This. It's easier than making more of them. Just produce what you do now and sell them for what people are obviously willing to pay. Nintendo is just leaving money on the table with these prices.Sell them at a higher price.
Fair = I got one
Unfair = I didn't get one
This will be peoples opinion no matter what.
Producing enough to meet demand is the only thing they can do to make people think things are "fair".
Fair = I got one
Unfair = I didn't get one
This will be peoples opinion no matter what.
Producing enough to meet demand is the only thing they can do to make people think things are "fair".
Make more
I honestly think that posts like these have good intentions, but kind of ignore the reality of Nintendo's approach. If they wanted to combat scalpers, it's pretty clear that they have a number of options. The sad truth is that they honestly don't care about that second-hand market when the overall takeaway will be that people are thinking and talking about Nintendo products.
We can talk in our internet echo-chamber about how this is "bad press" for them, but that ignores the idea that "bad press" can still be good PR for your overall brand. It's literally a topic that we covered in "Marketing 101" in college...
Insane that there's any segment of people that think Nintendo isn't 100% at fault here. This is the stupidest mismanagement of a system I've seen, and it was easily predictable. But hey, they just love leaving money on the table.
I agree that they're leaving money on the table, but this is also a company that has nearly $9 billion in cash. They're being dicks about it, but I suspect that the SNES Classic represents a drop in the bucket for them.
First off this is much harder than it sounds
Secondly the very existence of scalpers distorts this because if you make exactly the amount of units as the number of people who want them, there will be a shortage since some people will buy several with the hopes of being able to jack up the prices
They could start by caring.
It's really simple. Between the time you announce a product and the time you release it, you allow every single person who has an account with your online store to put their name on a list, once.
When you actually know your shipment size, you randomly select X people from that list and email them to let them know they have 24 hours to commit to an order.
Whoever doesn't commit can go back into the pool, and you repeat until your shipment is sold out. If there's still more demand than supply, keep the pool and allow people to add themselves to it if they wish.
Pros:
Cons: (I guess?)
- Completely fair to people who actually sleep at night
- Much harder to game (unless they're willing to sign up for 100 accounts, scalpers are not going to get 100 chances)
- Doesn't require a retailer to invest in huge scale-up tests
I mean, am I missing anything?
- Solution has to be developed (but consider you're already spending a bunch on reliability engineering and scaling up just to handle the spikes)
- People who get the item from another retailer can still buy it from you and sell it on the secondary market
- No news stories about how nobody can buy the blasted thing
Off the top of my head I'd say more first come first serve in the stores, probably done in waves with a limit of one per customer in the store. Some managers are more diligent than others.
I say that knowing damn well certain stores follow that more loosely than others as well. I don't think Nintendo is legally obligated to meet a certain demand on their own products though as suggested by the OP. I wouldn't say that they shouldn't have released the NES Classic or the SNES Classic either.
I think this whole thing goes beyond just Nintendo products though, I think something probably needs to be done legally with scalpers. Its become a problem for everything from gaming, to concert tickets, to shoes. The bottom line is scalpers want to be paid for doing very little work and are rewarded with huge profits (or we wouldn't have this thread)
Society doesn't like them, how many times have you ever heard standing in line for something, "I'm gonna sell this" probably never as these guys are probably somewhat on edge that they'll get shit kicked.
I dunno maybe you make it illegal to use bots to buy up mass quantities of a product online (although "policing the internet has worked out great for anyone who's tried it so far) impose fines if you're caught scalping? (don't you guys do this in the states already?) those are only suggestions if you're doing something legally about the problem that is scalping. Another route is places like eBay stop allowing sales on stuff like this (then again eBay doesn't hate money either)
Off the top of my head I'd say more first come first serve in the stores, probably done in waves with a limit of one per customer in the store. Some managers are more diligent than others.
I say that knowing damn well certain stores follow that more loosely than others as well. I don't think Nintendo is legally obligated to meet a certain demand on their own products though as suggested by the OP. I wouldn't say that they shouldn't have released the NES Classic or the SNES Classic either.
I think this whole thing goes beyond just Nintendo products though, I think something probably needs to be done legally with scalpers. Its become a problem for everything from gaming, to concert tickets, to shoes. The bottom line is scalpers want to be paid for doing very little work and are rewarded with huge profits (or we wouldn't have this thread)
Society doesn't like them, how many times have you ever heard standing in line for something, "I'm gonna sell this" probably never as these guys are probably somewhat on edge that they'll get shit kicked.
I dunno maybe you make it illegal to use bots to buy up mass quantities of a product online (although "policing the internet has worked out great for anyone who's tried it so far) impose fines if you're caught scalping? (don't you guys do this in the states already?) those are only suggestions if you're doing something legally about the problem that is scalping. Another route is places like eBay stop allowing sales on stuff like this (then again eBay doesn't hate money either)
I bet you guys wish now that Nintendo had stuck to no preorders for SNES classic. At least scalpers can't horde 30 of them with their bots when you have to show up at a store.
Sure, so tell me what that number is. The problem is finding that answer in the middle isn't as simple as people want to make it out to be.
So you don't believe there's a relationship between a company and the retailer? Then explain why digital releases are the same price as physical ones despite the cost difference? It's not bullshit at all that game companies have always had to make sure not to screw over the retailer in the process.
Sure, so tell me what that number is. The problem is finding that answer in the middle isn't as simple as people want to make it out to be.
Make shit nobody actually wants? I guess that's one way to beat scalpers.The WiiU strategy. Scalpers were selling at regular price or lower the first week. Probably taking a loss if they paid for shipping too.
Partner with select retailers only. Those retailers must agree, contractually, to only sell 2 per credit card or person, buyers must present ID.
Sure there would still be people getting multiples, but no one would have a pallet of them.
For real lmaoNintendo doesn't give a fuck about scalpers.
Nintendo is so far from the number that this almost no longer works as a counter argument.
There are certainly ways to get closer to the number, as Nintendo and other companies are adept at making estimates for other products.
None of this is outside of the company's scope.
Tell me with a straight face that releasing only enough preorders that Amazon sold out within 20 seconds was Nintendo's good-faith best effort at matching supply with demand.
Just do preorders on a lottery system, one per person.
lol, ok fella.These things cost dick-all to make. It's probably an under $10 manufacturing cost.
You don't think this can be exploited
Just do preorders on a lottery system, one per person.
Require $5 to sign up for lottery, one entry per household and per credit card. Name on entry must match credit card and credit card address must match household address. Selected winners are automatically charged full price, no refunds.
$5 goes towards charity.
And when you go to pick up your system you have to present 3 forms of ID, a copy of today's newspaper and be able to name 5 characters from Earthbound.
You kidding? Scalpers are always happy to talk about thier methods, hauls, and profits when in line.
Next legislation you'd support would be 6 permitted haircuts?I would support legislation making it illegal to resell consumer electronics less than six months old, sealed in original packaging above MSRP. This would be in place to protect consumers from scalpers.
The First-sale Doctrine kind of makes this a thorny issue. An amendment would need to be made in order to define scalper-made purchases as either not lawful altogether (purchases of limited-quantity product with the intent to resell at a markup, or something along those lines), or to define them as waving any rights to ownership transfer with the exception of disposal. On the other hand, the issue could be brought to court and a judge could make a ruling on whether scalper-made purchases infringe on someone else's rights or that the sale isn't valid in some way.