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N3DS/Amiibo stock shipment issues affected by the West Coast Port strike

lol, when this was brought up in other threads it was fervently denied that it was the main cause. Of course, it may very well just be PR to shift the blame from Nintendo's incompetence.
 
SerodD said:
Most amiibo and Special Edition N3DS's were/are available for a while in Europe.



But isn't the uk awful in the availability of all Nintendo products right now? At least that was what I thought with a lot of retailers dropping the Wii U section.
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Supermarkets who have dropped the Wii U still stock Amiibos in my area so this doesn't make sense... And no, not all stores have dropped the Wii:U and even then it's only the super markets which have and they are generally quite over priced.

Edit:

Let's talk about it some more then.

There are stores, like GAME, who buy Amiibo's in 3's and 4's and then sell them for almost double their RRP.

There are then stores like ToysRUs and Argos which stock Amiibo's and then sell limited amounts.

Then there are online stores which don't receive enough stock so they have to cancel your orders on release day despite you preordering it months in advanced... Like I have had happen to me numerous times.
 
People who start to suspect other reasons as to why they have shortages end up sounding like conspiracy theorists.
 
H1PSTER said:
Supermarkets who have dropped the Wii U still stock Amiibos in my area so this doesn't make sense... And no, not all stores have dropped the Wii:U and even then it's only the super markets which have and they are generally quite over priced.

Edit:

Let's talk about it some more then.

There are stores, like GAME, who buy Amiibo's in 3's and 4's and then sell them for almost double their RRP.

There are then stores like ToysRUs and Argos which stock Amiibo's and then sell limited amounts.

Then there are online stores which don't receive enough stock so they have to cancel your orders on release day despite you preordering it months in advanced... Like I have had happen to me numerous times.
Click to expand...

Why would Nintendo ship much anyway when their last few releases all blew up in their face?
 
For those in doubt, this is absolutely a legitimate cause for their supply woes. Among other things, car factories in America have been thrown into disarray and McDonald's in Japan axed L-size french fries for about a month until they could find a new source for potatoes.
 
our company is having a really hard time getting parts to fix product here. It ALL comes in on the west coast, a lot of companies are trying to move the product now through the panama to just get it here in the states.....but that adds more time and once everyone starts using that route its going to get backed up again.

This is an issue and its legit.
 
This makes me wonder about the estimate we saw at the meeting. How much is that is stuck in the port unable to be sold.

Triplicates said:
For those in doubt, this is absolutely a legitimate cause for their supply woes. Among other things, car factories in America have been thrown into disarray and McDonald's in Japan axed L-size french fries for about a month until they could find a new source for potatoes.
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Exactly I remember that $500 HDMI NES which is affected by the same thing the first replies were like "the boy who cried wolf" (as the project has been hit by numerous delays and other problems)
 
The question is why aren't games affected when they also use ships to do it.
As others suggested, using air mail would fix the issue. Some companies have done that to get around the issue.
Edit: Never mind, I figured it out. Games do not need padding. The hardware shipments are larger therefore cost more to airmail.
 
TheSlySoul said:
The question is why aren't games affected when they also use ships to do it.
As others suggested, using air mail would fix the issue.
Click to expand...

-They ain't the only one getting affected and thus not the only one rushing to use air mail for their goods from this strike.
-not to mention it takes time to make alternate arrangement too.

Come on now, this is common sense. Bunch of stocks stuck on the ship in the middle of nowhere. How do you propose getting the stocks from the ships to an airplanes?
 
ArtHands said:
-They ain't the only one getting affected and thus not the only one rushing to use air mail for their goods from this strike.
-not to mention it takes time to make alternate arrangement too.

Come on now, this is common sense.
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This is true. It seems odd that they can get 20 copies of Majora's Mask but only 5 n3DS XL. Wonder if they ship games to the east coast?
That would explain why games are not really bothered by it.
I also meant using air mail order for future shipments. This has been going on since November after all.
 
TheSlySoul said:
This is true. It seems odd that they can get 20 copies of Majora's Mask but only 5 n3DS XL. Wonder if they ship games to the east coast?
Click to expand...

I imagine those are safety stocks that are already scheduled for air mail in the first place. Enough to fulfill the demand partially, not totally.
 
TheSlySoul said:
This is true. It seems odd that they can get 20 copies of Majora's Mask but only 5 n3DS XL. Wonder if they ship games to the east coast?
That would explain why games are not really bothered by it.
I also meant using air mail order for future shipments. This has been going on since November after all.
Click to expand...

Air transportation isn't really a cost effective situation considering the more limited amount of commercial air transportation is likely highly in demand by a countless number of other companies in the same boat as Nintendo
 
Other said:
Air transportation isn't really a cost effective situation considering the more limited amount of commercial air transportation is likely highly in demand by a countless number of other companies in the same boat as Nintendo
Click to expand...
That is also true.
Wonder if they should have just delayed the launch until the issue got fixed. It seems like a mess right now.
 
TheSlySoul said:
This is true. It seems odd that they can get 20 copies of Majora's Mask but only 5 n3DS XL. Wonder if they ship games to the east coast?
That would explain why games are not really bothered by it.
I also meant using air mail order for future shipments. This has been going on since November after all.
Click to expand...

Actually games appear to be bothered by it. I can't be the only one that noticed that some Nintendo games actually do sell out now when before there'd be copies that sat on shelves forever.
 
I'm sure it has some effect, but it's really hard for me to believe their issues are entirely due to this.

Games and movies are still getting out from other companies, and shit stock isnt a new thing with Nintendo products as well. Hard to give them the benefit of the doubt and not say this is some PR.

A dock strike sucks though. A union shouldn't be able to hold a nations economy hostage in a dispute. The government needs to step in and tell them to work or get in line for a new job.
 
Zalman said:
The situation isn't nearly as bad in Europe.
Click to expand...

Not if you are in Germany or any other center north european countries, thats for sure.
Spain, France, Italy and UK are having REALLY bad distributions.

Most people seems to have lots of problems getting wave 3.5 becuase theres nothing any more in stores and its supposed to be released tomorrow yet they have sold out already.

Then I hear the americans saying X or Y Target has gotten 30-50 Rosalina amiibos and people say europe is not as bad? we get 2 per big store, at max.

So yeah, the have no fucking excuse for Europe.
Little Mac was a freakin nightmare for people, and the majority didnt even sniff it.
 
SpacePirate Ridley said:
Not if you are in Germany or any other center north european countries, thats for sure.
Spain, France, Italy and UK are having REALLY bad distributions.

Most people seems to have lots of problems getting wave 3.5 becuase theres nothing any more in stores and its supposed to be released tomorrow yet they have sold out already.

Then I hear the americans saying X or Y Target has gotten 30-50 Rosalina amiibos and people say europe is not as bad? we get 2 per big store, at max.
Click to expand...

Targets didn't get anywhere near that many rosalinas. Mine got 12, and it's never come back in stock after the release day.

People are also importing stock from Europe since the US situation is so bad despite being far away the largest chunk of sales according to Nintendo.
 
Same happened when Guilty Gear came out in December harbor of LA has strikes a lot and that is the one that distributes a lot of stuff that comes from the Asia.
 
Fox Mulder said:
Targets didn't get anywhere near that many rosalinas. Mine got 12, and it's never come back in stock after the release day.
Click to expand...

12!
That number is still A LOT more than 2, or what about 0
Becuase some stores here got 0 even if the rest of the wave arrived. Not even sold out, they just didnt get them. And theres no store exclusivity in europe whatsover.
 
Fox Mulder said:
I'm sure it has some effect, but it's really hard for me to believe their issues are entirely due to this.

Games and movies are still getting out from other companies, and shit stock isnt a new thing with Nintendo products as well. Hard to give them the benefit of the doubt and not say this is some PR.

A dock strike sucks though. A union shouldn't be able to hold a nations economy hostage in a dispute. The government needs to step in and tell them to work or get in line for a new job.
Click to expand...
I think it is a bit of bad planning to not have a plan B in case you ship stock stops.
Most Asian companies have had a plan B which is why we are not seeing Samsung shortages.

But I am willing to see them less as idiots and more blissful.
 
OP;

Just to clarify, Iwata didn't specifically say that the shortage "is due to" the port strike, merely that it has had "an impact".

Also, I see a lot of people mentioning games, and why there hasn't been a subsequent shortage of software. Actually the very next line from Iwata in the Q&A session reads: "Since games are so light, we have decided to send them by air mail....so the strike hasn't had much impact on software sales."
 
I heard about these West coast port strikes well over a month ago it seems like. Just how long have they been going on for and is there any end in sight?
 
Delaying the launch will cause the gamers to call for their heads. It is scheduled to launch alongside majora's mask and mh4 worldwide, thus delay will cause more problems than a normal game delay.
 
FarmboyinJapan1 said:
OP;

Just to clarify, Iwata didn't specifically say that the shortage "is due to" the port strike, merely that it has had "an impact".

Also, I see a lot of people mentioning games, and why there hasn't been a subsequent shortage of software. Actually the very next line from Iwata in the Q&A session reads: "Since games are so light, we have decided to send them by air mail....so the strike hasn't had much impact on software sales."
Click to expand...
Ha, I guessed that after a bit.
You can throw a 3DS game against the wall and it will be fine. Try that with an Amiibo.
They need way more padding. Them being regulated to ships makes sense considering big packages are cheaper on ships.

ArtHands said:
Delaying the launch will cause the gamers to call for their heads. It is scheduled to launch alongside majora's mask and mh4 worldwide, thus delay will cause more problems than a normal game delay.
Click to expand...
I disagree a bit because the launch currently is not going well. The first batch had a good chunk of defects in them.
I think gamers would have understood if the new 3DS for NA would have came in April when everyone could get one. They could dock the OG XL prices and old stock could be close to gone when the new system came out.
Then again, I cannot gauge reactions. People have been known to get mad at petty stuff like ME3 endings.
 
They are working on good will but last week I think there was 6 ships sitting out there untouched. It's fucking up a lot of retail. I mentioned this in the amiibo thread.
 
I can buy that, this thing is causing my company some fun at the moment too.

Just. Look, when it's done, just put some Marth and Pit on the shelves.

I'm not hunting for them and I'm not paying more than the asking cost.
 
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