When Nintendo announced the NES Classic Edition in July, retro gaming enthusiasts and Nintendo fans collectively peed on themselves. I admit to having some moisture issues with my tidy-whities. Discussions among the Digital Crack crew about the news were spirited. Thirty classic Nintendo games, all in one miniature package, seemed like a good idea to most. Even the price point seemed right.
We agreed that this would be a great thing. We also agreed that Nintendo would fuck this up like they do everything else. Visions of the Wii and amiibo paraded before our eyes. They weren’t gonna make enough of the blasted things, guaranteed.
As I write this, it is 1:23PM EST. Punisher is waiting nervously for 5PM EST, when Amazon will open its storefront to the barrage of consumers looking to buy an NES Classic Edition at its actual retail price. For now, it’s their last hope. Everyone else is sold out.
The NES Classic Edition was announced four months ago. The announcement sent tons of people into a frenzy. You would think Nintendo would have noticed. At the very least, you would think Nintendo would want to avoid a repeat of the amiibo shortages that pissed off so many people. You would be incorrect in thinking that.
The GameStop nearest to my house is a small store that doesn’t see too much traffic. I go there whenever I want to bolster my PS3 or Xbox 360 collection. The people that work there are cool, and I can spend up to half an hour talking to them without a customer coming in. Today, they sold out of the NES Classic edition the moment they opened the store. They only had four.
GameStop decided to decline offering pre-orders for the NES Classic Edition. That should tell you something right there: GameStop, a company that announces pre-orders for games that haven’t been officially announced, declined to offer a pre-order for something people wanted.
Every other retailer selling it is out of stock. My son works at a Toys ‘R Us near me. He said there was no chance to get one; they were essentially gone before the store even opened. The Nintendo Store in Manhattan, the video game equivalent of an Apple Store, had exactly 250 NES Classic Editions available for people who attended their 80’s event. Of course, approximately 837,700 showed up.
Of course, eBay has plenty up for auction. And, of course, none of them are for the suggested retail price. Many of them are straight auctions, many of them have over 40 bids, and ALL of them have blown past $200. I’m actually staring at a “Buy it Now” listing that has a price of $10,000!
If I didn’t know better, I would swear that Nintendo either has tons of sock-puppet eBay accounts they use to gouge consumers, or they own a share in eBay itself.
I understand that sometimes, there will not be enough supply of a product that has overwhelming demand. It happens every Christmas season; I still recall the run on Cabbage Patch Kids when my sister was young and mom feared she may want one. That usually happens when a product is suddenly and unexpectedly the “it” product that everyone MUST have. It’s even possible for a company to try everything possible to meet anticipated demand but still be outstripped. That happened to Nintendo itself in 1988, when a chip shortage caused games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link to experience shortages and delays.
Or Nintendo is just artificially limiting supply in order to drive up hype and visibility for the product. It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve been accused of artificially limiting stock to drive hype. Think of it this way: it can’t be any harder to make an amiibo that it is to make a Disney Infinity or Skylanders figure. Activision only had issues initially with supplying Skylanders figures due to unexpected demand; Disney never did with Infinity.
Shit, Activision has managed to sell over 250 million figures as of June 2015. Yet Nintendo still managed to bungle the supply of amiibos, despite all the data that said the figures would be hotter than the surface of the sun. I call bullshit. I say Nintendo likes to artificially limit its product on release. And that is an absolutely shitty thing to do to your customers.
It’s not a trivial thing to call out a company like this. But when you have known for FOUR MONTHS that you will be selling something that everyone wants and you meet demand as poorly as Nintendo has, your business acumen needs to be questioned. And when you have done it as consistently as Nintendo has, it’s shouldn’t be questioned; it should be obvious.
At the very least, Nintendo has proven to be the most incompetent video game company on the planet. At worst, Nintendo is an anti-consumer company that likes to limit its customers’ purchasing ability artificially in order to sate its own thirst for press and attention. The truth is somewhere in between, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to one extreme or the other.
It may sound harsh to state this, but what else can anyone say to defend them? When a company has so many people willing to throw their money at them – AND THEY KNOW IT! – and they make sure only a tenth of them get to do so, it is either incompetent or a dick to its clientele. Or maybe they’re allergic to money.
I’m finishing this article at 2:36PM EST. Punisher is confident he can snag a NES Classic Edition when Amazon offers them up at 5PM EST. He’s always been the upbeat, glass-half-full member of the bunch. His confidence is actually refreshing, and I envy his ability to be that way. I, however, am the cynic and feel that the only Nintendo hardware he’ll be able to buy today is the Wii U.
UPDATE: As soon as I published this article, I received an email from Nintendo. The subject line was hilarious to me: “The NES Classic Edition is here – with 30 of the best retro games ever.” Yea, Nintendo, it may be there where you are; it sure as hell ain’t here!”
