The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

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JWK
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Joined: April 30th, 2015, 2:27 pm

The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby JWK » July 26th, 2017, 3:21 pm

This wasn't big news yesterday, but apparently ThinkGeek (owned by GameStop) had several hundred NES minis for sale at about 2:00 pm yesterday. They were priced between $140 and $170. I *still* would have bought one at three times the MSRP because I really wanted one for my kids, but I found out later that night and, as you might guess, they were purchased within a matter of minutes.

I've posted on the VGC forum since 2009 and I laugh to think about the number of times I've been called out as a Nintendo fanboy. But I am DONE with this company. I've never seen a video game distributor treat their potential customers with so much disdain. Nintendo under-supplying retail chains with their hardware has been the norm for over a decade. It took TWO YEARS to be able to find the Wii at a retail store. And the resellers hadn't received the memo, so I regularly saw inflated aftermarket Wiis sold on Craig's list for $500... in 2011. Yep, four full years after the Wii launched, resellers were *still* trying to get rich off Nintendo's distribution incompetence. They've done it with the Wii, they've done it with the NES Classic, they're doing it with the Switch and they'll do it again with the SNES mini.

Why do they do it? To create artificial scarcity and interest. Which is why I say they care more about some ridiculous self-congratulatory "see? We sold through the whole stock!" notion than they do about keeping video gamers happy. There's no defense for this. Sony has one of the fastest selling consoles in history with the PS4 and they didn't have to artificially change the market. People just wanted the console and Sony did this weird thing where they ACTUALLY MET DEMAND. If Nintendo can sell 10 million copies of Pokémon without missing a beat then we know they're capable of meeting demand. They simply choose which consoles or products they're going to under stock. And for all their Youtube B.S.-- can't allow some YouTube content creator to give you free advertising if there's a possibility they make some money on the side!-- they sure don't seem to care about scalpers making a boat load off their consoles.

So, the SNES mini (and the Switch) will be my final attempts to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. I plan on buying a Switch when I can find it in a retail store for the regular MSRP of $299.99. No forced $500 gamestop bundles. I want the product Nintendo promised at the price that was advertised. But it's probably gonna come down to the SNES mini. Nintendo has *promised* it will sell and stock substantially more than did with the NES mini. Not sure I believe them, but I'd like to get one of these things without being tethered to my laptop at the exact moment sales go live. If it doesn't work out, I'll emulate every Nintendo game and console through a raspberry Pi without a shred of guilt and be done with the company.

I love your software. I've even loved your hardware. I want to love you, too. Will you please allow me to buy your products, Nintendo?

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Atariboy
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby Atariboy » July 26th, 2017, 3:57 pm

I saw Switch hardware two or three times in the early weeks. But over the past two weeks, I've been in my local Wal-Mart in the middle of the afternoon three times now and they've had multiple units every time. I think the stock shortage is over.

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scotland
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby scotland » July 26th, 2017, 4:16 pm

JWK wrote: So, the SNES mini (and the Switch) will be my final attempts to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. I plan on buying a Switch when I can find it in a retail store for the regular MSRP of $299.99. I want the product Nintendo promised at the price that was advertised. But it's probably gonna come down to the SNES mini. Nintendo has *promised* it will sell and stock substantially more than did with the NES mini. Not sure I believe them, but I'd like to get one of these things without being tethered to my laptop at the exact moment sales go live. If it doesn't work out, I'll emulate every Nintendo game and console through a raspberry Pi without a shred of guilt and be done with the company.


I feal much the same. I am a retrogamer with limited interest in the big AAA titles. I want to like a company like Nintendo, and buy, play, cheer on, talk and support them - but its like supporting a local business you used to like but now just doesn't care about customer service at all, the prices are far too high, and the menu is rather disappointing.

JWK
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Joined: April 30th, 2015, 2:27 pm

Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby JWK » July 26th, 2017, 4:26 pm

@Atariboy - The Switch is sold out online at every major retailer, as far as I know. Best Buy and Target don't have them. Gamestop is only selling them in high priced bundles. I could buy one from Amazon today. But it's priced at $400 from... who else? A reseller. Since Nintendo and scalpers aren't quite finished acting out the pottery scene from Ghost, I'd say the shortage is far from over. Per your experience I will check a couple of local Walmarts out, though.

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SpaceGuitarist
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby SpaceGuitarist » July 26th, 2017, 6:09 pm

I'll never understand the unconditional "love" for Nintendo. They make good games, fine, that is the minimum that a videogame company is required to do. But when it comes to every other aspect of videogames beside the videogames themselves, they are really the worst company in the business.

I stopped caring for them when they basically swept the WiiU and all its user-base under the rug to favour the Switch. That was the last straw but honestly there are some many times I felt disappointed and almost robbed of my money by Nintendo. For personal experience, playing on a Nintendo console is usually two or three times more expensive than playing on any other console, and always comes with some kind of drawback. I'm really happy I'm done with them.

Voor
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby Voor » July 26th, 2017, 6:39 pm

Ehh, no big deal for me, I just never expect to get a new Nintendo product until 6 months after launch. Used to it by now.

SNES will be a disaster, and it's just not worth it to me. NES Classic was fun, but kids today just don't have a nostalgia attached to these games and aren't terrible interested in them. Still.....super metroid, Yoshis island, and street fighter.....oh boy.

Last few weeks , I've seen a Switch at the local Walmart. Started to grab one, but I'm not all that interested in it.

Paul Campbell
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby Paul Campbell » July 28th, 2017, 4:12 am

I just picked up a Switch a couple days ago. I had already accepted the fact that I would have to wait a few months to get one, but while in the game section of my local Fry's in Las Vegas, I approached the employee behind the little counter and sheepishly asked if, by some crazy chance, they knew when they would be getting Switches in, since I didn't see any in the glass case. With a grin he replied "About an hour ago, actually, and we have three left. We don't put them in the glass anymore because we just end up taking them right back out again." So I bought it am a copy of Zelda, and so far I am liking the system. My kids LOVE it.

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Atarifever
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby Atarifever » July 28th, 2017, 6:06 am

Paul Campbell wrote:My kids LOVE it.

It's crazy how much of a hit this seems to be with kids. Almost every parent I know is either looking for one for their kid or has been lucky enough to get one. My son already wants one for Christmas, and I find myself in the strange position of trying to convince him to get some Beyblade stuff or something instead, as I still think they're pricey by our standards (WalMart lists them at $400 Canadian, not that they ever have any).

strat
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby strat » July 28th, 2017, 10:51 am

Nintendo has been very dumb about dealing with NES Classic (mainly by not making clear up front it was a limited release), but that criticism shouldn't be superimposed on the Switch. That shortage is not actually Nintendo's fault (need subscription but the gist is clear from the first few lines).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nintendo-b ... 1496136603

Paul Campbell
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Re: The SNES mini is Nintendo's last chance for me

Postby Paul Campbell » July 28th, 2017, 12:55 pm

Very interesting if it's truly the main reason. That would mean Nintendo would actually be frustrated by this instead of feeling clever. I was thinking yesterday about the difference between the Wii, the Wii U, and the Switch, and how they started off, especially after reading that old thread someone posted a link to about the release of the Wii U. Nintendo probably had a bad feeling about the Wii U a few days after its release, and that probably translated into the limited support it saw through its life. It almost makes me wonder if Nintendo doesn't have an almost built-in success because of their longevity in the business, as long as they don't screw things up. And the name and design of the Wii U is them screwing up, even though I personally got a lot out of the system...


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