Nintendo getting into Plug and Plays

[Sid]

I want one for the cool factor alone.  This will be a huge chick magnet. 

[number six]

[Sid]

Exactly... A magnet for huge chicks.    Bill Clinton style. 

[number six]

http://www.polygon.com/2016/11/11/13597938/nes-classic-edition-shortage

Interesting article on Nintendos constant inability to meet demand.

Doesn't really make sense. Back in the day there were chip shortages, etc. but with the Wii, Amiibos and now this NES Classic there's no excuse.

Driving up demand like this really doesn't help as a lot of people will just say the hell with it. For example if i knew I could drive to best buy right now and buy one I probably would. However, would i stand in line for an hour? Hells no. And more importantly.. will I still want one in 4 months when supply catches up? Not necessarily.

It's not like this is an expensive item that they were afraid of keeping stock on, or that it was expensive to produce.. or even that they don't have the capital to invest in a large production batch. Even if they made too many they'd sell out by Christmas, these are stupid easy to produce.. just look at how many plug-n-plays are available for Coleco or whatever... and finally Nintendo has crazy money in the bank.

[Niloc]

The Amazon page is busted too. 5pm, page wouldn't load at all, then loaded but still showed "will be avail 2pm PST".

Now, 5:05 it's showing that you can buy it, but only from 3rd party sellers, not Amazon and you've got to pay $5 for shipping (no gouging otherwise though, yet) - still won't add to card though. Whole thing is busted.

I suspect that Nintendo had no idea how big the retro-gaming trend is.

Now if they're evil geniuses they would make it seem like demand is super-high then make tons of these, so people who didn't even want them would buy them up with plans of re-selling them. Kind of like the PS3 - lots of idiots got stuck with $600+ PS3 systems they thought they would sell for thousands.

Since this is Nintendo though, I'm betting on general cluelessness, being behind the times and just general conservatism. "Did anyone check the internet to see if there was a positive buzz on the NES Classic?" - Nintendo: "What's the internet?"


edit: Now the Amazon page just loads completely blank in any browser. Oh well. I'll check K-Mart, but I don't think they were slated to get any.
Not a big deal as I mainly wanted them for gifts, but it would simplify my xmas shopping.

[Niloc]

Yeah that's one of the problems i have with it, the distance would be killer hooked up to the TV.

There's a Famicom version of the NES mini too, but apparently it's a Japan-only release. Markup will be huge no doubt.

With that it's even worse - it's got the controllers hard-wired into it just like the real Famicom and they made the controllers "mini" too.

[number six]

Yeah they can keep this for now.

[Fred]

 
sold OUT

[Niloc]

An hour later and the Amazon page for it still loads blank it all browsers for me (the main Amazon page is fine).

The Target web page shows them in stock but when you try to add one to the cart it says "you're trying to add an out-of-stock item".

Real shit-show all around.

[Niloc]

Optimistic, aren't they?

[Niloc]

http://www.polygon.com/2016/11/11/13597938/nes-classic-edition-shortage

Probably the best explanation: Why spend much on advertising when the news media will advertise it for us if there are shortages. You might get one story if you've got the popular, but readily available item of the season - but the news stories keep on coming if the demand stays high and there are still shortages week after week.

Why consign yourself to the advertisements (and pay to do so) when you can be in the show, be the news story, for free?

Plus if consumers are convinced you can't find them and there is a big demand, they're more likely to snap them up when they do see them for sale, even if they don't really want one - because they REALLY don't want to be denied the option, saying "You can't have it" makes people want it when they didn't in the first place.

[number six]

Probably the best explanation: Why spend much on advertising when the news media will advertise it for us if there are shortages. You might get one story if you've got the popular, but readily available item of the season - but the news stories keep on coming if the demand stays high and there are still shortages week after week.

Why consign yourself to the advertisements (and pay to do so) when you can be in the show, be the news story, for free?

Plus if consumers are convinced you can't find them and there is a big demand, they're more likely to snap them up when they do see them for sale, even if they don't really want one - because they REALLY don't want to be denied the option, saying "You can't have it" makes people want it when they didn't in the first place.

I Don't buy it.

1) This is negative publicity, if they had plenty of product it still would have been all over with people talking about it. If they were trying to artificially limit the supply to drive demand, send 90 units when a store orders 100.. don't send 2 (which is what they are doing)

2) Lots of people are going to say 'fuck it' and be turned off by the entire process and not buy one when they would have otherwise.

But it's Nintendo.. they may be thinking this way..

[Brandyn]

Yeah its differently mass market.

Looks like you had to line up this morning to get one. That's crazy.

These should be easy to push out in quantity so maybe they'll be easier to get in a few weeks.

I will probably still get one to mess around with but i'm not going to kill myself.

Nintendo seems to do this with every big release. Rather than producing enough they let scalpers buy a large majority and run the market.

[Niloc]

As expected, K-Mart was a bust. I didn't really expect them to be getting any, but it's on my way home and I needed a couple other things anyway.

It's worse than that though, while the K-Mart web page has some current video game stuff (Dishonored 2, etc.), the store actually no longer carries any video games at all. The stench of death, and floor polish is upon that place.

Just like last time I was in there, it's still 1982 inside K-Mart. The previous time was several years ago, I bought Skyrim there so I know they had video games back then. Freaking amazing they stayed open between then and now.

There seemed to be 2 employees total in the cavernous store, and one of them actively ran away from me when I approached him to ask if they stocked any video game stuff at all. Found out from the girl at the checkout that they don't anymore.

They did have those holiday tins of 3-flavor popcorn, but even those have shrunk. They used to be nearly the size of an oil drum, now they're about 1/4 that size - at least at K-Mart.

It's weird how K-Mart and Sears have been in a death-spiral for so long, they don't seem to be recovering at all yet they're still hanging on for some reason. Don't buy anything you might need to return, they may not be there.

[number six]

I had a brief renaissance with K-Mart a few years ago as some of them had Nathans Hot Dogs inside. I love the Nathans Hot Dog Cheeseburger which you can only get at the restaurants.

I'd usually walk around a bit before going to Nathans and yeah K-Mart makes Wal-mart look fancy. How they have survived is anyones guess. Sometimes they'd have some good video game deals on special editions and such because well, nobody goes in there.
They took the Nathans out a year or so ago so I haven't been back. Can't think of a reason why i'd go.. I don't even go into Wal-Marts anymore.