returning

Yep :|

Were they brand spankin' new or did they look like someone's used Joy-Con?

 

[Servbot24]

I'd call only the Wii and DS monster successes, only the Wii U and Virtual Boy miserable failures.

Gamecube was a bit of a failure too. A permanent price drop to $99 sure as hell doesn't come from a position of strength. I wouldn't call it miserable though.

Everything else was a definite successful product, but not a monster. Jury is out on Switch.

GameCube was certainly a miserable failure imo. Amazing console. But very poor sales and irreversible damage to Nintendo's brand.

N64 was pretty middling I thought. Not a failure, but definitely not great for them. I'd also say 3DS was a success but not a monster success.

 

[Zedark]

4.2 million is sold through it shipped 4.5 millon and it was 1.5 month in US and a month in EU, asia mid December, no Japan until Feb.

I see, corrected the shipped number.

The argument is not which did better between Switch and PS4, the argument is whether Switch shipped a lot, which they did since they are close to the fastest sold system at launch. Therefore the regions shipped to don't really matter in this regard.

 

[darkstar0155]

Switch shipped 2.74 million in 28 days, PS4 shipped 4.5 million in 1.5 months, and PS4 was the best selling launch ever. So, these numbers are indeed insane, as they keep pace quite closely with the fastest selling launch ever. And all that coming off of the Wii U so it would make sense for them to be conservative.

And didn't the PS4 launch during the holidays? Much easier to just predict that there will be high demand during the holidays than releasing in March.

 

[Zedark]

And didn't the PS4 launch during the holidays? Much easier to just predict that there will be high demand during the holidays than releasing in March.

Yup, that's true. That is countered again by the fact that the PS4 didn't ship to all regions at launch, but the Switch did a great Job at launch no matter how you look at it.

 

[Living Proof]

Wait, so they put gray joycons in the box for neon joycons?

It's much more likely that it was a return item and that a customer swapped their gray joycons. That or an employee, to a lesser degree. I can't imagine the factory producing both joycon colors together and packaging them in the same area.

If the packaging looks unopened (and the joycon packaging is easy to open without damaging it with a little finesse), and the customer tells the employee that it was unopened, they'll put it in the pile of merchandise that goes back to its original department and put back on sale.

Edit: I should add that certain items will get opened regardless to check for fraud, especially in areas with high returns or a track record of things like re-shrinkwrapped games, but it's not exactly common everywhere for a $40-80 purchase.

 

[Hoho for breakfast]

Whats with the cherry picking? This thread is about GameStop a US retail store and you post an article about European shortages?

The PS4 was out of stock all over in the US at times. I remember when Amazon would get stock you could put like 9,999 in your cart and keep entering a high number like that to watch the pace they were selling at since if you put in too many, it would tell you something like "sorry, there are only X available PS4s".

 

[WordAssassin]

somebody probably bought the same set of Neon Joy-Con and switched out the Grey that came with their console before returning

Were they brand spankin' new or did they look like someone's used Joy-Con?

As far as I could tell they were brand spanking new. The little clear stickers on the sides of the box top didn't look like they'd been messed with, cut, or reapplied. It was the only set they had in their system and it wasn't a return, they had literally just gotten them in this morning, it wasn't even on the shelf yet it was in a cart that they use to bring out new products from the back, the guy was scanning stuff to put on the shelf when I walked up.

I had considered an employee swap shenanigan but then, why wouldn't the employee just buy the Neon set? What's the point of putting the Neon JoyCons into a Gray box when they could have just bought the Neon box? Unless somewhere in the back room is an empty Gray JoyCon box, and the Neon JoyCons I tried to buy got pocketed? That could have happened too I guess but like I said from what I could tell, the box was 100% brand new unopened.

 

[UltimaPooh]

It was just the first result I saw where Sony admitted that they were experiencing shortages which you said was not the case, I just stopped looking after that but they absolutely had shortages in the US too. They're having them right now with the PS4Pro and PSVR but let's ignore that because?? You wanna really argue semantics then why are we even talking about Sony at all in a thread about GameStop's Nintendo Switch stock availability eh?

I mean if you're gonna refute what I say then you might want to be accurate​ with your sources.

But yeah PS4 did have shortages I wasn't trying to be revisionist I just remember people being able to get them.

As for Pro and VR... That's a different beast as they are revisions on a console not an initial console launch.

Anyway my thoughts on the Switch is that it's too early to tell anything on it and that Nintendo still has a lot of leg work between Wii U and the Switch being a success.

Good article on it.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4059091-realistic-look-nintendo-switch-sales

 

[Lexxism]

Personally i find nintendo baffling. They should just make their incredible software for playstation. They are so stuck in their ways and seemingly ok with taking the money people will give them instead of trying anything new and potentially making much more.

Taking port begging to a different new ways.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

I see, corrected the shipped number.

The argument is not which did better between Switch and PS4, the argument is whether Switch shipped a lot, which they did since they are close to the fastest sold system at launch. Therefore the regions shipped to don't really matter in this regard.

3DS first shipment was 3.6 million and WiiU was something around 3.5 million iirc.

Comparing to PS4 is silly, as Sony shipped 4.5 million in 1.5 months, without Asia/Japan and the 7.5 million by the end of the FY (4.5 months). They had to meet the demand of two consecutive months of 1 million+ in US alone.

Nintendo under shipped even when comparing their previous launches.

 

[xeroborn55]

I wonder if we'll see you post in here again or run as we all 😂

Nah I'll stick around. I like discussing video game business.

What I meant by 'take the money people will give them' in my original post is that they are willing to leave money on the table due to restrictions in their supply/production chain. That wasnt worded well, I was on my phone and didnt go back and reword it. To me, Nintendo has such a short sighted view on their business and it drives me crazy. They make very few concessions to reaching new fans, and when someone is potentially interested in one of their consoles its such a pain to find one. I'm past the point in my life where I'm going to go stand in line for a console, or spend time refreshing amazon hoping for a restock.

I understand that the switch will be supply constrained at launch. I'm referring also to the 3ds/nes mini at christmas. I was willing to buy 3 of 3ds's, but despite a fair amount of effort could not find one. Nintendo doesn't consider that they could gain new customers that will buy software and accessories, and might even be more interested in a switch if they got back in with nintendo on the 3ds. No. 3ds was impossible to find and they lost out on that money +games+accessories for me and my neice and nephew plus they pissed me off.

The actual games are another issue for me. I will freely admit nintendo makes awesome games. I understand why nintendo makes their own console (not having to pay a platform commision to sony and microsoft). I get it. I think its dumb. You're stuck with another console that is underpowered compared to the competition and severely lacking in third party games to play. Buying a console for the handful of nintendo games that come out in a year is just not appealing to me.

I also think the games themselves, while well-made, are so safe. I'm sure BotW is great, but jesus fucking christ, i played ocarina of time when i was 12. I'm not buying a new console for that. Arms, mario kart, smash, mario. None of those are worth a new console, especially when those are really the majority of games that are available to play. Arent smash and mario kart just ports of the wii u versions anyway? There's indie games though!!! I've got a beefy pc and a ps4. I don't need another indie machine.

I can already hear the BotW defense force incoming. I'm not dismissing it outright. It got a 97 or whatever metacritic for a reason. Its not going to sell ME a system. I've played zelda for 25 years. I want something new. They did a bunch of cool things with it sure, but at the end of the day its still zelda...

I think my overall point and sort of where everything i've said leads is that Nintendo caters to their fans. That's fine. From all accounts the switch is a pretty cool console. But they do nothing for people that aren't fans.

All that said, I'm super curious what retro is working on. If its a platformer... well i'm out for sure. If its something interesting like metroid prime, they will have my interest.

 

[Peterc]

Yes. This.

The people expecting third party games crack me up too. MAYBE the reason third parties arent there is that there are almost 100 million xbones and ps4 already sold. Why would a third party make games for a platform that has 1 or 2 percent of the install base and historically doesnt give 2 shits about third parties? Besides the fact that modern games cant be ported to the switch. The big announced third party game is skyrim!

Personally i find nintendo baffling. They should just make their incredible software for playstation. They are so stuck in their ways and seemingly ok with taking the money people will give them instead of trying anything new and potentially making much more.

You make me laugh. If you play for high end gfx. Choose pc and not a console. For the rest ps4 and xbox does the same. One of them need to change or they will die. Nintendo has always been unique and keeps the industry alive. Without them we would have a really boring game industry with only realistic linear gfx games. Sega died because of going 3rd party, another reason why your comment is a stupid idea.

 

[darkstar0155]

I mean if you're gonna refute what I say then you might want to be accurate​ with your sources.

But yeah PS4 did have shortages I wasn't trying to be revisionist I just remember people being able to get them.

As for Pro and VR... That's a different beast as they are revisions on a console not an initial console launch.

Anyway my thoughts on the Switch is that it's too early to tell anything on it and that Nintendo still has a lot of leg work between Wii U and the Switch being a success.

Good article on it.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4059091-realistic-look-nintendo-switch-sales

I don't understand your argument. PS4 was supply constrained too, and yes people could still get them. Same for the switch. Do you agree that sony mismanaged production of the PS4 at launch too then? Cause it the same situation in both cases. If anything sony is even more at fault for it since they were launching in a known sales season, and coming off of a successful product.

I agree that its too early to tell how the switch will pan out in the long run. All evidence points to it being much more of a success than the Wii U and will probably outsell that system in 1-1.5 years. Will it sell 50mil+ is mostly educated guesswork, but as of right now its looking very possible.

 

[MCN]

Taking port begging to a different new ways.

Sadly not different, or new.

 

[Kissenkopf]

Nah I'll stick around. I like discussing video game business.

What I meant by 'take the money people will give them' in my original post is that they are willing to leave money on the table due to restrictions in their supply/production chain. That wasnt worded well, I was on my phone and didnt go back and reword it. To me, Nintendo has such a short sighted view on their business and it drives me crazy. They make very few concessions to reaching new fans, and when someone is potentially interested in one of their consoles its such a pain to find one. I'm past the point in my life where I'm going to go stand in line for a console, or spend time refreshing amazon hoping for a restock.

I understand that the switch will be supply constrained at launch. I'm referring also to the 3ds/nes mini at christmas. I was willing to buy 3 of 3ds's, but despite a fair amount of effort could not find one. Nintendo doesn't consider that they could gain new customers that will buy software and accessories, and might even be more interested in a switch if they got back in with nintendo on the 3ds. No. 3ds was impossible to find and they lost out on that money +games+accessories for me and my neice and nephew plus they pissed me off.

The actual games are another issue for me. I will freely admit nintendo makes awesome games. I understand why nintendo makes their own console (not having to pay a platform commision to sony and microsoft). I get it. I think its dumb. You're stuck with another console that is underpowered compared to the competition and severely lacking in third party games to play. Buying a console for the handful of nintendo games that come out in a year is just not appealing to me.

I also think the games themselves, while well-made, are so safe. I'm sure BotW is great, but jesus fucking christ, i played ocarina of time when i was 12. I'm not buying a new console for that. Arms, mario kart, smash, mario. None of those are worth a new console, especially when those are really the majority of games that are available to play. Arent smash and mario kart just ports of the wii u versions anyway? There's indie games though!!! I've got a beefy pc and a ps4. I don't need another indie machine.

I can already hear the BotW defense force incoming. I'm not dismissing it outright. It got a 97 or whatever metacritic for a reason. Its not going to sell ME a system. I've played zelda for 25 years. I want something new. They did a bunch of cool things with it sure, but at the end of the day its still zelda...

I think my overall point and sort of where everything i've said leads is that Nintendo caters to their fans. That's fine. From all accounts the switch is a pretty cool console. But they do nothing for people that aren't fans.

All that said, I'm super curious what retro is working on. If its a platformer... well i'm out for sure. If its something interesting like metroid prime, they will have my interest.

You write so much and nearly all of it is bullshit. Sorry...Zelda isn't the same as the game you played 25 years ago.
The Switch is praised by a lot of people who ARENT Nintendo fans.
And you say no game is worth a new console...you can say that about any console if you dont like the games. It has nothing to do with Nintendo, it has to do with your taste of games. Don't blame Nintendo for making pretty good games you don't like.
Nintendo knows pretty good what they are doing and gets praise from EVERYWHERE for the way their marketing works these days.
But just try to say it isnt so because you feel that way...even if it is just plain wrong. None of your arguments were right or even plausible.

 

[Kilrogg]

I'd call only the Wii and DS monster successes, only the Wii U and Virtual Boy miserable failures.

Gamecube was a bit of a failure too. A permanent price drop to $99 sure as hell doesn't come from a position of strength. I wouldn't call it miserable though.

Everything else was a definite successful product, but not a monster. Jury is out on Switch.

I don't how you wouldn't consider the original NES a monster success. It singlehandedly revitalized the American market. You even had parents who loved Super Mario Brothers.

Don't forget the Game Boy. It and the NES were arguably even more significant than the PS1 and PS2 in the grand scheme of things, despite the lower raw sales numbers.

 

[CronoShot]

Nah I'll stick around. I like discussing video game business.

What I meant by 'take the money people will give them' in my original post is that they are willing to leave money on the table due to restrictions in their supply/production chain. That wasnt worded well, I was on my phone and didnt go back and reword it. To me, Nintendo has such a short sighted view on their business and it drives me crazy. They make very few concessions to reaching new fans, and when someone is potentially interested in one of their consoles its such a pain to find one. I'm past the point in my life where I'm going to go stand in line for a console, or spend time refreshing amazon hoping for a restock.

I understand that the switch will be supply constrained at launch. I'm referring also to the 3ds/nes mini at christmas. I was willing to buy 3 of 3ds's, but despite a fair amount of effort could not find one. Nintendo doesn't consider that they could gain new customers that will buy software and accessories, and might even be more interested in a switch if they got back in with nintendo on the 3ds. No. 3ds was impossible to find and they lost out on that money +games+accessories for me and my neice and nephew plus they pissed me off.

The actual games are another issue for me. I will freely admit nintendo makes awesome games. I understand why nintendo makes their own console (not having to pay a platform commision to sony and microsoft). I get it. I think its dumb. You're stuck with another console that is underpowered compared to the competition and severely lacking in third party games to play. Buying a console for the handful of nintendo games that come out in a year is just not appealing to me.

I also think the games themselves, while well-made, are so safe. I'm sure BotW is great, but jesus fucking christ, i played ocarina of time when i was 12. I'm not buying a new console for that. Arms, mario kart, smash, mario. None of those are worth a new console, especially when those are really the majority of games that are available to play. Arent smash and mario kart just ports of the wii u versions anyway? There's indie games though!!! I've got a beefy pc and a ps4. I don't need another indie machine.

I can already hear the BotW defense force incoming. I'm not dismissing it outright. It got a 97 or whatever metacritic for a reason. Its not going to sell ME a system. I've played zelda for 25 years. I want something new. They did a bunch of cool things with it sure, but at the end of the day its still zelda...

I think my overall point and sort of where everything i've said leads is that Nintendo caters to their fans. That's fine. From all accounts the switch is a pretty cool console. But they do nothing for people that aren't fans.

All that said, I'm super curious what retro is working on. If its a platformer... well i'm out for sure. If its something interesting like metroid prime, they will have my interest.

If you knew the slightest thing about BotW, it's that it's almost nothing like any previous game in the series. That's why people are so excited for it. Because it's so drastically different.

 

[Tripon]

Yes. This.

The people expecting third party games crack me up too. MAYBE the reason third parties arent there is that there are almost 100 million xbones and ps4 already sold. Why would a third party make games for a platform that has 1 or 2 percent of the install base and historically doesnt give 2 shits about third parties? Besides the fact that modern games cant be ported to the switch. The big announced third party game is skyrim!

Personally i find nintendo baffling. They should just make their incredible software for playstation. They are so stuck in their ways and seemingly ok with taking the money people will give them instead of trying anything new and potentially making much more.

How much more?

 

[CaviarMeths]

I don't how you wouldn't consider the original NES a monster success. It singlehandedly revitalized the American market. You even had parents who loved Super Mario Brothers.

You're right. Market was much smaller back then.

GameCube was certainly a miserable failure imo. Amazing console. But very poor sales and irreversible damage to Nintendo's brand.

N64 was pretty middling I thought. Not a failure, but definitely not great for them. I'd also say 3DS was a success but not a monster success.

The reason why I don't consider the Gamecube a miserable failure is because I don't think it lost them any money. It's hard to say for sure since the GBA was doing the heavy lifting that gen. If they did lose money on the Gamecube, I will concede that that too was pretty miserable.

N64 was a failure of brand image for Nintendo, for sure. Didn't help that Sony came along, styled all over them, and made them look like clowns for sticking with ROM cartridges. As a product in a bubble though, it did alright.

 

[NimbusD]

3DS first shipment was 3.6 million and WiiU was something around 3.5 million iirc.

Comparing to PS4 is silly, as Sony shipped 4.5 million in 1.5 months, without Asia/Japan and the 7.5 million by the end of the FY (4.5 months). They had to meet the demand of two consecutive months of 1 million+ in US alone.

Nintendo under shipped even when comparing their previous launches.

They also launched during the holidays. And in spite of that, the switch is the fastest selling. It's not like they did anything horrible here, it makes sense.

 

[UltimaPooh]

I don't understand your argument. PS4 was supply constrained too, and yes people could still get them. Same for the switch. Do you agree that sony mismanaged production of the PS4 at launch too then? Cause it the same situation in both cases. If anything sony is even more at fault for it since they were launching in a known sales season, and coming off of a successful product.

I don't think they did. I think they did the best as it was the fastest selling and they have 4.5 million in 1.5 months. Nintendo is sitting at 2.7. Nintendo read it wrong. Maybe demand is really there that matches that of PS4 but there is no way to tell anymore.

 

[Zedark]

3DS first shipment was 3.6 million and WiiU was something around 3.5 million iirc.

Comparing to PS4 is silly, as Sony shipped 4.5 million in 1.5 months, without Asia/Japan and the 7.5 million by the end of the FY (4.5 months). They had to meet the demand of two consecutive months of 1 million+ in US alone.

Nintendo under shipped even when comparing their previous launches.

Comparing with 3DS and Wii U doesn't make sense either, since both systems sold so badly that their shipments in the next quarter were virtually non-existent. Both times Nintendo shipped a lot (only 3DS is more than Switch out of those two examples btw) and suffered during the next quarter, so it's hardly surprising they aimed more conservative with Switch - and even then they got big numbers out.

 

[Aostia]

Mk selling like crazy driving also he sales!
Nice relaxing do should go third party their consoles are a failure


Lol

 

[darkstar0155]

You're right. Market was much smaller back then.



The reason why I don't consider the Gamecube a miserable failure is because I don't think it lost them any money. It's hard to say for sure since the GBA was doing the heavy lifting that gen. If they did lose money on the Gamecube, I will concede that that too was pretty miserable.

N64 was a failure of brand image for Nintendo, for sure. Didn't help that Sony came along, styled all over them, and made them look like clowns for sticking with ROM cartridges. As a product in a bubble though, it did alright.

Im pretty sure I remember that Nintendo made more money off of the gamecube, profit wise, than sony did with the PS2, despite selling insane amounts more.

 

[WordAssassin]

I mean if you're gonna refute what I say then you might want to be accurate​ with your sources.

But yeah PS4 did have shortages I wasn't trying to be revisionist I just remember people being able to get them.

As for Pro and VR... That's a different beast as they are revisions on a console not an initial console launch.

Anyway my thoughts on the Switch is that it's too early to tell anything on it and that Nintendo still has a lot of leg work between Wii U and the Switch being a success.

Good article on it.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4059091-realistic-look-nintendo-switch-sales

I mean, I said that the link I posted was from Europe, I wasn't... trying to pass off European shortages... as American? In my defense I didn't think you meant ONLY the US either, in retrospect as you said we are in a thread about GameStop which is a US company but then I didn't really sleep last night since I spent the night in my car trying to get some fucking controllers for my Switch and that didn't really turn out like I thought it would haha dammit!

The point, in general though, was that the PS4 did in fact have shortages. If anything my posting a link about Sony's press release about said shortages being European only further demonstrates how strapped the world was for PS4s. Saying it doesn't apply to the PS4Pro or PSVR feels a little like goalpost moving but I also understand the aspect of launch shortages VS revision/add-on shortages. Despite the fact that PSVR is apparently "its own platform" or whatever Sony said about it, and the PS4Pro is a bit more than just a cosmetic revision (but also not a new platform since it isn't allowed to have exclusives).

Thank you for that link, I'll give it a look once I've got some sleep and my brain is rested and in better working order >__< I should probably bow out until I sleep more or something X_X

 

[koss424]

3DS first shipment was 3.6 million and WiiU was something around 3.5 million iirc.

Comparing to PS4 is silly, as Sony shipped 4.5 million in 1.5 months, without Asia/Japan and the 7.5 million by the end of the FY (4.5 months). They had to meet the demand of two consecutive months of 1 million+ in US alone.

Nintendo under shipped even when comparing their previous launches.

This is not a fact. Both PS4 and Switch both launched with 2 million consoles. So far we only sales numbers for the Switch for March

 

[UltimaPooh]

They also launched during the holidays. And in spite of that, the switch is the fastest selling. It's not like they did anything horrible here, it makes sense.

Fastest selling Nintendo console. Sony is still king.

 

[elohel]

As I said before, lack of stocks will impact MK8D performance, let's hope it'll be resolved soon enough.

Why wasn't the same said for zelda?

early stages of console sales boil down to attatchment rate

People don't lose interest in a console simply because it isn't available if that's what you meant?

 

[Principate]

Fastest selling Nintendo console. Sony is still king.

Over the period of 2-3 years the Wii is still king.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Besides the fact that modern games cant be ported to the switch.

What is your definition of a 'modern game', lol

 

[SporeCrawler]

If you knew the slightest thing about BotW, it's that it's almost nothing like any previous game in the series. That's why people are so excited for it. Because it's so drastically different.

its also what i hated about it. green tunic defense force assemble

Over the period of 2-3 years the Wii is still king.

https://youtu.be/vyufDxxWIsM

 

[sinonobu]

Everyone pack it up!

Sony is the king and Switch is obviously failure!

Zelda BOTW is PS2 game that is not system seller.

Spoiler

/s

 

[Milly Osworth]

MArio Kart will sell like crazy &#128576;