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Forums - Nintendo - Are the Amiibo & Gamecube adapter shortages strategic?

 

Do you think the shortages might be strategic?

Yes 34 42.50%
 
No 25 31.25%
 
I think you need to stop self medicating 20 25.00%
 
Total:79
mine on 03 January 2015
Fusioncode said:
Most amiibos are well stocked at retailers. Nintendo made sure that few Amiibos would have very limited stock in order to create some sort of artificial demand. I have no idea what they're doing with Gamecube adapters though.

I don't buy into that "artifical demand" thing. 

ANY company would estimate the demand of their first batch on the popularity of the characters.

They did test the waters and adjust production accordingly. 

 

Nintendos policy on the Amiibos was clear from the first day on: they try to satisfy the demand but cannot ensure that everybodys demand will be satisfied.

If thats "artifical demand" - than its in the collectors brains and WHISHES as it means that some figurines would be possible more valuable than other ones...



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mine on 03 January 2015
TheGoldenBoy said:
I wouldn't be surprised, but it's honestly quite stupid how they won't make more adapters.

They WILL make more adapters. It's just the underestimated demand when calculating the first batch.

Thats a shame as many will have bought Smash on the eShop out of a single reason: don't have the change the disc...

 

Seems like Nintendo is betting that Smash momentum isn't going away that soon and they will sell the games and adapters at any time...



The_Yoda on 03 January 2015
mine said:
Gamecube Controller Adapter -> Nintendo is hurting them BIG with that shortage.

Amiibos -> too much demand in conjunction with too many characters means trouble.

Kudos to Nintendo PR for making the most out of the Amiibo situation which seem only to be that worse within the US.

In Europe there is no shortage on any of the Amiibo characters. Nintendo should be more worried about having them not presented that well and having less shelf space than Skylanders or Infinity...

I wasn't aware of that, so they have Marth and Little Mac on most store shelves?



The_Yoda on 03 January 2015
mine said:
Fusioncode said:
Most amiibos are well stocked at retailers. Nintendo made sure that few Amiibos would have very limited stock in order to create some sort of artificial demand. I have no idea what they're doing with Gamecube adapters though.

I don't buy into that "artifical demand" thing. 

ANY company would estimate the demand of their first batch on the popularity of the characters.

They did test the waters and adjust production accordingly. 

 

Nintendos policy on the Amiibos was clear from the first day on: they try to satisfy the demand but cannot ensure that everybodys demand will be satisfied.

If thats "artifical demand" - than its in the collectors brains and WHISHES as it means that some figurines would be possible more valuable than other ones...

@ Bolded now I'm not speaking to the long term at the moment but if you take a look on Ebay right now some figures are absolutely more valuable than others.  I've seen Marth alone go for 10 times it's retail price.  I haven't been following them too closely but a Marth seems to consistently net around $70. Now I'll grant you this is likely to crash if they provide a next shipment that more closely mirrors the demand, we will just have to wait and see.



Skullwaker on 03 January 2015

I personally just don't think they anticipated the demand for lesser known amiibo and since the adapter was primarily created to appeal to the competitive market, I don't think they knew that other players would still desire it as well.



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MoHasanie on 04 January 2015
The_Yoda said:

Would you be willing to lose out one Christmas season to sell better the rest of the year with inflated demand? Again I'll site the Wii, it was hard to come by at least one season yet it did not seem to cost the in sales in the long run, it was in demand for quite some time. Not only that but it was riskier as there were other consoles a consumer could purchase, not the case with either the adapters or the Amiibos so far as I know.

I don't understand your logic. The holidays are the busiest and most profitable time of the year for retailers. Of course they would want to keep their products in stock. And do you think gamecube adapters are in such high demand that they will sell millions and sell out in minutes? There are only a very small amount of big smash bros fans who are even interested in getting the device. 



    

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Maraccuda on 04 January 2015

The only amiibos sold locally here are Mario and Pikachu, all the rest sell out within the first week.

If this was Nintendos strategy its a stupid one.

I understand how the desire to buy something before it sells out will increase sales at a later date, but youd think they would learn by Wave 3 which is mostly sold out already.



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mine on 04 January 2015
The_Yoda said:
mine said:
Gamecube Controller Adapter -> Nintendo is hurting them BIG with that shortage.

Amiibos -> too much demand in conjunction with too many characters means trouble.

Kudos to Nintendo PR for making the most out of the Amiibo situation which seem only to be that worse within the US.

In Europe there is no shortage on any of the Amiibo characters. Nintendo should be more worried about having them not presented that well and having less shelf space than Skylanders or Infinity...

I wasn't aware of that, so they have Marth and Little Mac on most store shelves?

Easy to get. I was even thinking about buying them and selling them to the US via ebay ...

Also: "store shelves" sound to good to be true. Of course there are some of the special displays from Nintendo, but I've also seen 100+ of Amiibos dumped into a bin where you can "search" them on your own...



mine on 04 January 2015
MoHasanie said:

I don't understand your logic. The holidays are the busiest and most profitable time of the year for retailers. Of course they would want to keep their products in stock. And do you think gamecube adapters are in such high demand that they will sell millions and sell out in minutes? There are only a very small amount of big smash bros fans who are even interested in getting the device. 


I'm not a big Smash fan. My first copy was Brawl and I played it about 10 times. BUT i want to have the adapter as I own a GC controller.

I hope for Nintendos sake that there are many Smash fans still holding of to make the jump from their GameCube to the Wii U. Waiting for a decent supply of adapters so they can take their Controllers with them...



mine on 04 January 2015
Maraccuda said:
The only amiibos sold locally here are Mario and Pikachu, all the rest sell out within the first week.

If this was Nintendos strategy its a stupid one.

I understand how the desire to buy something before it sells out will increase sales at a later date, but youd think they would learn by Wave 3 which is mostly sold out already.


It wasn't NIntendos strategy. But their first attemp into the figurines market.

Image manufactoring 24 figures: creating, molding, getting up the production lines, forecasting demand, keeping the channels filled...

Almost like releasing 24 games within 3 months.

 

Whats missing from EVERY discussion is the possibility that their production "yield" isn't as expected. While we have seen some erronous Amiibos on sale, we don't know how many of them were trashed already at the production site...

 

Those might be "only" plastic figurines - but they are great ones. The quality is really exceptional and value for money is high. In a Iwata Asks about the Nintendo 3DS XL they stated that they needed weeks (!!) to get the color right...

 

I expect Nintendo to "rebatch" some of the most demanded Amiibos after the 3rd wave. It makes more sense to them money wise to create a ton of new collectors at the expense of offending some existing collectors...

 

In fact I personally was interested in only 3-4 Amiibos (out of 24) and now I've all which are on sale. At the end of Wave 3 it will be like Nintendo have sold me a second Wii U...