Nintendo WTF

[The Minsky Moment]

This is more of a business related post than strictly gaming but close enough.  Supposedly they are pulling the Wii U.  Not just stop selling but actually pulling it from stores.  I get that - the U was a commercial flop.  But the 3DS OTOH has been successful.  And cannot be found in stores.  Hasn't been available for a while now.  Even the 2DS is starting to sell out.  Then there's the "Classic" NES which is one of the bit hits of the season.  Except it isn't because there are no units to sell.  This is truly a bizarre business model.  Sony and MSFT are pulling out the stops to sell millions of units for Christmas, and Nintendo is basically refusing to supply any hardware product whatsoever.  Any clue what the thinking is here?

[Valmy]

Wait what? I own a Wii U. Fuck. What are they going to replace it with?

[Grey Fox]

It's called the switch, will be out in March, information revealed on January 12th.

I don't get Nintendo, their hardware is impossible to find anywhere. The japanese business model of "queues being a good thing" is infuriating.

[Valmy]

March?

Well I guess I know what the Easter Bunny is bringing David.

[Ed Anger]

Weird eggs.

[Grey Fox]

March?

Well I guess I know what the Easter Bunny is bringing David.

Yes, expect a 250$ Sku.

[Duque de Bragança]

North American thing? The 3DS is still available here. 2DS also.
Or is the old 3DS (not New 3DS) being pulled out?

As for shortages, this is known as the Nintendo model by some - mean - people cf. Wii in the first years of its existence.

[Grey Fox]

Yeah, it's NoA doing who knows what.

[Syt]

Nintendo seems to relish artificial scarcity. Think of the whole Amibo thing where production runs were below demand, and the mini NES is another example. I think Jim Sterling mentioned that he talked to friends in retail who would receive 3 or so of the consoles at launch, and then another two or three a few weeks later.

Add their backwards YouTube approach where they will usually claim the monetization if activated (though they made a "fair offer" of taking a signifcant chunk of gross ad revenue from YouTubers in exchange for not slapping them with copyright claims).

[The Minsky Moment]

Yes I know the artificial scarcity tactic.  But the whole point is to generate pent up demand and marketing buzz that is then taken advantage of by supply later.  If the plan was to generate buzz during the Black Friday week by restricting supply and then feed in product in December I would get it.  But they are whiffing on the entire season.  In North America that means you lose the sale.  The casual customer that got hooked on the buzz moves on.  They are leaving a LOT of money of the table this season.

[Duque de Bragança]

Yes I know the artificial scarcity tactic.  But the whole point is to generate pent up demand and marketing buzz that is then taken advantage of by supply later.  If the plan was to generate buzz during the Black Friday week by restricting supply and then feed in product in December I would get it.  But they are whiffing on the entire season.  In North America that means you lose the sale.  The casual customer that got hooked on the buzz moves on.  They are leaving a LOT of money of the table this season.

This happened before, namely for the Wii, and Nintendo lost money the way you describe it.

[The Brain]

I'm shocked that westerners believe that everything has to be about monetary gain.

[Valmy]

I'm shocked that westerners believe that everything has to be about monetary gain.

Japan hasn't been about monetary gain since the 80s.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm shocked that westerners believe that everything has to be about monetary gain.

Right - Nintendo doesn't care about monetary gain.  That explains the premium pricing on the new Mario app.

I don't buy the brilliant managed scarcity strategy.  They certainly didn't carefully manage supply on the "U" .  They just seem to do an incredibly lousy job of planning for demand and managing the supply chain - the very things Japanese companies are supposed to be really good at.

[Duque de Bragança]

I'm shocked that westerners believe that everything has to be about monetary gain.

Right - Nintendo doesn't care about monetary gain.  That explains the premium pricing on the new Mario app.

I don't buy the brilliant managed scarcity strategy.  They certainly didn't carefully manage supply on the "U" .  They just seem to do an incredibly lousy job of planning for demand and managing the supply chain - the very things Japanese companies are supposed to be really good at.

The Wii U did not sell well, scarcity was not never a problem, unless you mean the scarcity of sales. 
The Wii did sell well. Yes, that's the problem, people mixed up the both of them so felt no need to buy a new one.