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Did Nintendo discontinue Mario Kart Wii?

Kagari said:
If Nintendo was smart :lol they'd do it and price it at $39.99.

I don't get the joke.

Evander said:
I heard some one at my store parroting the rumor.

But he's not necessary the most "with it" guy. It's possible he just heard ti from some customer.

It may happen, but I don't see why. There is clearly no shortage of Wheels.

Nintendo's operating philosophy will lean towards keeping a wheel packed in with the game, in the name of facilitating "the experience". This is why it's infinitely easier for them to cash in on a wheel-less SKU yet they're doing no such thing. However, if they decide to go the profit taking or market availability route, then it isn't unreasonable that they'll release the game sans wheel, which they'll be able to churn out much faster.

Idiots parroting how "easy" it should be for Nintendo to just churn these out like nothing have no idea that it actually takes a lot of time to assemble the packaging and contents even if you have the discs and the actual wheel; this would cause major setbacks if say, oh I don't know, the product turns out to be a huge hit that they don't see coming.
 
i finally got a copy. i've been checking best buy's website regularly since mid-may and local stores have been out of mk wii. this weekend, one showed up and i called to have them reserve it. ridiculous that nintendo can't supply enough games...i blame the crappy wheel.
 
I picked up mine at a ghetto K-mart on the release day (sunday?) it was the last one

the online is awesome when you are winning, but I almost broke a controller a couple times when you get hit with 3 blue shells and a lightning bold over a lava jump
 
this is the 1st game since i started playing games on an atari that i could not just walk in and find at one location or another.

was months it seemed before i was able to locate it.
 
For those trying to find one, start checking the Sunday ads over at CAG. They were in Target's ad this week, so they had a pile of them (here anyway) this morning.
 
Sorry to bump this thread but I'm extremely frustrated. I've visited maybe 6 stores looking for Mario Kart Wii and have searched the dark crevices of the internet to no avail.

Santa needs to make a delivery on December 25. Santa will not fail, despite Nintendo's best efforts. What is going on here?
 
soldat7 said:
Sorry to bump this thread but I'm extremely frustrated. I've visited maybe 6 stores looking for Mario Kart Wii and have searched the dark crevices of the internet to no avail.

Santa needs to make a delivery on December 25. Santa will not fail, despite Nintendo's best efforts. What is going on here?

It still sells extremely well in all three regions and has a pack in wheel making frabrication slightly more troublesome than your average game these days.
 
Man God said:
It still sells extremely well in all three regions and has a pack in wheel making frabrication slightly more troublesome than your average game these days.

So is Nintendo just horrible at forecasting? I'm beginning to believe in the conspiracy theories behind these various shortages (i.e. they're artificial, weak dollar, etc).

Do they not sell the game minus the wheel?
 
I actually went to Amazon first, and in the Customer Discussions section, the first message in the list said "Available now at Gamestop.com" and it said it was from 5 hours ago. I figured "Yeah, right" as I surfed over, but sure enough...

Of course, now it looks like everyone is sold out of extra Wii Wheels. :lol
 
Does anyone like and use that fucking wheel? What a waste of plastic. I get pissed when I think about the effort it takes to manufacture all those things.
 
madmook said:
Does anyone like and use that fucking wheel? What a waste of plastic. I get pissed when I think about the effort it takes to manufacture all those things.

I loved the Wheel, it was a heck of a lot more comfortable and even more fun to use than just a sideways Wiimote. I wasn't a fan of the game itself (ended up eBaying it), but the controls with the Wheel rocked.
 
madmook said:
Does anyone like and use that fucking wheel? What a waste of plastic. I get pissed when I think about the effort it takes to manufacture all those things.

Yup, had tons of fun with it and unlocked at least a star rating in all cups. Got quite good rankings too.
 
soldat7 said:
Sorry to bump this thread but I'm extremely frustrated. I've visited maybe 6 stores looking for Mario Kart Wii and have searched the dark crevices of the internet to no avail.

Santa needs to make a delivery on December 25. Santa will not fail, despite Nintendo's best efforts. What is going on here?
PM me. I can check the NWS on Monday for you.
 
madmook said:
Does anyone like and use that fucking wheel? What a waste of plastic. I get pissed when I think about the effort it takes to manufacture all those things.

That's why the game sells so ridiculously well. Also, it's fun. Not good for online competition, but kooky fun whilst playing with friends or family.
 
madmook said:
You're all crazy.

The game controls 10 times smoother with the good ol' nunchuck.

I never had problems doing anything I needed to do with the Wheel after the first few races - it was precise enough for me...and I had a lot more fun doing so than I did in my experience playing it with the Cube controller. Though, yeah, obviously the analog stick offers more precision - but not enough to warrant sacrificing the fun of steering.
 
madmook said:
You're all crazy.

The game controls 10 times smoother with the good ol' nunchuck.
I wont comment on GCN controller, but Wiimote and Nunchuk blow the Classic Controller out of the water for this game.
 
GitarooMan said:
a better question is why did Tetris DS disappear so fast and become impossible to find?
Based on the available evidence I believe Nintendo no longer owns the rights to produce Tetris games. Tetris DS sold very well worldwide, and is the type of game that could continue to sell well like Nintendogs or New Super Mario Brothers, especially since it has the retro Nintendo tie in.

The major evidence for Nintendo no longer owning the Tetris rights is that Hudson is developing and publishing the Wiiware version of Tetris, if Nintendo still owned the rights to Tetris they would most likely of made their own version.

Of course companies never come out with press releases saying "We've lost the rights to ..." so we may never know for sure, but the evidence does point to Nintendo no longer having the rights to Tetris.
 
soldat7 said:
Sorry to bump this thread but I'm extremely frustrated. I've visited maybe 6 stores looking for Mario Kart Wii and have searched the dark crevices of the internet to no avail.

Santa needs to make a delivery on December 25. Santa will not fail, despite Nintendo's best efforts. What is going on here?


I was at Costco yesterday and saw like 8 copies
 
I was the OP, and I actually got my copy a few days ago. The wheel isn't anything special, but I love the Wiimote/nunchuk setup.
 
Bluth54 said:
Based on the available evidence I believe Nintendo no longer owns the rights to produce Tetris games. Tetris DS sold very well worldwide, and is the type of game that could continue to sell well like Nintendogs or New Super Mario Brothers, especially since it has the retro Nintendo tie in.

The major evidence for Nintendo no longer owning the Tetris rights is that Hudson is developing and publishing the Wiiware version of Tetris, if Nintendo still owned the rights to Tetris they would most likely of made their own version.

Of course companies never come out with press releases saying "We've lost the rights to ..." so we may never know for sure, but the evidence does point to Nintendo no longer having the rights to Tetris.


Nintendo hasn't owned the rights to Tetris for years. THQ owned the rights to produce a Tetris DS game, and there was a strange situation where Nintendo sublicensed the rights from them, as far as I know.

I think the real question isn't why Nintendo stopped producing Tetris DS but why Henk Rogers and the Tetris Company stopped Nintendo from producing Tetris DS. Did they want a huge increase in royalties? Was he jealous that Tetris DS was so much better than the Tetris Worlds game he bungled? Or is he just an ass? He's the one that mandates infinite spin in every Tetris game, after all.
 
madmook said:
You're all crazy.

The game controls 10 times smoother with the good ol' nunchuck.

It takes a little bit of practice to get very comfortable with the Wheel, but now I control the kart better with the Wheel than with a stick. For the bike however, it feels better with the nunchuk.
 
RockmanWhore said:
It takes a little bit of practice to get very comfortable with the Wheel, but now I control the kart better with the Wheel than with a stick. For the bike however, it feels better with the nunchuk.

That's the exact way I play too.
 
Jesus, where do you people live? Everyone says they can't find a copy of MK or WiiFit, but I see them a lot here (Denver). Just sayin...
 
Hey guys if you feel like playing MK with Gaffers join the GAF WFC IRC

server: irc.globalgamers.net
channel #gaf_wfc

One web based method of getting on:

http://www.globalgamers.net/?p=webchat
use gaf_wfc as the channel name.

Chatzilla seems to work as well in which to get to us you would type "/server irc.globalgamers.net" and then "/join #gaf_wfc".

And this is another link to a web based version:

http://irc2go.com/pjirc/?net=GlobalGamers&room=GAF_WFC
just type in your nick.
 
Atreides said:
How old is Tetris? It's not public domain yet?
That will still take some time: according to wikipedia, you can wait until 70 years after the last surviving author died, and/or 95 years after it was first published - provided the Tetris company doesn't refresh their Tetris trademark and thus control of the market in time.

Given that Tetris is only 20 years old (when was it released, 1985?), and that the inventor Alexey Pajitnov -bless his soul- was only born in 1955 we won't be seeing Tetris in the public domain any time soon.
 
leroy hacker said:
I think the real question isn't why Nintendo stopped producing Tetris DS but why Henk Rogers and the Tetris Company stopped Nintendo from producing Tetris DS. Did they want a huge increase in royalties? Was he jealous that Tetris DS was so much better than the Tetris Worlds game he bungled? Or is he just an ass? He's the one that mandates infinite spin in every Tetris game, after all.

Was this really the case, The Tetris Company had stopped Nintendo from producing it ?
 
PacoDG said:
Was this really the case, The Tetris Company had stopped Nintendo from producing it ?

Do you think Nintendo decided on their own to stop producing Tetris DS in a time when Iwata brags about their big DS hits have sold consistently for years? I think that's much less plausible than licensing issues, especially given the strange situation surrounding this game specifically.

Or was Tetris DS actually a bomb?
 
soldat7 said:
So is Nintendo just horrible at forecasting? I'm beginning to believe in the conspiracy theories behind these various shortages (i.e. they're artificial, weak dollar, etc).

Do they not sell the game minus the wheel?


I can't believe people still question this. Go read Game Over, or The Ultimate History of Video Games, both books go into exhaustive detail about Nintendo's marketing strategy.

Nintendo intentionally keeps supplies of its most popular games at low levels. The idea is that if you go to the store looking for their most popular game, but can't find it, you will buy something else to satisfy your gaming urge, and keep looking for that game. Also, gaming shortages keep 'buzz' around a game for much longer than there normally would be. There are also several other business factors, including the weak dollar; which has been a big reason Nintendo has shipped fewer Wiis to the US than they normally would. With the dollar so weak, they have higher profit margins shipping higher inventory to Europe than the US.

The idea that Nintendo has difficulty manufacturing enough 50-cent plastic steering wheels is so ridiculous, I can't believe people have suggested it. Nintendo's inventory levels of all games & consoles is 100% planned.

Once again, this has been their business practice for 25+ years. It's nothing new, back in the 1980s & 1990s stores such as Toys R' US sued Nintendo, because as soon as a game became popular, Nintendo would cut down shipments of the game by as much as 75%, with the stated intention that consumers would simply purchase other Nintendo games if they couldn't find the one they wanted.
 
I wasn't on board with the whole "they're intentionally not making enough" argument until a few months ago. At this point it's gotta be true though. Half of the appeal of the wii is the scarcity. If they were available everywhere from day 1 all the mystery and status going along with owning one disappears. They have a reincarnated gamecube system that truly deserves nowhere near the popularity it gets, and they're still selling like this? Come on. At this point if they wanted everyone who wanted a wii (or mario kart) to have one, they could make it happen
 
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