Jawbreaker
Member
At best, they're utterly incompetent; however, I believe they're aware of what they're doing.
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Jimquisition: Nintendo - A Shit Distributor And Fuckheaded Toymaker (Nov. 28, 2016)
- Thread starter L~A
- Start date
At best, they're utterly incompetent; however, I believe they're aware of what they're doing.
I dont live in the U.S so I rarely have access to LE and when they do send items I dont have that much of a problem getting them (unlike the U.S the NES mini is still in stock on some stores). So, I want to know if he touches the issue of scalpers?, I guess Nintendo wants to avoid LE staying in the shelves for more than a month or a week even, but it seems that is quite easy to camp in front of a store and buy all the stock to resell it later on ebay.
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
Looking forward to watching this tonight, NOA is a kind of fuckery that gets me curious since it's so absurd. Does Jim go into anything about NOA intentionally underestimating sales?
Of course the consoles are a different matter. Any kind of new device these days gets pre-orders. Especially the ones that are untested market wise. Like Pixel phones. Like PSVR. Or Oculus. Or Vive. Or any type of console, really.
They do represent the situation accurately if the pre-orders are selling out though. That means that you largely underestimated the demand.
8 years in marketing & advertising (more studying) and I have never seen anyone actually do this in the way people claim Nintendo does.
If you was to actually do this tactic its easy enough to pretend you have 'low stock' or 'temporary sold out', you can strategically release product and maximize the effectness of such a campaign without losing many sales. This isn't what's happening with Nintendo as stock shortages drag on too long.
Everything I've seen in regards to Amiibo, CE/LEs and the NES mini doesn't point to an effective tease and release campaign. They point to low production likely due to low faith in product or short production runs in timed factories.
Nintendo are no way generating enough interest via low stock to make up for all the lost sales.
Either they have a really shit marketing team or they have a very cautious approval board, who only allows them to produce in limited quantities incase of product failure (poor sales). I believe its the later.
I'm not saying they are not shit with distribution, I'm saying they are not doing it on purpose to drive sales.
newtypepilot
Member
pretty much this. Nintendo is still a dinosaur company in many ways.
There has to something about that pog case.....has to be....
Are there reliable social likes to sales ratios? Like do you look at Twitter and decide you're going to sell hundreds of thousands or millions? I feel a lot is predicated on "There's gotta be a tweet to sale ratio, these are smart companies" which in not so much analyzing but just kinda pulling stuff out of our rears to justify our pre-formed arguments. What does it mean to be a sure-fire hit in retro miniture consoles? 500K? 1 million? 5 million?
Sir_Crocodile
Member
I mean, I preordered six days after the uk nintendo store opened them, and they were open for a while after that. I don't think they knew how big the uk demand would be based on the uk preorders for sure.
You guys act like it's so obvious what they should have done. They're incompetent for not knowing ahead of time that the product would be more successful? They released the freaking Wii U as the successor to the Wii. Hindsight is 20/20. You guys didn't know better than Nintendos logistics, you just know now. It's called confirmation bias
Alex_Mexico
Member
Which is why they should accept preorders to gauge interest so that you can at least satisfy the demand of those who wanted one in advance! It's not rocket science.
Jawbreaker
Member
They're incompetent for not gauging interest with preorders.
If it isn't on purpose, then Nintendo is really, really shitty at business and have no idea how the market works. Which seems unlikely considering how long they've been doing this.
It's on purpose.
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
It's been said that NOA executives do it on purpose for personal gain within the company and to get higher bonuses, lately by Itagaki in an interview with Polygon.
http://www.polygon.com/features/201...-and-future-of-tomonobu-itagakis-devils-third
Hentailover
Member
When a store (not ma and pa store, part of a franchize, Target) only gets stocked 5 OF THEM... (FUCKING FIVE! THINK ABOUT IT! FIVEEEEEEEEEE) something is shady
Proven in supply and demand? or proven from Nintendo? Cause the former is the basics supply and demand. Low supply creates high demand.
The later: Way too many to list. I mean shit they made Mario Kart Wii hard to find for like a month or 2.
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
Have the cleared Wii U stock yet?
The followup to the Wii, one of the most popular consoles of all time, hasn't cleared 15 million consoles. It launched with 3rd party games, a mario game. Has some of the best games ever made. These basics of supply and demand don't seem basic.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
They did in the UK and it didn't show high demand.
And there was high demand in the uk.
JonnyDBrit
Member
While I will make no guesses as to the actual reason(s) that Nintendo has gained a penchant for understocking its cheap but popular goods, I do suspect they have a pretty big precedent which they can use to justify this practice to themselves and retailers, whether or not it strictly makes sense to do so.
The Wii U.
Nintendo lost money for the first time in decades in part because of the inability to sell the Wii U at a rate that offset the costs of the units they'd already paid for. It stands as proof for them that overstocking products can potentially hurt them financially, so if they have to make a decision on how much of a product - be it amiibo or the NES classic - to make, they can point to the Wii U and say that they should go with the low estimate, just to be safe.
The Wii U.
Nintendo lost money for the first time in decades in part because of the inability to sell the Wii U at a rate that offset the costs of the units they'd already paid for. It stands as proof for them that overstocking products can potentially hurt them financially, so if they have to make a decision on how much of a product - be it amiibo or the NES classic - to make, they can point to the Wii U and say that they should go with the low estimate, just to be safe.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
The newest 3DS really illustrates this. If you're not perched on your F5 key at a certain time and beat a relatively small pool of people out in the initial minute, you're not going to ever have a chance at it? I refuse to dance like that.
Alex_Mexico
Member
Dude. They weren't even accepting preorders! And even when they do like with the Fire Emblem Fates LE they still fail to meet initial demand time and time again!
Nintendo continues to be a shit distributor. Especially NoA.
While Wii U has a lackluster hardware sales, it still had some pretty successful software sales on a good number of games. Bayonetta 2 had far more internet awareness (and outrage) and media coverage than any other Wii U games that's not Mario or Smash games but it still bombed.
Didn't the pre-orders sold out though? Not immediately, but still. That should point out that that the demand is there.
Tizoc
Member
Fair enough thx for clearing that up
I was unaware the new clAssic was so scarce in the us at least
And you know that now because they didn't meet demand. That's confirmation bias. They should have could have would have, easy to say now.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
They sold out weeks later yes, which would have in no way prepared them for this.
But that unit is "limited"
It would not be a "limited edition" if it was always available.
They're just weird and conservative, it should not be very confusing considering they do shit that baffles us all the time in favor of an extremely cautious approach
Nintendo has proven time and time again in the last 5 years to be incomptent with shipping products from Amiibo, special edition of games to the nes classic especially with the amount of interest in the Nes classic before it launched. It's not confirmation bias when they keep doing the same thing.
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
But the common logic on Nintendo is that they don't meet demand and won't meet demand for a year. Wii sold better than any other console in history for 18 months and people claimed Nintendo was intentionally holding back. They meet demand at launch and people will just move the goal posts and still claim they are holding back.
I'm at the point that it could be true but the logical leaps people use make me skeptical.
I sincerly believe that what happened with Amiibos was a result of them being really cautious and going with bigger shipments of the "sure hits" characters: it was a brand new venture for them, there were some uncertainties about its actual sales potential, and we have NPD press releases stating how around 700,000 figures were shipped for the launch weeks, which is not a small number as a whole. But, of course, it was reached by shipping far bigger amounts for more famous characters, while treating smaller characters with extreme (now we can say excessive) caution. It surely took some time for them to solve the availability problem for the least shipped figures.
However, for NES Mini, the situation is a bit different: yes, we don't know how much they shipped yet. And the Japanese debut numbers (far higher than what I was expecting) tell me that it's possible Nintendo shipped big quantities as a whole for the launch (yes, I know you addressed this point in your video, Jim, but it still is valid to desire to see actual numbers to get a better idea of the situation), so that's something we don't exactly know yet. However, in the end, NoA's move (the NES Mini was available for pre-orders in both Europe and Japan) to NOT allow pre-orders for the NES Mini turned out to be something that made several customers anxious and furious when they couldn't get it in the launch rush, I fear much more than increasing the desire for the object, surfing the Holidays spending histeria. This goes more into the "manufactured scarcity" thing that Jim mentioned in his video, right because people couldn't pre-order it.
Nintendo has stated there will be more shipments in these weeks, hopefully things improve fast enough and like they should (like, finally reaching 10 units in stock at the Target store that Jim visited, at least XD ).
However, for NES Mini, the situation is a bit different: yes, we don't know how much they shipped yet. And the Japanese debut numbers (far higher than what I was expecting) tell me that it's possible Nintendo shipped big quantities as a whole for the launch (yes, I know you addressed this point in your video, Jim, but it still is valid to desire to see actual numbers to get a better idea of the situation), so that's something we don't exactly know yet. However, in the end, NoA's move (the NES Mini was available for pre-orders in both Europe and Japan) to NOT allow pre-orders for the NES Mini turned out to be something that made several customers anxious and furious when they couldn't get it in the launch rush, I fear much more than increasing the desire for the object, surfing the Holidays spending histeria. This goes more into the "manufactured scarcity" thing that Jim mentioned in his video, right because people couldn't pre-order it.
Nintendo has stated there will be more shipments in these weeks, hopefully things improve fast enough and like they should (like, finally reaching 10 units in stock at the Target store that Jim visited, at least XD ).
Crimsonclaw111
Member
Another topic and opportunity to say fuck you over the garbage ass N3DS BF bundle.
Jawbreaker
Member
No, it's the standard practice for new hardware releases. You gauge interest by taking preorders. You don't need hindsight to know this.
But what would the reason be to not allow pre-orders? Being afraid not to be able to meet demand and pissing of people who pre-ordered too late? In the end the result is the same.
Empyrean Heaven
Member
Yes, but it should not be limited within 2 minutes of it going up online, and 2 minutes of the store's opening.
I should not have to stay up until midnight on Wednesday to get this thing. And FUCK Amazon for putting them up early without any notice.
Alex_Mexico
Member
Hardware preordering is an entirely different matter, yes.
In this day with digital downloads there's no problem of scarcity for games so preordering is stupid. But hardware is often needed and encouraged.
And Nintendo sucks at that too.
Gauging interest with pre-orders is not some new technique just discovered. You don't "know that now". It was something known all along. People kept asking when they will start the pre-orders in NA. It's not hindsight, it's something that it's a standard in industry and they actively choose to not do.
thisisvlad
Member
Haven't watched the video yet, but does Mr. Sterling speak about the challenges of forecasting and global supply chains from personal experience working in those fields in some capacity?
Or is this a "Nintendo shouldn't have conservative policies" discussion from a consumer's point of view?
Or is this a "Nintendo shouldn't have conservative policies" discussion from a consumer's point of view?
you can blame scalper bots for that. they are doing it to the NES classic whenever it went online at walmart and to those hatchimal things.
So you think it's just as simple as like sending an email like "Amiibos are actually doing well!, let's actually produce 5million instead of 500k!" and then the next week those Amiibos be in Stock?
I get what you guys are saying but it kind of really makes sense for a company like Nintendo who just failed miserably with the Wii U to be extremely conservative in their spending and projections. So Idk. Incompetence seems like a shortsighted conclusion to reach
LordRaptor
Member
No, reduced supply moves the price-per-unit higher to those who most demand a product, based on price elasticity of demand.
It doesn't create demand.
If Nintendo aren't using flexible pricing - eg they're not selling via auction - they gain literally zero benefit from third parties charging a higher price than they do, and being unable to sell units at the fixed price they have chosen.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
I've not watched the video but common sense dictates that more than say, 3 3ds units is needed per store on Black Friday.
What kind of logic is this? "Oh people really want a Mario Amiibo. Let's give them an abundance Animal Crossing amiibo instead!". What could possibly go wrong?
I don't know I don't work for Nintendo, it's much easier to believe they had some sort of fiscal reasoning than believe they are wildly incompetent or don't even want to maximize their profits, you know? Maybe it had something to do with a prenegotiated manufacturing deal, maybe it had something to do with the way they approve things based on potential for profit, I have no idea.
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
Wait, Nintendo was supposed to manufacture a ton of consoles that is basically a limited emulator? That you can't upgrade or add games to?
Aren't there a ton of nostalgia fans that secretly wanted one of these things, let alone the people who want it for their kids?
Aren't there a ton of nostalgia fans that secretly wanted one of these things, let alone the people who want it for their kids?
When it came to stuff like Amiibos or the 3DS BF bundle, it's incompetence. When you put out so little product that your product sells out in seconds there's no way you can hide behind the veil of "we were being conservative". No, that's incompetent because you didn't even put forth any effort to gauge interest levels in your product.
That being said - I don't think the NES Classic or the Wii shortages are incompetence. I believe that's a very deliberate thing they're doing.
PSFan
Member
Yeah, I don't think so. It's hilarious how some people are comparing the launch of a nostalgia toy released in the holiday shopping season to a major new platform launch that will release way outside that shopping season in March.
The Black Friday N3DS can't be compared either because it's just a Limited Edition version of a product that's readily available in other versions. And it was also released for holiday shopping season.
hooijdonk17
Member
No, confirmation bias dictates cognitive error in memory after the fact. There is no memory here, no pre order research was done. Its a fuck up through and through.
Nintendo marketing need to go back to business school and take product development courses. They may as well take operations management courses while at it because artificial scarcity no longer works in a connected market.