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[malfcn]

Nintendo doesn't want the mini nes to outsell the Wii U in a single holiday season.

 

[Some Nobody]

The number of people who rush to Nintendo's defense is always amusing/mind-boggling. Like, there are people who get paid to be aware ofroughly how many people would want something like an NES Switch. That's what happens when you're a global company--you make sure you KNOW things like this.

 

[How About No]

Wait up. That NES classic monstrosity is SIXTY FUCKING DOLLARS?

Two dollars a game broski

 

[Novocaine]

The number of people who rush to Nintendo's defense is always amusing/mind-boggling. Like, there are people who get paid to be aware ofroughly how many people would want something like an NES Switch. That's what happens when you're a global company--you make sure you KNOW things like this.

Going off of this blunder I wouldn't be surprised if they threw a dart at a board and produced the number of units the dart landed on.

 

[Roto13]

"Artificial scarcity" doesn't actually make any sense. Hyping up customers doesn't do much if they have no way to actually buy your product from you. Especially something like the NES Mini, for which demand will plummet after Christmas. I don't believe Nintendo does it because it's too stupid a concept to begin with.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

I'll add another shortage that people have forgotten about Smash Brothers Gamecube controller adapter. Even a small Chinese company managed to ship more cloned units to the US then Nintendo.

 

[RurouniZel]

So let me see if I have this correct.

Nintendo ships more Wii units at launch than any console in history

Source: http://www.gameslave.co.uk/newscomm...=Wii-Launch-Biggest-Console-Launch-In-History

And continues production at full speed for almost a year to catch up with demand.

This is manufactured scarcity?

Nintendo realizing that this was a problem then tried to strengthen it's supply chains for the WiiU expecting it to sell the same gangbusters numbers as the Wii:

Source: http://www.genco.com/Logistics-Articles/article.php?aid=800872916

It did not sell well.

So when amiibos came out on the heels of a massive overproduction of WiiU consoles, what does a smart company do? They release a conservative number of figures putting out more of the characters that have historically proven popular. Seems reasonable.

OK, those sold way better than expected! Better make more when we launch the Animal Crossing ones (since animal crossing is a very popular game).

Again, there is a much bigger risk for overproduction and the conservative number might result in some lost sales but by over shipping relative to demand you risk losing a lot more money and causing retailer dissatisfaction.

I do not feel that Nintendo is "Manufacturing demand"I think they are just very poor at predicting demand. Also they should allow for more preorders of products they are unsure of demand for. They might be incompetent but I don't think they are purposely withholding anything.

Take the Famicom Mini. It sold a quarter of a million in it's first week in Japan. That is a crazy high number! It is hard to keep up with sales like that, or even predict sales that high.

And if we do feel there is malice in what Nintendo is doing I would like to point out that Playstation VR has been sold out for weeks. (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/10/13/sony-psvr-glasses-sell-out-japan ).

Is Sony also doing this just to screw with the customers? Or did they want to try to prevent the overstocking disasters they had with PSP Go and Vita TV? Or can they simply not make enough quick enough to meet demand?

I don't know. This feels like just another gripe about Nintendo thread..

And bingo was his name-o.

 

[FTF]

Wait up. That NES classic monstrosity is SIXTY FUCKING DOLLARS?

Too cheap or too expensive?

Would $50 have been better?

 

[Pif]

Nintendo doesn't want the mini nes to outsell the Wii U in a single holiday season.

I spilled my coffee.

Actually, with continued production, that could very well happen.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Is this the 'lazy devs' of hardware manufacturing?

I'm honestly kind of surprised this theory still pops up. I have never seen anyone with even an inkling of understanding of manufacturing logistics spout on about this.

 

[JayBabay]

With the way the NES Classic and N3DS Black/White Editions are generating insane amounts of hype to go along with the enormous sales of Pokemon, I'd say they can ride this to a huge launch of the Switch. The attention they are getting over this is crazy and I think it's going to play a huge part when the Switch comes out.

 

[shysaursoft]

Is this the 'lazy devs' of hardware manufacturing?

I'm honestly kind of surprised this theory still pops up. I have never seen anyone with even an inkling of understanding of manufacturing logistics spout on about this.

Nintendo's gotta be doomed somehow, or the whole universe might go out of balance. Today's doomed: "There's this thing I want but can't get, so Nintendo is doomed due to <conspiracy reasons>".

I can't wait for next week's reason Nintendo is doomed, or "bad at business", or whatever keeps threads like this afloat. Not to say the company doesn't misstep or make mistakes, but clickbait harvesters like Jim thrive off a culture of people wanting yet another reason to feel superior somehow in being 'on board' with the reasons du jour for Nintendo's most recent doomyness. Whatever makes him cash, I guess. Cult of personality's gotta eat.

 

[Beerman462]

I just want to say, my wife and daughter ensured my acquisition of this.

My daughters 10 and 16 love the Nes classic, specifically punch out and Kirby with no pressure from me.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Is this the 'lazy devs' of hardware manufacturing?

I'm honestly kind of surprised this theory still pops up. I have never seen anyone with even an inkling of understanding of manufacturing logistics spout on about this.

There's your answer right there. A majority of people are (and with good reason) not interested in manufacturing and marketing.

 

[mobilesworking]

I don't know. This feels like just another gripe about Nintendo thread..

The nail in the coffin!

 

[QisTopTier]

I just want to say, my wife and daughter ensured my acquisition of this.

My daughters 10 and 16 love the Nes classic, specifically punch out and Kirby with no pressure from me.

Mario, Punch out, tetris, and kirby are literally the best first timer games of all time.

They all build hand eye coordination and critical thinking on a super simple controller and are ALWAYS fun no matter your experience level

 

[ggx2ac]

The number of people who rush to Nintendo's defense is always amusing/mind-boggling. Like, there are people who get paid to be aware ofroughly how many people would want something like an NES Switch. That's what happens when you're a global company--you make sure you KNOW things like this.

Most people have been arguing about scarcity vs artificial scarcity. I haven't really seen people rush to Nintendo's defense unless it was to slag Jim.

Criticising Jim is fine, it goes too far if it's just to insult him.

There's nothing wrong with arguing about this either because we shouldn't just be taking everything at Jim's word. I'm finding it hard to take the side that this is NoA specifically underselling the NES Mini Classic to make it a hot commodity item considering there are numerous factors at play like how many units would retailers order, how much money would be spent having to store the hardware in a warehouse, Nintendo suffering from unsold Wii U stock or Animal Crossing Amiibos which lead them having to spend money on the retailers to keep the stock on shelf to prevent them from having to keep it in a warehouse, etc.

Yes, maybe they did undership because they didn't open pre-orders and underestimated demand but it's harder to prove they were making it scarce on purpose to somehow sell more by making it a wanted item... People did want the item already, it's a $60 novelty item fueled by nostalgia, they probably only factored in enough to make a small profit off because how long can you expect to sell this when it can't use the eShop to buy other games?

Anyway, reposting the following again. It doesn't help dismissing arguments by just calling names otherwise I'd love to be able to win every argument by calling someone a biased fanboy that is rushing to the defense of said subject.

there are people literally 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

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".

 

[Cheerilee]

The main point I was making and why I felt the need to include a source is that: Nintendo shipped more Wii units at launch than any console in history No one had ever sold that much. It really was unprecedented demand. Literally.

The launch shipment record goes up all the time. I remember Dreamcast and GameCube making similar claims.

You suggest that Wii's unprecedented demand was impossible to predict or keep up with, so... does that mean that Nintendo just woke up one day and said "Hey, our last console was a total bomb. So lets make more consoles than any console in the history of consoles, and just pray that everything works out somehow"?

Nintendo knew exactly how much demand there was for Wii. In the link that you posted, Reggie talks about being able to break down Wii preorder information by demographic, and about how he already knows before launch that there's going to be a shortage.

From a marketing standpoint, it's not ideal to give people everything they want as soon as they want it, it's ideal to give them everything they want minus one (or however many it takes to generate the right amount of hype). Always leave them wanting more.

Reggie wasn't hired to be entertaining in Nintendo Direct, he was hired to be VP of Sales and Marketing. He didn't sell the perfect amount of Wii consoles (slightly less than what people demand) by accident.

You suggested that Nintendo is bad at estimating and that they're making kneejerk reactions to things like Wii's success and Wii U's bombing, but as I posted earlier I think Nintendo had a very good idea of how the Wii U would sell, but they were trying to deny reality.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

There's your answer right there. A majority of people are (and with good reason) not interested in manufacturing and marketing.

Yeah, I really don't think anyone understands how much work goes into just getting these products on the shelves.

I mean didn't this theory start popping up the most around the Wii period? Can people really look back at the Wii demand and sales volume and believe that Nintendo was somehow strangling supply?

Chemtrail crazies have more sound logic than that. lol

 

[Garou]

I'm just guessing (but everyone else here is too) but:

It is economically way more viable to have one production-line run for 4 weeks than 4 production-lines for 1 week. You need less custom manufacturing equipment, need to train less workers and don't have to worry as much about warehouse-costs. Also it is easier to adjust when you stop that production-line to produce as little overstock as possible.

That's why you usually get a small but constant stream instead of one big load.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Mario, Punch out, tetris, and kirby are literally the best first timer games of all time.

They all build hand eye coordination and critical thinking on a super simple controller and are ALWAYS fun no matter your experience level

Too bad punch out is nearly unbeatable on this thing due to lag, even to expert players.

 

[ibyea]

Looking through the discussion, I will have to side against Jim on this one. Nintendo can be just that incompetent/penny pinchers.

 

[ggx2ac]

"Artificial scarcity" doesn't actually make any sense. Hyping up customers doesn't do much if they have no way to actually buy your product from you. Especially something like the NES Mini, for which demand will plummet after Christmas. I don't believe Nintendo does it because it's too stupid a concept to begin with.

This is something I don't get about it being artificial scarcity. People want this product, it's a bit of a risk to just purposefully undership it to somehow create more demand when people were wanting it already because people might end up changing their mind and then those units end up as dead weight losses.

Some people here have pointed out diamonds or Nikes and even I could throw in luxury cars with limited supply like McLaren as examples however, those are all status items, status items that the artificial scarcity have driven demand up and driven up price of the item.

The NES Mini Classic is a $60 novelty item that was targeted to the nostalgia crowd of people who owned one. That definitely makes it sound like they were expecting niche sales considering they were targeting a niche crowd, they definitely underestimated demand since they didn't have retailers take pre-orders.

It's just a little silly to compare it to status items like diamonds or McLaren F1s. Otherwise I'd have to be seeing Asian businessmen walking around with iPhones and NES Mini Classics in tow to show off their elite status.

Edit: Plus, how long can we expect this system to sell when it doesn't have the option to download games from the eShop? It's probably going to sell in very small volumes after 6-12 months.

 

[atr0cious]

Correlation is not causation.

I love this graph so much.

 

[Ozigizo]

You guys are aware that the initial amiibo shipment was held up by the dock union strike, right?

 

[mrmickfran]

:ConspiracyKeanu:

What if Nintendo created this artificial stock shortage for Amiibo and the NES Mini in order to lead people to believe that the switch will have the same issue, and in turn Switch files off the shelves thanks to consumer paranoia.

Nintendo you clever bastards.

 

[Vinnk]

The launch shipment record goes up all the time. I remember Dreamcast and GameCube making similar claims.

I do not recall this. And a few searches turned up nothing. But if you have a source, please post it.

You suggest that Wii's unprecedented demand was impossible to predict or keep up with, so... does that mean that Nintendo just woke up one day and said "Hey, our last console was a total bomb. So lets make more consoles than any console in the history of consoles, and just pray that everything works out somehow"?

Nintendo knew they had a hit on their hands. Just like Sony did with the PS2. But Sony totally failed to meet demand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/s...hortage-frustrates-more-than-buyers.html?_r=0

I guess they also were manufacturing scarcity. Perhaps Nintendo copied them?

Nintendo knew exactly how much demand there was for Wii. In the link that you posted, Reggie talks about being able to break down Wii preorder information by demographic, and about how he already knows before launch that there's going to be a shortage.

Perhaps they did know there was going to be a lot of demand which would explain why they released an unprecedented number of consoles.

From a marketing standpoint, it's not ideal to give people everything they want as soon as they want it, it's ideal to give them everything they want minus one (or however many it takes to generate the right amount of hype). Always leave them wanting more.

I agree if the only product they were selling was the hardware but the fact that Nintendo generates more revenue from software means leaving money on the table. Also there are the competing consoles which people could buy. Parents aren't going to leave an IOU under the tree. If you miss a holiday some of those sales are never coming back.

Reggie wasn't hired to be entertaining in Nintendo Direct, he was hired to be VP of Sales and Marketing. He didn't sell the perfect amount of Wii consoles (slightly less than what people demand) by accident.

We have no numbers to show what Wii sales would have been had supply constraints not been there. But we do know that when it comes to software if a game is supply constrained it can have a major negative impact on it's lifetime sales. Since I have no data here for hardware, I don't feel I am in a solid place to speculate. But if you have a resource for reference I would be happy to read it and then be in a better place to talk about it.

You suggested that Nintendo is bad at estimating and that they're making kneejerk reactions to things like Wii's success and Wii U's bombing, but as I posted earlier I think Nintendo had a very good idea of how the Wii U would sell, but they were trying to deny reality.

So they purposely sabotaged themselves? And now they are doing it again with the NES Mini? To what end? Just to be evil? If they miss Christmas they will be cutting into Switch money.

I am not a blind Nintendo defender (hate their region locking policies) and I think hey make a ton of mistakes, but I just don't see the scenario being reported as fact making sense. Could it be true? Sure. But I haven't seen enough real research to back up the claims being thrown around.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Watched the whole thing. I generally enjoy the Jim Sterling videos. He's on the border of being a YouTube "yeller" type, but he's got some sort of charm -- maybe it's the accent? I also notice a pattern in his speech, as if he's almost "running out of breath" or something toward the end of his sentences. Can't describe it better, but it adds to his overall personality.

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of speculation being stated as fact, on both sides of this argument. One thing that doesn't help is that Nintendo is so secretive about everything. No message to consumers, no apologies for shortages, or "we'll get many more units to you soon" or anything. (Maybe I'm not fully up to date and such press releases have come out.) At the same time, they're a private corporation and don't own anyone anything. Just in the same way that consumers don't own them anything, and vote with their wallets (Exhibit A: Wii U).

A final note to Nintendo fans: people are allowed to express disappointment/anger/other negative feelings and thoughts towards the company. Don't take it so personally

 

[Ozigizo]

No message to consumers, no apologies for shortages, or "we'll get many more units to you soon" or anything. (Maybe I'm not fully up to date and such press releases have come out.) At the same time, they're a private corporation and don't own anyone anything. Just in the same way that consumers don't own them anything, and vote with their wallets (Exhibit A: Wii U).

They did release a statement on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

 

[-Mutsukki-]

Watched the whole thing. I generally enjoy the Jim Sterling videos. He's on the border of being a YouTube "yeller" type, but he's got some sort of charm -- maybe it's the accent? I also notice a pattern in his speech, as if he's almost "running out of breath" or something toward the end of his sentences. Can't describe it better, but it adds to his overall personality.

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of speculation being stated as fact, on both sides of this argument. One thing that doesn't help is that Nintendo is so secretive about everything. No message to consumers, no apologies for shortages, or "we'll get many more units to you soon" or anything. (Maybe I'm not fully up to date and such press releases have come out.) At the same time, they're a private corporation and don't own anyone anything. Just in the same way that consumers don't own them anything, and vote with their wallets (Exhibit A: Wii U).

A final note to Nintendo fans: people are allowed to express disappointment/anger/other negative feelings and thoughts towards the company. Don't take it so personally

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/797124318706601984

Literally the same day

 

[ShadowFox08]

They will release more. I bet we'll get a second wave in December near Christmas time.

I think they were testing the waters to see how much they would sell..

Honestly $60 for 30 games is amazing. Hell even if it was for 20, that would be an amazing deal! I'm hoping they come out with an SNES version.

 

[spineduke]

:ConspiracyKeanu:

What if Nintendo created this artificial stock shortage for Amiibo and the NES Mini in order to lead people to believe that the switch will have the same issue, and in turn Switch files off the shelves thanks to consumer paranoia.

Nintendo you clever bastards.

Maybe you're joking, but that's absolutely the reputation they have. Noone will chance it and leave a purchase later when it comes to Nintendos products, at least from the outset of the launch.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/797124318706601984

Literally the same day

They can make all the public statements they want, it unfortunately doesn't have much to do with their actual distrubition strategy.

 

[ggx2ac]

:ConspiracyKeanu:

What if Nintendo created this artificial stock shortage for Amiibo and the NES Mini in order to lead people to believe that the switch will have the same issue, and in turn Switch files off the shelves thanks to consumer paranoia.

Nintendo you clever bastards.

They were already planning to ship 2 million units WW for launch as to what they expect because they don't want to over ship like they did with Wii U and 3DS.

They said they can increase shipment depending on demand, so if the pre-orders exceed expectations then they'll most likely increase it.

If Switch becomes a hit that Nintendo can't keep up with demand, it's more likely they underestimated demand than creating artificial scarcity. Note below on where they overestimated demand.

Note: 3DS shipped around 15 million units in the first 9-12 months but it took the harsh price cut and releasing first party games around the same time to get that number.

Nintendo over shipped 3DS having 3.6 million units in the first quarter and then in the following quarter they had shipped something like 700,000 units WW which was a huge drop. It took the drastic price cut and software to release to get Nintendo to technically save the 3DS.

This action caused Nintendo to suffer their first financial loss in 30 years.

Source for shipment numbers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_3DS_sales

 

[-Mutsukki-]

Maybe you're joking, but that's absolutely the reputation they have. Noone will chance it and leave a purchase later when it comes to Nintendos products, at least from the outset of the launch.

This makes no sense as these guarateed sales would come with limited numbers or not

They can make all the public statements they want, it unfortunately doesn't have much to do with their actual distrubition strategy.

Did you even read the post I was responding to

 

[moffattron9000]

This is something I don't get about it being artificial scarcity. People want this product, it's a bit of a risk to just purposefully undership it to somehow create more demand when people were wanting it already because people might end up changing their mind and then those units end up as dead weight losses.

Some people here have pointed out diamonds or Nikes and even I could throw in luxury cars with limited supply like McLaren as examples however, those are all status items, status items that the artificial scarcity have driven demand up and driven up price of the item.

The NES Mini Classic is a $60 novelty item that was targeted to the nostalgia crowd of people who owned one. That definitely makes it sound like they were expecting niche sales considering they were targeting a niche crowd, they definitely underestimated demand since they didn't have retailers take pre-orders.

It's just a little silly to compare it to status items like diamonds or McLaren F1s. Otherwise I'd have to be seeing Asian businessmen walking around with iPhones and NES Mini Classics in tow to show off their elite status.

Edit: Plus, how long can we expect this system to sell when it doesn't have the option to download games from the eShop? It's probably going to sell in very small volumes after 6-12 months.

Off topic, but I don't think that you can compare limited supply supercars to diamonds. After all, those limited supply cars are often sold at a loss, and are glorified R&D projects for the more available cars. Then again, diamonds did the false scarcity thing before everyone else (and are still doing it), so that also may not be the best comparison.

 

[Astral Dog]

what an angry little man, they simply dont want another Wii U situation in their hands

 

[ggx2ac]

Off topic, but I don't think that you can compare limited supply supercars to diamonds. After all, those limited supply cars are often sold at a loss, and are glorified R&D projects for the more available cars. Then again, diamonds did the false scarcity thing before everyone else (and are still doing it), so that also may not be the best comparison.

The point was the kind of people they sell it to. People of wealth and status, diamonds are expensive so they are seen as a status item. Rowan Atkinson owned a McLaren F1 and crashed it.

People were using diamonds as a comparison to the NES Mini Classic but that is a novelty item at a cheap price that isn't going to have Nintendo up the price of it. It's not a status item.

 

[Terrell]

I'm not at all shocked that people are bringing the Wii artificial scarcity bullshit into the discussion and completely cheapening the discussion as a whole in result.

Protip: Don't saddle your opinion on the matter with a verifiably-wrong conspiracy theory.

As well, people making supply chain management sound like the easiest job ever can FUCK. RIGHT. OFF.

People who think Nintendo made a mistake by not getting the NesMini to retailers in time for Black Friday are crazy, it's REALLY likely that Nintendo doesn't want to sell NesMINI at any other price than the full MSRP.

People seem to be forgetting that there is ZERO money to be made later on with software for the NesMini, it's a one and done sale for Nintendo, and you can bet your ass they'll happily drive up demand by distributing next to none before the biggest sales weekend of the year to make people go absolutely bonkers. They want everybody and their dog to get one...AT FULL PRICE.

Except, as others may have mentioned, the only way it would be discounted for Black Friday would be if retailers ate their margin on it, so Nintendo would lose nothing from capitalizing on Black Friday madness by having stock.

I think the notion that Nintendo has a bunch of bumbling buffoons handling their sales forecasting, manufacturing and supply chain logistics as a reason this keeps happening more insulting and far more unrealistic. I doubt they stay in business if that were the case.

Good hard-working and intelligent people make mistakes all the damn time and yeah, sometimes it's actually no one's fault. That's not to say that it doesn't ever happen due to people in that job not giving a shit or something.

I mean, we could be seeing a scenario of one person screwing up the supply chain, getting fired, being replaced by another person who also makes a mistake, etc. We will never know for sure.

Again, there is a much bigger risk for overproduction and the conservative number might result in some lost sales but by over shipping relative to demand you risk losing a lot more money and causing retailer dissatisfaction.

And here, we arrive at the problem. Truthfully, this product seems like something Nintendo only ever intended to sell through retailers like Amazon.

With that in mind, let's all do a thought experiment:

In North America and Europe, it was advertised by 2 YouTube videos and a press release. Not exactly a blitz of advertising.
Yet almost in spite of that, 3 months to go until you have inventory produced to meet the launch date, after they likely already made a production forecast for the chips and chassis under this assumption of a subdued product demand... its extremely muted announcement causes an explosion of popularity and retailers are making space on shelves for them that, quite honestly, no one who heard it was happening immediately anticipated. And I don't doubt that Nintendo came to the same initial conclusion.
So now their projected inventory needs are spread thin across retailers all over the country and e-tailers they planned to sell it with. And 3 months to get a higher production volume during one of the busiest seasons for product manufacturing while everyone else is trying to meet anticipated holiday product demand is no snap of one's fingers. Possibly the least ideal scenario possible.

Japan got a television commercial because everything in Japan gets a television commercial (seriously, how cheap is ad space on TV in Japan?) and thanks to the NES mini announcement, demand at retail was an inevitability at that point.

In those conditions, yeah, I can see how things went sideways for them easily.

And if we do feel there is malice in what Nintendo is doing I would like to point out that Playstation VR has been sold out for weeks. (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/10/13/sony-psvr-glasses-sell-out-japan ).

Is Sony also doing this just to screw with the customers? Or did they want to try to prevent the overstocking disasters they had with PSP Go and Vita TV? Or can they simply not make enough quick enough to meet demand?

I don't know. This feels like just another gripe about Nintendo thread..

Let's not try to make this a bi-partisan discussion, people already have their torches out.

Isn't it a bit bizarre that they so woefully underestimated demand for their product, though?

No.

And that this seems to be a routine problem for them?

I didn't realize amiibo sales demand for very specific figurines were analogous to a novelty nostalgia device.

adidas and nike have been the kings of this shit, create like 1000 pairs of shoes worldwide and watch the hype go nuts.
hype adds value to products, don't think otherwise.

When these products have a clear MSRP, how is value added? Plus, it's not as though there will be an endless fount of demand for this product. Keep it out of peoples' hands and they'll eventually say "forget it, I'll buy something else." Nike and Adidas do it because they structure a huge chunk of their entire business model around the practice.

 

[Chastten]

Isn't it a bit bizarre that they so woefully underestimated demand for their product, though? And that this seems to be a routine problem for them? I mean, they are either artificially constraining supply, or they are worse than any other video game company at meeting demand for their products. No matter how you look at it, it's bad business.

They are still around though, unlike a number of other big game companies in the past ten years that overproduced shit to hell and back, so they must be doing something right with this tactic.

Producing a 100.000 units and making a guaranteed 6 million bucks on this thing can be better business sense then producing a million and ending up with a loss, cause shelves are filled with them and nobody wants to buy one for €60 cause they'll end up half price in a few months anyways. That might be good for the consumer, but it's what killed several big companies in recent years.

 

[QisTopTier]

Too bad punch out is nearly unbeatable on this thing due to lag, even to expert players.

That's disappointing to hear

 

[xrnzaaas]

Heh, and here I was wondering why the hell isn't it in my local stores. I was hoping to buy it for my little cousins as a means to introduce them to the world of video gaming. :/

Nintendo needs to:
a) fire a guy / a group of people responsible for predicting the market's demand for this thing
b) build more consoles asap

 

[InfiniteCombo]

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/797124318706601984

Literally the same day

OK, that's nice... And what has happened since then? Can I walk into my local Best Buy tomorrow and just buy this thing?

 

[OléGunner]

Nintendo shipping single figure digit figures of NES mini consoles to stores is beyond baffling.

Seriously, this is either gross negligence, incompetence or systematic in execution (considering this is not new for them).

Jim hit the nail on the head when saying Nintendo are essentially toy makers with their approach to distribution. I mean how can you defend a store receiving only 2-3 consoles for a second shipment?!

It's 2016, supply chain management for re-purposed old tech should not be as hard as pulling teeth if planned correctly.

 

[OléGunner]

They are still around though, unlike a number of other big game companies in the past ten years that overproduced shit to hell and back, so they must be doing something right with this tactic.

Producing a 100.000 units and making a guaranteed 6 million bucks on this thing can be better business sense then producing a million and ending up with a loss, cause shelves are filled with them and nobody wants to buy one for €60 cause they'll end up half price in a few months anyways. That might be good for the consumer, but it's what killed several big companies in recent years.

This makes no sense when a company like Nintendo probably hires people with a wealth of experience in marketing and logistics which should help estimate demand.

They don't have to produce a million NES minis (and in no way would that bankrupt them) but a little production planning and market research from a company worth more than $10bn is not inconceivable to avoid this situation.

 

[Jimrpg]

Could it all be Nintendo's fault though?

What if its retailers that don't want to take a chance on the product? These decisions (how many to stock) are often made very high up in management. It's a new product, and the retailers are probably just testing the waters.

Given Nintendo's underperformance in the gaming space in the last few years, it would make sense for retailers to understock.

 

[ggx2ac]

Nintendo shipping single figure digit figures of NES mini consoles to stores is beyond baffling.

Seriously, this is either gross negligence, incompetence or systematic in execution (considering this is not new for them).

Jim hit the nail on the head when saying Nintendo are essentially toy makers with their approach to distribution. I mean how can you defend a store receiving only 2-3 consoles for a second shipment?!

It's 2016, supply chain management for re-purposed old tech should not be as hard as pulling teeth if planned correctly.

Uhh... They didn't grab a bunch of Wii internals and chuck it into an NES case.

The NES Mini classic is running off an ARM Cortex A7 and Mali GPU.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1307319

SoC: Allwinner R16 (4x Cortex A7, Mali400MP2 GPU)
RAM: Hynix (256MB DDR3)
Flash: Spansion 512MB NAND
PMU: AXP223

 

[OléGunner]

Uhh... They didn't grab a bunch of Wii internals and chuck it into an NES case.

The NES Mini classic is running off an ARM Cortex A7 and Mali GPU.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1307319

Thanks for that correction. My fault, I worded that last bit of my post very poorly.
Of course the NES mini innards use updated technology to emulate the old games.

My point was are these components so rare that they heavily restrict production rates?
I find that very hard to believe.

 

[ggx2ac]

Thanks for that correction. My fault, I worded that last bit of my post very poorly.
Of course the NES mini innards use updated technology to emulate the old games.

My point was are these components so rare that they heavily restrict production rates?
I find that very hard to believe.

It's a novelty item targeted towards nostalgia fans. They most likely didn't spend to have a lot of production lines to make millions of units because they underestimated demand.

It's something that is going to have a very short shelf life and sell low volumes next year because it doesn't let you get new games on the system. That's why it's a novelty item.

 

[MaverickHunterX]

God bless you, Jim!

Signed, one of the damned...

 

[hemo memo]

The launch shipment record goes up all the time. I remember Dreamcast and GameCube making similar claims.

You suggest that Wii's unprecedented demand was impossible to predict or keep up with, so... does that mean that Nintendo just woke up one day and said "Hey, our last console was a total bomb. So lets make more consoles than any console in the history of consoles, and just pray that everything works out somehow"?

Nintendo knew exactly how much demand there was for Wii. In the link that you posted, Reggie talks about being able to break down Wii preorder information by demographic, and about how he already knows before launch that there's going to be a shortage.

From a marketing standpoint, it's not ideal to give people everything they want as soon as they want it, it's ideal to give them everything they want minus one (or however many it takes to generate the right amount of hype). Always leave them wanting more.

Reggie wasn't hired to be entertaining in Nintendo Direct, he was hired to be VP of Sales and Marketing. He didn't sell the perfect amount of Wii consoles (slightly less than what people demand) by accident.

You suggested that Nintendo is bad at estimating and that they're making kneejerk reactions to things like Wii's success and Wii U's bombing, but as I posted earlier I think Nintendo had a very good idea of how the Wii U would sell, but they were trying to deny reality.

Intresting. So they knew exactly the demand but they undershiped anyway?