Again, nonsense. Look at what people are paying for this from scalpers. They can probably charge 100 for this and get away with selling the same amount. If this is the case, that they arent turning a profit, thats completely STILL on them for not understanding how to sell this and market it, profitably.
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Klepek: Don't Reward Nintendo For This SNES Classic Pre-Order Bullshit
- Thread starter LordOfLore
- Start date
Again, nonsense. Look at what people are paying for this from scalpers. They can probably charge 100 for this and get away with selling the same amount. If this is the case, that they arent turning a profit, thats completely STILL on them for not understanding how to sell this and market it, profitably.
bobawesome
Member
He'd be singing a different tune if he managed to get a SNES Classic. But I agree that the way they handle preorders for these systems reeks of incompetence.
For all we know they could be making these things as fast as they possibly can.
Trust me, I want one of these bad, the SNES was my childhood, and I missed out on the pre-orders. I'm just as annoyed as everyone else, but there is a lot more to business then "make more."
outunderthestars
Banned
Again, the issue isn't the amount of launch units, but the forced short lifespan of the product by announcing that it will only be available until the end of the year.
It's a lot easier for a company to ignore a petty, angry rant than a thoroughly researched article that points out everything they're doing wrong.
I mean my personal frustration over not getting one today is really besides the frustration I feel over how poorly this company is handling one of the hottest and most sought after video game commodities in quite some time. If they can't determine the costs of production relative to turn a profit with an item that people are buying out in less than a minute (and this is now year 2 where thats happening with a similar item, perhaps even more sought after), thats still on them for not having people "who are smarter than us" making these decisions.
Yeah but people like you are getting the shaft here. The only game on the system that I feel that way about is SF2. But I know it's pointless since it was more about paying against my friends.
shoryukens
Member
Love hearing Nintendo defense force come out and say the article is clickbait when it's actually 100% truth.
Nintendo delibaretly said they were going to avoid the snes from becoming a shit show and did the exact opposite by fucking over anyone who has a life from getting one. They let retailers unlock preorders at random/inconvient times, they let scaplers buy as many units as they want even when we heard reports of the opposite, they let retailers bundle overpriced junk to their product to remove inventory, and they simply won't stock enough units because they want to drive that ravenous desire towards their hardware. They do it with amiibo, with the Switch; they did it with the NES classic and now this. The worst part is that they get away with it. If this was any other company they would have been shreded to pieces by the bad publicity.
Fuck Nintendo. And I say that as a huge Nintendo since 1996.
Nintendo delibaretly said they were going to avoid the snes from becoming a shit show and did the exact opposite by fucking over anyone who has a life from getting one. They let retailers unlock preorders at random/inconvient times, they let scaplers buy as many units as they want even when we heard reports of the opposite, they let retailers bundle overpriced junk to their product to remove inventory, and they simply won't stock enough units because they want to drive that ravenous desire towards their hardware. They do it with amiibo, with the Switch; they did it with the NES classic and now this. The worst part is that they get away with it. If this was any other company they would have been shreded to pieces by the bad publicity.
Fuck Nintendo. And I say that as a huge Nintendo since 1996.
I have no idea why they keep doing this it makes no sense.
Team Filler
Member
Nintendo is a company that seemingly finds it easy to ignore anything, and I expect nearly zero logic from their business decisions. Just look at stuff like the Switch voice-chat situation (I refuse to believe there weren't people internally arguing against the current implementation).
Booker Dewitt
Member
Been listening to the dude for years, he may not have post as emotional of a article in the hypothetical, but he probably would've mentioned how shitty the process of actually getting one is.
ErasureAcer
Banned
The problem is Nintendo making a limited run...which just stokes the fire of people going to extremes and scalpers running amok.
These need to have a console life cycle. 4-6 years they should be producing these. Instead they just make it 4-6 months and there's not enough made.
Nintendo isnt very loyal to their fans. They're seriously ass backwards.
I'd buy a NES mini if I could find one. But no, they pulled it. Never saw it. It's ridiculous.
These need to have a console life cycle. 4-6 years they should be producing these. Instead they just make it 4-6 months and there's not enough made.
Nintendo isnt very loyal to their fans. They're seriously ass backwards.
I'd buy a NES mini if I could find one. But no, they pulled it. Never saw it. It's ridiculous.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
If they really wanted to satisfy demand instead of making this an extremely limited item then they should:
Make X more where X equals the number of preorders they took say... 5 months ago in a hypothetical alternate Earth.
Professor Beef
Banned
So because YOU couldn't get one, that means they aren't loyal to their fans, despite several fans obtaining one?
Alternatively: don't discontinue a highly sought after product. I wouldn't care half as much about the number of units for first shipment if I knew I could get one down the road.
Lol are you serious with this post?
This doesn't really work. Scalpers don't have a limit if there is even a hint of limits, you'd just have more pictures of people ordering 100+ consoles each.
Not having it limited to X date would do a lot more because scalpers don't have a date of EoP for a limited product.
neurosisxeno
Member
Jesus, is Nintendo paying you to promote them so hard?
Gentleman Jack
Member
Well as long as several people are happy there couldn't possibly be a legitimate grievance.
This whole "if (insert person) got one then (insert person) would be saying something different" thing is some straight bullshit. Are people new to Patrick or something? Hell, I was able to preorder 2 SNES classics and I'm saying it's some straight bullshit. This is clearly on Nintendo and it's not like it's anything new for them. We know how they operate. The only thing they're not lacking in stock are obsessed fans defending their fuck ups.
RoninChaos
Member
I'd also point out that through Nintendo pulling this shit you bought three consoles instead of one. So they got $240+ out of you rather than just the 80. And yet people here on the Nintendo Corporate Ball washing team want to act like Nintendo isn't making money or that people should stop complaining, that Nintendo isn't manipulating its consumers, etc. GTFO with that shit. People in this very thread have mentioned they've tried to get two or more just for the perceived rarity. Nintendo is doing this because of what you guys are doing and what's frustrating is that people on this forum (not you, but others) have refused to call them on this shit or acknowledge this has been Nintendo's MO for years.
I do not understand how people can defend this horse shit. Fuck Nintendo.
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Exactly.
Nobody should have to use bots, refresh store-pages every 10 seconds, or sacrifice goats in order to purchase this fucking thing.
Professor Beef
Banned
That's my 2nd post in this whole thread, and I'd hardly call either of them defenses. I think the situation is dumb as fuck, and nobody has any larger reason to hate the NES Classic than me, but saying "NINTENDO HATES THEIR FANS" because you couldn't get something is dumb as hell.
Dammit I knew I forgot to do something.
You do realize him not getting one is part of a much larger problem, yes?
Team Filler
Member
In my defense for preordering more than one, the second US preorder (Amazon) was in case my first preorder (bestbuy) got cancelled like what happened with Walmart. Once we get close to release I'll either cancel the extras or sell them at cost to friends that want one.
I wish I didn't feel compelled to go these lengths to give my money to Nintendo (whose games I love), and I imagine that's what really irks Patrick here as well.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
I like how he goes from "while I was sleeping", "while someone was changing my oil" to "I quit", literally zero effort.
Get less sleep bro. Should've been on his cell phone while he was letting another person change his oil for him.
Get less sleep bro. Should've been on his cell phone while he was letting another person change his oil for him.
Professor Beef
Banned
I never said it was or wasn't a problem, just that his reasoning was faulty.
How are people defending Nintendo on this? They knew full-well the demand that this product was going to have. They easily could've mitigated this by having a pre-order period and basing production of units on that alone. The demand clearly outweighs the supply, as was the case with the NES Classic. I'm aware that they have no obligation to make more than they want to, but what's the point in messing with the fanbase? These are clearly profitable, and Nintendo is playing dumb about it.
Professor Beef
Banned
The only thing that makes sense is that they want it to be a limited-edition thing. It's dumb as hell, sure, but it's more plausible than anything else.
E_Darkness
Member
I forgot I even preordered it until all this noise came about.
I'm excited to play the trilogy of RPGs that didn't come out in Europe.
I'm excited to play the trilogy of RPGs that didn't come out in Europe.
Booker Dewitt
Member
Sorry this dude has a existence outside of video game consumerism?
RoninChaos
Member
I wasn't attacking you,just pointing out that Nintendos absolutely horrid handling of this is why you did that in the first place. They create additional demand through scarcity. It's not a coincidence this is happening AGAIN. If you could just buy one and know it was secure you would have bought just one. But you got three because what if one gets cancelled because a vendor can't honor pre orders because they over sold? And they only reason that happens is because Nintendo under produces, which is what some people in this thread swear is not happening. It's bullshit. And it's even more baffling that so many people here are willing to excuse Nintendo for this kind of shit.
Team Filler
Member
I know you weren't attacking, I just feel sheepish because so many others haven't had the chance to even grab one and thought I'd explain myself. It is absolutely bullshit, I agree, it's entirely on Nintendo.
shotgunbob04
Member
Exactly this. It's amazing how people are missing his point.
If Nintendo announced a week or two in advance a date and time that preorders for each retailer would go live, then it would be a much fairer ordeal for everyone who wants to buy a system. It would give people enough advance notice to be able to set aside ten minutes of their day to at least attempt to preorder. The only people who would hate this sensible idea are the ones setting up bots to scalp the random retailer preorder openings.
His reasoning and example are a single instance of the larger problem, not simply because he wasnt able to get it.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with his closing sentiment. People want to pay Nintendo for their products but they make it a pain in the ass to do and thats on them.
Just saying, if it were me sitting in a room with strangers sipping free coffee and waiting for an oil change, I would be on the internet looking around for info as often as possible; especially if I knew something I was looking forward to buying that sells quickly was absolutely going on sale today. For pre-orders of such demand, they definitely had some hang-time of availability compared to other fast selling items (though typically other products don't have an inherent manufacturing rarity almost assured).
Booker Dewitt
Member
The thread titles on here joked about it being gone in fifteen seconds. Just because you would've valued your time differently in a such a small window differently doesn't mean that you need to disparage someone else who's main point you agree with.
Exactly, or do Nintendo choose when companies do their preorders?
Booker Dewitt
Member
You're asking this as if they possibly can't.
In general there's a really weird attitude amongst gamers when it comes to companies, like somehow they're invested in their practices and take on a pseudo PR role for them.
There's little reason in an age where you can arrange for preorders at the click of a button not to have a financial and industrial arrangement to meet the majority of demand.
Stop thinking like fans and collectors and start thinking like consumers. If there's a product on the market, it should be easy for you to purchase. Limited editions shouldn't refer to the quantity available but the period of time it's available. By all means make something for a few months then phase it out, leaving a standard edition - I get that you can't produce everything forever, there are choices to be made. But for the period something is available, why the fuck would you not try to fulfil demand? Especially when you don't allow for substitutions. Are there licenced NES Minis other than the official Nintendo one? No. Can you legally obtain NES and SNES games on the latest machine? No. Do Nintendo have a history for preserving your digital purchases? No.
Its not just Nintendo, companies big and small take the piss out of us all the time and we enable them because we buy regardless of the business practices. I've been vocal on here regarding similar attitudes with a smaller company and many were arguing that you should take into account the size of their operations. It doesn't matter because the attitude is the same. There are plenty of solutions to gauge and meet demand.
Allow for sign ups and preorders for a certain period of time, say 2-4 weeks plus more copies for general sale. All the fans get to release their pent up demand straight away, allowing companies to work on meeting those requests then they can produce for the general market based on their projections and targets. Right now all it does is piss people off and sours you on the brands.
Obviously Nintendo have me hard considering I own a Switch and a SNES mini preorder so I'm just as hypocritical but I draw the line at scalpers and I think we'd go a long way to solving part of the problem by refusing to deal with these parasites.
We need more journalists to hold companies accountable for their shit consumer practices, from tiny production runs to preorder culture, from misleading PR/marketing to microtransactions and pay to win mechanics, and we need to stop enabling and rewarding them.
There's little reason in an age where you can arrange for preorders at the click of a button not to have a financial and industrial arrangement to meet the majority of demand.
Stop thinking like fans and collectors and start thinking like consumers. If there's a product on the market, it should be easy for you to purchase. Limited editions shouldn't refer to the quantity available but the period of time it's available. By all means make something for a few months then phase it out, leaving a standard edition - I get that you can't produce everything forever, there are choices to be made. But for the period something is available, why the fuck would you not try to fulfil demand? Especially when you don't allow for substitutions. Are there licenced NES Minis other than the official Nintendo one? No. Can you legally obtain NES and SNES games on the latest machine? No. Do Nintendo have a history for preserving your digital purchases? No.
Its not just Nintendo, companies big and small take the piss out of us all the time and we enable them because we buy regardless of the business practices. I've been vocal on here regarding similar attitudes with a smaller company and many were arguing that you should take into account the size of their operations. It doesn't matter because the attitude is the same. There are plenty of solutions to gauge and meet demand.
Allow for sign ups and preorders for a certain period of time, say 2-4 weeks plus more copies for general sale. All the fans get to release their pent up demand straight away, allowing companies to work on meeting those requests then they can produce for the general market based on their projections and targets. Right now all it does is piss people off and sours you on the brands.
Obviously Nintendo have me hard considering I own a Switch and a SNES mini preorder so I'm just as hypocritical but I draw the line at scalpers and I think we'd go a long way to solving part of the problem by refusing to deal with these parasites.
We need more journalists to hold companies accountable for their shit consumer practices, from tiny production runs to preorder culture, from misleading PR/marketing to microtransactions and pay to win mechanics, and we need to stop enabling and rewarding them.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Yup this works too. But Nintendo is the type of company that won't want to keep production lines open like that because it eats into the bottom line. That's why they discontinue this stuff.
Nintendo's strategy has always been to keep as few lines open as possible at any one time.
Maybe someone who knows more about this than me could answer, would it really have been unfeasible for Nintendo to say to retailers and consumers they'd honour all pre-orders/paid orders made within a certain timeframe (ie; until end of calendar 2017)?
Yeah sure people mightn't be happy if they have to wait for a few weeks or months as more are manufactured and shipped, but it's better than not getting one period. And wouldn't it have stopped this heated free for all and have seriously damaged scalpers ability to distort the market?
Yeah sure people mightn't be happy if they have to wait for a few weeks or months as more are manufactured and shipped, but it's better than not getting one period. And wouldn't it have stopped this heated free for all and have seriously damaged scalpers ability to distort the market?
Kaleinc
Banned
Reminds me of Jack London's The One Thousand Dozen and I want the same grand finale.
Apparently it's very salty.
TheSadRanger
Banned
Ya they could have done at least one more print run but we don't know the scheduling they have set up with the manufacturer. Which is Foxconn I'm assuming? I would assume runs are scheduled far ahead in time.
I agree with 1.
But with 2 it's still a shitty situation, so they give a retailer a couple thousand to meet increased demand. The retailer then posts it online which gets bombarded and maybe only goes to 10% that actually want it. The other 90% goes to scalpers running bots.
What is Nintendo supposed to do? It's not the retailers responsibility to ensure who they deem worthy to get the product. Neither is Nintendo because it's a very difficult problem to enforce.
edit: This purely anecdotal but I've talked to a ton of people about the SNES classic at work, outside (etc) and not that many people even know about it. It has zero appeal to the younger generation in their early 20s who never even owned a SNES and were born after it came out. I don't think the public demand for this is nearly what people think. It's high but it doesn't have near the buzz as the NES classic.
I think the scalper situation is making this far worse than people think.
Mr.Deadshot
Member
Too late, already preordered 3.
(seriously I wouldn't but my wife would be saddest person in the world if she doesn't get one. So I have to be sure.)
(seriously I wouldn't but my wife would be saddest person in the world if she doesn't get one. So I have to be sure.)
Booker Dewitt
Member
Poe's law like a motherfucker.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Yes you are right. At Foxconn runs are scheduled far ahead of time with all the price downs as time goes by already stated in the contract. Sony and MS tend to keep lines open for quite a while (read: years) while Nintendo is super shrewd and likes to contract a bare minimum I assume in the hopes that a competitor manufacturer can provide a more competitive price or in the case of stuff like the Classics, they are very afraid of contracting production lines for too long and eating into profits.
They should have put "limited" on the box...
Besides that, if it a "NES/SNES classic vs Switch" because of the difficulty to get memory (or even if it's in fear that the sales of the former could eat in the sales of the latter), I can understand the decision of a limited batch.
I'm not even sure that offer is lower than actual demand (after the NES situation, a LOT of people have probably preordered more than one to be safe if they could, and scalpers must have bought a huge part of the stock).
Even with NES, we discovered later that Amazon had hoarded stock.
Still, it's utterly annoying, and I wish Nintendo produced more. But I'm not totally sure it would have been the best move for them.