DVD Josh

FYP.

I thank Nintendo for one thing about this. It convinced me to buy a Raspberry Pi instead.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, that was the WiiU's problem.

mattysemo247

and soon to be the Switch's problem as well

Adam Tyner

Nintendo has fairly ambitious sale estimates at launch, and they can't sell what they haven't manufactured, so I don't think that'll be any more of an issue than it was for the Xbox One or PS4.

mattysemo247

The PS4 was sold out for months at launch. The Xbox One on the other hand had "Day One Editions" available for months afterwards. Corvin was just pointing out that the Wii U, like the XB1, didn't have supply problems at launch since they were readily available, but unfortunately the demand wasn't there. I would bet that anyone that wants a Switch during the launch window won't have a problem finding one.

It does kinda make you wonder though if they will get cold feet due to the Wii U sales performance and scale back on production until closer to Christmas.

DVDTalker76

I don't know what you call all of the lost NES Classic sales between November and now... and into the future until we actually see real, sustained stock... but an example of incompetence. This applies whether or not you believe they intentionally contrive "shortages".

Hell, even as consoles continue to trickle in to retail, they haven't figured out they should be supplying CONTROLLERS to go alongside the consoles in the wild. We've seen plenty of sporadic restock but nobody can get a legitimate firstparty 2P controller when they've finally gotten their machine. Lost sales upon lost sales.

DthRdrX

We're talking about products people actually want here.

DthRdrX

They don't care about "lost sales". This is their M.O. Nintendo is in the headlines because of their little gadget being hard to find and that makes them more money across their entire product range.

Furthermore, from a cheap sales tactic prospective, it would not surprise me if Nintendo comes out and "answers" this situation by having more than enough of the SWITCH available. People will be running to the store to get one just in case.

Michael Corvin

So not selling items to hungry consumers = profit? Since when?

What was Mario Run's sell through? Not even 10% according to the interview Decker posted in the Switch thread. So did Mario Run's lack of sales help the NES Classic or did the NES Classic's lack of sales help Mario Run? Or is it closer to this:

Dismal WiiU sales
+ poor Mario Run sales
+ lost NES Classic sales
====
Profit?

Alternative facts?

pinata242

This is circular logic. This is like saying you saved money because Target had a sale on jeans you weren't going to buy.

Making a profit is not the same thing as maximizing profit. Nintendo has always been in the business of making money on each unit sold. Just because they don't sell to everyone that wants one doesn't mean they lost money or didn't make a profit.

Also, 10% of SMR trials turning into purchases is still MASSIVE for a game of its nature. A fuckton of people tried that game which means an assload bought it.

Adam Tyner

Why would it have to be either?

FWIW, Nintendo announced that Super Mario Run has brought in more than $50 million in a month and a half, and that's just on iOS.

Despite the shortages, as severe and indefensible as they've been, the NES Classic Mini sold through 1.5 million units in November and December.

But, y'know, NINTENDOOOOOMED!

DVDTalker76

And that is incompetence. They could have sold MILLIONS more NES Classics by getting them into the channel before Dec. 25, 2016. At best, if you believe they "manage" these situations by "creating scarcity".. they failed to manage their own "managed situation". Jesus Christ.

Michael Corvin

I'm just trying to follow the logic presented. Creating demand(false or otherwise) for a product they can't sell increases the bottom line elsewhere. Hence the comparison to Mario Run...the only other relevant Nintendo product prior to Christmas.

On the flipside of that coin, does that mean 90%+ of people walked away with a negative opinion of Nintendo or Mario as a whole? Or at least shrugged off a $10 price tag... i.e. going back to the not being incompetent/are perfect claim.

Adam Tyner

It means that Nintendo's mobile game is a mobile game.

I posted a little further up about how an industry analyst was impressed by that conversion rate (even if Nintendo was hoping for more), especially at that significantly higher than average price tag and not-really-conventional monetization model. The mobile tactic is to get massive numbers of people to download your game, knowing that only a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of them will ever spend a dime. A tiny, tiny, tiny percentage multiplied by an extremely large number can pay off huge.

It's an automatic runner with only one, pricey in-app purchase, so it never had a shot at being the next Clash of Clans or whatever.

There's a tremendous amount of ground between "incompetent" and "perfect". I'm sure it's a controversial statement, but I would dare say that Nintendo is somewhere in between those two extremes.

You'll certainly get no argument from me about how badly botched the NES Classic Mini has been, though.

pinata242

I dunno. I don't think very many people pay for apps. I rarely do but that doesn't mean I have a negative opinion of a demo.

DthRdrX

You obviously have no idea how brand awareness works. Mcdonalds and Coke don't make any money off the ads they pay tens/hundreds of millions for every year. They count on brand awareness when someone goes to make a soda purchase.

Nintendo has a hot product. You can't find it anywhere, but everyone is talking about Nintendo because of it. As a result, they sell more products across the board, many of which have better profit margins.

slop101

But that's the job of the advertisers/marketing, not manufacturing.

fumanstan

Incompetence is kind of harsh, but I think it's fairly apt with the NES Classic.

Mario Run is kind of a weird situation, especially since the masses have adapted to the microtransaction model and are used to the bulk of games being free. Which is funny, given how vocal I recall gamers being about preferring to pay once for a title rather then nickle and diming for play time or boosts.

mattysemo247

What other hot Nintendo products are people flocking to when they can't find the NES classic? I would say that theory might work in some cases for other companies, but I'm not seeing that Nintendo is one of them.

majorjoe23

I'd buy that, if there was other stock out. It was almost impossible to find 3DS (I saw maybe two 2DS in the wild) and Nintendo seemed to pull the Wii U before the holidays. It probably helped raise awareness of the Switch, but they weren't available to preorder before the holidays, were they?

Adam Tyner

You remember correctly. Preorders for the Switch didn't start going up until wee hours of the morning on 1/13. For all intents and purposes, there were no NES Classic Mini preorders (just Target and Toys R Us, IIRC, and I don't think it was even for that long).

Michael Corvin

Nope, I get it, I'm just not buying that excuse in regards to the NES Classic. Coke is a horrible analogy. They have billions of machines, restaurant availabilty and grocery stock for people to buy the second they want one. Can't find a NES Classic at the busiest time of the year? What Nintendo brand product were people going to buy to take advantage of buzz and so called "brand awareness" being created by this shortage? Mario Run? Amiibos? We know it's not Amiibos because they cant figure out that distribution channel and demand either.

fujishig

I said it before, but I think it helped their image somewhat in the eyes of the public to have a hot, in demand system right before the Switch press conference. A reminder that hey, you better preorder this if you want this, to make people forget what a failure the WiiU was and wait on the system.

Amiibos is another thing that I think worked, whether intentional or not. Here you have these little, expensive figurines that do very little for any video game, and they become a hot property precisely because of the scarcity and craze behind them. For sure if those weren't rare to start out with, they wouldn't have sold like they did, and at least at my local Target they still have more shelf space than the new Skylanders game.

Rob V

Brand awareness is great and all but I'm not buying Nintendo or Honda or any other product I'm aware of just because we're bitching about short stocked Mini NES's. Nintendo dropped the ball big time (they always do) and instead of getting a Mini, I got a Pi and couldn't be happier.

Michael Corvin

I can sorta go with that but how much of that is the general public really going to affect? Core gamers, that care about a Nintendo conference, are going to eat up the launch supplies anyway.

Similarly, I'm probably going to take the cash I had set aside for the Switch and get my first iPad.

So much for that brand awareness and scarcity working out for them.