I guess now I'm just curious how substantial the challenges themselves are. I could care less about exclusive gear, but if it adds a decent amount of gameplay, it might be worth the scratch.
Characters will likely be sold out of day of release. They will not be replenished
so they won't be restocking any of this wave, including the splatoon ones
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
>:I
Ain't Jigglypuff Target exclusive?
Oh brilliant
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
I mean I love the idea of Amiibo, especially for Smash Bros. I was super excited, but I don't really have the time, patience or (at this time) money to got like, almost any of them. And I'm just wondering what the fuck is Nintendo thinking.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
I'm unsure if you're responding to me and/or referencing something I might not have read, read the thread in leaps and bounds so I might have missed something.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Nah, by now Nintendo has all the data they need to predict demand.
They're just not bothering to.
Yep, that's exactly what a huge, multinational business that's been around over a century would do.
Which isn't to say they didn't completely whiff their estimates, but come on now.
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Right which is exactly why the question is "What the hell are they thinking" because they presumably have some idea that at least to them makes total sense, but I just can't see the logic. I mean, I guess I'm assuming they're going to release like, new versions of all these Amiibos at some point in the future one way or the other, but my assumptions mean didly squat.
I mean like are they making a near loss with the amount they're selling them for? Do they not see any long term market in amiibos? What makes them feel like it's not worth it to, at least in their immediate business plan, never ever restock these thing.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Right which is exactly why the question is "What the hell are they thinking" because they presumably have some idea that at least to them makes total sense, but I just can't see the logic. I mean, I guess I'm assuming they're going to release like, new versions of all these Amiibos at some point in the future one way or the other, but my assumptions mean didly squat.
I mean like are they making a near loss with the amount they're selling them for? Do they not see any long term market in amiibos? What makes them feel like it's not worth it to, at least in their immediate business plan, never ever restock these thing.
Nintendo's a VERY conservative company -- at one point they fretted about the blue paint in the Wii steering wheel, because it would have cost a few more cents per unit. And when the Wii was a monster hit, they didn't open the floodgates -- instead, they ramped up the production bit by bit, which led to the thing being sold out for three years straight. And hell, some 3DS releases like Kid Icarus, Fire Emblem and Starfox now cost MORE than they did at release in a biz where, nowadays, releases generally start depreciating in value immediately and never pop back up.
In other words, Nintendo has a general phobia about having product sit in stores and not sell. Which isn't necessarily a bad strategy in the business sense, as returns will cost them money. Doesn't always favor customers, but it's helped keep them profitable for most of their history.
With Amiibos, Nintendo guessed that not many people would want Marth, Villager and Trainer. Which isn't necessarily a bad guess, as the characters are more obscure. Regardless, they guessed wrong, and they sold out. Then the port strike hit and caused most of the releases in a wave to become rare. The two caused a perfect storm among buyers, as speculators rushed in and people figured they may as well buy things instantly. Demand is now several times what it might have been if everything had been available from the beginning -- but, as the Beanie Baby fad shows, that kind of elevated demand can't last. And it probably won't apply to all Amiibo, as all the Mario series Amiibo can be found with zero effort and the Splatoon packs haven't sold out nearly as fast.
The problem with the Smash Amiibo is that Nintendo wasn't prepared for re-releases, and so they're having to reschedule production time at the outside factories that make them (and also make things for many, many other people). Restocking takes some time. But it's starting to happen, as some Marths were re-released just last week. Villager too. But demand is still elevated from speculators and the nervous, so they're gone again.
Honestly, the whole situation sucks for customers. There's no way around that. But Nintendo didn't do all this to be mean.
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
I rarely believe that companies do things to be mean, but thank you for explaining, that does make sense.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
nintendo kind of has to play close to the chest, they are nearly 100% video games. microsoft and sony have other divisions to produce lines of income for them outside of video game marketplace
Yeah. Microsoft makes a lot of money with server, license, and program leasing. They get the majority of their money from deals with businesses and companies.
Sony's most profitable money maker is insurance, though movies, music, and gaming make them money.
I could be wrong, but my understanding is we can't infer from the Target memo whether the no-restock policy is Target's alone, Nintendo's alone, or a combination of factors. It could reasonably be that Target doesn't think they'll see enough profit from their extremely limited inventory of these things to be bothered dealing with the fiasco they cause. If the retailer chooses not to restock they still get to push some of the perceived fault back onto the manufacturer - "sorry, we don't have any more coming in" - while claiming that they carry the product.
What a shame. There isn't anything I absolutely must have in this upcoming wave outside of the Splatoon Trio (Which I thankfully have pre-ordered from Walmart...though I wasn't thrilled about paying full price) though I would have purchased a few over time.
I won't be able to make it to the store on opening day, nor am I interested in waiting out in front of a store, so its a shame I won't get any of the new wave.
I wonder if people realize that it's a bit more complicated than Nintendo simply pressing a magical "produce more amiibo" button.
Nintendo sure didn't! They walked into this thing woefully underprepared and got caught with their pants down.
It's amusing that we should apparently cut Nintendo some slack for deciding to go full-speed-ahead with a project and then failing to have a plan for if it was actually successful. It's painfully obvious that, for all of their big ideas for amiibo, they intended to do a single run of production and leave it at that. Clearly, that was nowhere near enough and I'm really not sure where they got that idea. "Being careful" doesn't quite cut it.
It is understandable to a point, but here we are in Wave Four and it's just the same song and dance, but a different verse after a lot of other questionable moves on their part. Like retailer exclusives, which seem to be inherently designed to limit the already limited stock, which flies directly in the face of their intended use for amiibo. (You know, being available for people to buy to enhance their games) Limiting Shulk and Ness (two characters from two highly requested series) to GameStop after the whole awful deal with Xenoblade Chronicles was pretty much Nintendo trolling everyone. Not to mention making a big deal about Codename S.T.E.A.M. using FE characters, making a big deal about reprinting Marth and then having the exact same issue with Ike (i.e. not being able to find a goddamn one) which will likely also happen with Lucina and Robin and having a slow trickle of reprint Marths only now starting to circulate in the wild. Or so I'm told since I haven't seen a damn one of those, either.
So one has to wonder just what the plan was in the beginning, because I'm not sure Nintendo really had one. And the reality of it is that nobody is happy with amiibo as the situation is and that's not changing any time soon thanks to Nintendo's perhaps-too-conservative approach.
I assumed all amiibo waves' production were scheduled from the very start when they contracted with the production facility. All reprints cut into the planned s.t.e.a.m. reprint.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Seems like a lot of Nintendo's production problems would disappear if they allowed for preorders direct from them. They obviously massively underestimate demand for a lot of their stuff (thinking of the Majora's Mask 3DS here) - if you could order direct from Nintendo, they'd have required numbers.
I assumed all amiibo waves' production were scheduled from the very start when they contracted with the production facility. All reprints cut into the planned s.t.e.a.m. reprint.
Yeah, stuff like that is planned months in advance and, assuming that Nintendo don't own the production facilities themselves, they can't simply reprint them whenever they want to.
Acquiring additional production facilities is an option, but who knows if it's worth it, financially. The Smash Bros line of amiibo will soon be finished and I don't think they'll release amiibo quite that often afterwards. It's also hard to tell if demand will stay at the current level for months and years, otherwise there's the danger of ending up in the opposite situation where there are too many amiibo being produced and not enough people are buying them.
Shelf and storage space are also big issues. They already have to compete with Skylanders and Disney Infinity for both - and with themselves. New amiibo are constantly coming out, but what do you do with older ones? There's only so many amiibo each story can stock and display.
I could be wrong, but my understanding is we can't infer from the Target memo whether the no-restock policy is Target's alone, Nintendo's alone, or a combination of factors. It could reasonably be that Target doesn't think they'll see enough profit from their extremely limited inventory of these things to be bothered dealing with the fiasco they cause. If the retailer chooses not to restock they still get to push some of the perceived fault back onto the manufacturer - "sorry, we don't have any more coming in" - while claiming that they carry the product.
I suppose we'll only know for sure if Target is responsible for that memo if they become barren while other sellers remain relatively plentiful..
Shelf and storage space are also big issues. They already have to compete with Skylanders and Disney Infinity for both - and with themselves. New amiibo are constantly coming out, but what do you do with older ones? There's only so many amiibo each story can stock and display.
Plus don't forget there's the LEGO ones coming out. Just not enough space for everything in most electronics departments unless they mount a take-over of Toys' shelves.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Shelf and storage space are also big issues. They already have to compete with Skylanders and Disney Infinity for both - and with themselves. New amiibo are constantly coming out, but what do you do with older ones? There's only so many amiibo each story can stock and display.
Plus don't forget there's the LEGO ones coming out. Just not enough space for everything in most electronics departments unless they mount a take-over of Toys' shelves.
I can see a Guitar Hero/Rock Band situation happening all over again (ie: piles of 'toys to life' figures left out for the garbage pick-up in 3 years).
Posts
I guess now I'm just curious how substantial the challenges themselves are. I could care less about exclusive gear, but if it adds a decent amount of gameplay, it might be worth the scratch.
Ain't Jigglypuff Target exclusive?
"have you tried asking them to, politely?"
"great idea!"
They're just not bothering to.
Just like Rosalina before her she sell out the same day and onto ebay for $50+.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
I mean, they never restocked Rosalina either.
they didn't even ship most of that wave to the stores
Yep, that's exactly what a huge, multinational business that's been around over a century would do.
Which isn't to say they didn't completely whiff their estimates, but come on now.
I mean like are they making a near loss with the amount they're selling them for? Do they not see any long term market in amiibos? What makes them feel like it's not worth it to, at least in their immediate business plan, never ever restock these thing.
Nintendo's a VERY conservative company -- at one point they fretted about the blue paint in the Wii steering wheel, because it would have cost a few more cents per unit. And when the Wii was a monster hit, they didn't open the floodgates -- instead, they ramped up the production bit by bit, which led to the thing being sold out for three years straight. And hell, some 3DS releases like Kid Icarus, Fire Emblem and Starfox now cost MORE than they did at release in a biz where, nowadays, releases generally start depreciating in value immediately and never pop back up.
In other words, Nintendo has a general phobia about having product sit in stores and not sell. Which isn't necessarily a bad strategy in the business sense, as returns will cost them money. Doesn't always favor customers, but it's helped keep them profitable for most of their history.
With Amiibos, Nintendo guessed that not many people would want Marth, Villager and Trainer. Which isn't necessarily a bad guess, as the characters are more obscure. Regardless, they guessed wrong, and they sold out. Then the port strike hit and caused most of the releases in a wave to become rare. The two caused a perfect storm among buyers, as speculators rushed in and people figured they may as well buy things instantly. Demand is now several times what it might have been if everything had been available from the beginning -- but, as the Beanie Baby fad shows, that kind of elevated demand can't last. And it probably won't apply to all Amiibo, as all the Mario series Amiibo can be found with zero effort and the Splatoon packs haven't sold out nearly as fast.
The problem with the Smash Amiibo is that Nintendo wasn't prepared for re-releases, and so they're having to reschedule production time at the outside factories that make them (and also make things for many, many other people). Restocking takes some time. But it's starting to happen, as some Marths were re-released just last week. Villager too. But demand is still elevated from speculators and the nervous, so they're gone again.
Honestly, the whole situation sucks for customers. There's no way around that. But Nintendo didn't do all this to be mean.
Sorry, I didn't mean you personally! That's just something that gets thrown out a lot in this situation.
Sony's most profitable money maker is insurance, though movies, music, and gaming make them money.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
This image shows what you are doing. These subsets of products should not overlap.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
And one for the NIB collectors:
Pinny Pals Lanyard
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
3DS: 0447-9966-6178
I won't be able to make it to the store on opening day, nor am I interested in waiting out in front of a store, so its a shame I won't get any of the new wave.
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The handsome sailor boy on the left is me.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Nintendo sure didn't! They walked into this thing woefully underprepared and got caught with their pants down.
It's amusing that we should apparently cut Nintendo some slack for deciding to go full-speed-ahead with a project and then failing to have a plan for if it was actually successful. It's painfully obvious that, for all of their big ideas for amiibo, they intended to do a single run of production and leave it at that. Clearly, that was nowhere near enough and I'm really not sure where they got that idea. "Being careful" doesn't quite cut it.
It is understandable to a point, but here we are in Wave Four and it's just the same song and dance, but a different verse after a lot of other questionable moves on their part. Like retailer exclusives, which seem to be inherently designed to limit the already limited stock, which flies directly in the face of their intended use for amiibo. (You know, being available for people to buy to enhance their games) Limiting Shulk and Ness (two characters from two highly requested series) to GameStop after the whole awful deal with Xenoblade Chronicles was pretty much Nintendo trolling everyone. Not to mention making a big deal about Codename S.T.E.A.M. using FE characters, making a big deal about reprinting Marth and then having the exact same issue with Ike (i.e. not being able to find a goddamn one) which will likely also happen with Lucina and Robin and having a slow trickle of reprint Marths only now starting to circulate in the wild. Or so I'm told since I haven't seen a damn one of those, either.
So one has to wonder just what the plan was in the beginning, because I'm not sure Nintendo really had one. And the reality of it is that nobody is happy with amiibo as the situation is and that's not changing any time soon thanks to Nintendo's perhaps-too-conservative approach.
Yeah, stuff like that is planned months in advance and, assuming that Nintendo don't own the production facilities themselves, they can't simply reprint them whenever they want to.
Acquiring additional production facilities is an option, but who knows if it's worth it, financially. The Smash Bros line of amiibo will soon be finished and I don't think they'll release amiibo quite that often afterwards. It's also hard to tell if demand will stay at the current level for months and years, otherwise there's the danger of ending up in the opposite situation where there are too many amiibo being produced and not enough people are buying them.
Shelf and storage space are also big issues. They already have to compete with Skylanders and Disney Infinity for both - and with themselves. New amiibo are constantly coming out, but what do you do with older ones? There's only so many amiibo each story can stock and display.
Plus don't forget there's the LEGO ones coming out. Just not enough space for everything in most electronics departments unless they mount a take-over of Toys' shelves.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I can see a Guitar Hero/Rock Band situation happening all over again (ie: piles of 'toys to life' figures left out for the garbage pick-up in 3 years).
Pinny Pals Lanyard