PixlBit

Back in the good ol’ days of the NES, I vaguely recall Nintendo being accused of fabricating cartridge shortages to help stimulate the demand for certain, prominent titles.  Indeed, I can distinctly remember the inexplicable scarcity of Super Mario Bros. 3—it took my poor friend months to snag a copy.  The Big N would eventually be hit with anti-trust charges for this and other, more egregious sins—the worst of which involved price-fixing and the bullying of retailers into only carrying certain products.  But it wasn’t really until Sega’s success with its Genesis console that Nintendo was finally humbled enough to dial back some of its worst transgressions.

History is nothing but an echo chamber that inevitably repeats itself, however, and years later, it looks like Nintendo might be up to some of its old shenanigans again.  This time, the Big N is apparently withholding shipments of certain games to retailers, or worse, is simply not manufacturing the games in suitable quantities to begin with.  The first indications appeared when the highly anticipated Fire Emblem: Awakening finally graced store shelves—or didn’t, as the case may be.  It seems the game wasn’t released/delivered in the proper quantities, forcing some to wait weeks before procuring a copy.  In fact, some are still waiting—even Amazon.com remains unable to fulfill orders, leaving the task to other dealers partnered with the site.

And matters have not improved since then.  According to a personal buddy working at a local GameStop, his store only received two copies of Luigi’s Mansion, thus leaving his store unable to even satisfy preorders.  And his shop is not alone in the debacle, as GameStops all across the (Orlando) area have suffered the same shortages.  And Nintendo’s solution?  Sell consumers the prepaid downloadable copies instead, which can be redeemed later on Nintendo’s eShop service.

Iwata-san, what are ye up to?

Ah, but perhaps circumstances are now starting to make more sense—could Nintendo, which is known for cutting costs whenever it can, be trying to subtly coerce its customers into buying digital copies instead?  It’s certainly cheaper than having to actually manufacture the game cards, their respective casings and manuals, and then delivering them to stores.  And as seen in the ‘80s, withholding titles tends to spur customer interest.

Or not.  Copies of both games are starting to trickle back to retailers, so perhaps the Big N is simply incompetent on the distribution side of things, or is simply underestimating demand for its own product.

Nevertheless, one has to wonder…

 

Thanks to PennyArcade.com for the image.