NES Classic Mini Demand "Greater Than We Anticipated," Admits Reggie Fils-Aime

I still don't believe Nintendo created faux shortages on purpose. With all their failures lately, I'm sure they wanted to be cautious.

In that case, Nintendo is very bad at anticipating demand...

Really Reggie??? You guys love social media so much but do you actually do any research on it?? You as a company are suppose to know these things and out side of Pokemon and Color Splash we don't have anything else to buy for CHRISTmas!!

Oh and this confirms, only 500k Switch at launch so get those pre-orders in now! At E3 we will have to hear the same song and dance for the Switch launch.

I was "gifted" it before Christmas but as it's sold out, I'm anticipating after Christmas. We won't pay scalpers and we won't deny a family getting one for Christmas so I'm just being patient. I think the stock shortage is disappointing but I haven't and doubt I will lose interest.

I'm pretty sure Fils-Aime is an ancient Olmec phrase meaning "Captain Obvious." Then again, linguists are conflicted due to various extant dialects, meaning it could just as easily stand for "Corporate Stooge" or "Damage Control".

OFFICIAL! Wii U no longer an opportunity.

That item ain't worth my time anyways, if I want one I'll just wait six months until those things reach the bargain bin.

“Speaking to CNET, Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime held his hands up and admitted that the company hadn't been expecting such incredible demand for the micro-console“.

Reggie, there is a trend here. It's been there since AT LEAST amiibo started. Fix it.

I banked 200 bucks because of Reggie's stupidity.

Were they trying to avoid the landfill-full-of-ET scenario? Cuz from the moment they announced it the buzz was like nothing I've seen for a long time.

it makes me wonder if they upped production after seeing early response and it still fell short. or if nothing changed cuz they didn't realize. i know predicting industry demand is hard so i don't fault them, just a big missed opportunity for people who want it, can't get it, and therefore will NOT be drawn back into loving nintendo.

Two or three units at some stores is not what I call "trying to satisfy demand".

I still don't get why they didn't have pre-orders in North America.

I was lucky enough to get one the day it released by waiting in line at a Game Stop, but I expected to be able to buy more as Christmas gifts. Not this year at least.

Guess I'll purchase my Switch in the summer when the March shortages end...

Oh Reggie! How I hate you!

I used to think Nintendo shorts supply because they want to create publicity articles and create a craze about the product before most can actually buy it, but it seems I'm wrong, Nintendo is as inherently dumb as we think they are.

Wanted this for Christmas but given up now because I don't have the time to be watching like a hawk for when (if!) anywhere gets a restock! I might pick one up if I see it after Christmas, but to be honest I might just pass on it completely with the Switch coming out soon. Nintendo really screwed up this sure-fire money maker!

No mention of Wii U from Reggie. He mentions NES Classic Mini, 3DS, Super Mario Run, Zelda. You do know that other thing you made and as good as abandoned years ago?

I've given up hope of getting an NES Classic Mini after Zavvi cancelled my order. To be honest, Nintendo don't deserve my money with how they've handled the situation.

Here in Australia ebgames tried to take online only pre-orders for the next shipment but so meany people logged on it crashed their website, I have excepted that it will be new year before I get one.

Every day we're getting more of these into the retail channel. Like last Thursday when we shipped out one unit to a Target in Pittsburgh.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I was going to say the same thing. Wii U is confirmed to be Chopped Liver to Nintendo (of America at least)

@DarthNocturnal They did it with the Wii Shortages, and with the Zelda II, Super Mario Bros 2 USA released. Only one I'm willing to bet was partially real was the amiibo shortages because of a port strike and many a Nintendo product being stuck on a dock. Not saying the product stuck there would have fit demand needs anyway, but that one seems a bit out of Nintendo's control.

Here in Chile it arrived at almost double the price and its's sold out. Now, one of the big retailers is selling at $150, and I bet you it still will be sold out before Christmas.
I know production takes time and all, but can't they try to speed it up?

Nintendo should learn not to be afraid / worried too much. Please, Mr. Reggie. Supply more Mini NES and also Switch for first launch.

@bezerker99 more like you robbed someone of a extra 140.unlike you I sold my extra one to a family who really wanted one but didn't want to pay people like you.i sold it for retail price.i made someone happy for Xmas at a affordable price.

@holygeez03 it is not, nor has it ever been, a failure to anticipate demand. Nintendo is a hyper-conservative co.* and will almost always attempt to just meet demand--sometimes they miss, and sometimes they don't, just like any other co.--it's just that most of the people on this site pay no attention to any industry other than gaming, so they don't see this playing out in countless different sectors where 'very smart' corps badly underestimate (or overestimate, as the case may be) demand.

*It's one of the key reasons they've been in business for well over a century.

This comes as no surprise, seeing as every other collectible type product they've released over the last few years has done this. Amiibo? Yep. Special edition versions of Zelda and Super Smash. Yep and yep.
You'd think they'd have figured it out by now, though.

This was a sure fire sell out and I think the Switch will sell out at launch aswell.

Nintendo is going to lose out on so much money. At $60, this was an ideal gift for that late 20s to early 40s relative you know used to love video games.

After Jan. 1, I expect the demand for these to drop 100 fold.

I wasn't planning on getting one, but my bro got one anyway. He bought it from a local toystore chain (Bart Smit) some weeks ago. Back then I wasn't aware of the demand for it being so high.

And honestly, I personally don't think it's worth all the fuzz, hence why I wasn't going to get it myself. I played some hours of Mario 3 on it and emulation definitely is the best from any virtual console Nintendo has done (and we all know Wii U does it the worst).

However, it's still just 30 NES roms locked on a locked Raspberry Pi shaped like a NES with a little replica NES controller with an awkwardly short wire. And NES arcade ports such as Ghosts & Goblins and Gradius had their far superior arcade versions released on other platforms for a long time.

Verdict: It's a gimmicky yet enjoyable mini-console, but you're not really missing out if you can't get one right now.

I made the same mistake then.

@thehoppypoppy Well, it counts as "Trying", if little else... :3

Its a great little system. I liked the HD look so much that I bought a retro usb avs love them both. wish retro usb would make an hd snes and yes I know about the retron 5 because I own one. retron 5 was very disappointing but I can't complain because I owned a retron 3 and knew retron's history for building consoles before I bought my 5.

Well it's the same old story. Nintendo are really not very good at anticipating the market overall. They have failed to release their products in decent number, at the right time of year and to all regions for a very long time. Consistently.

Go away, Reggie.

Well then Reggie is a moron!

Another day, another poor decision from NoA.

Do some basic market research before launching stuff, for crying out loud!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

I am Boolivia! I hate you!

LOL...... People.

@Spoony_Tech Already did weeks ago, lol. The guys at the GameStop I buy everything gaming related from urge me into preordering software, too, but I'd rather wait until Nintendo actually confirms the launch titles in January.

@bezerker99

Effing scalper. I hope you know you are part of the problem.

These guys have several social media accounts, you'd think with all of the people that tweeted them saying "I'M GOING TO BUY THIIIIIIIS!", they'd have gotten the hint?

Sooooooo embarrassing and really sad Nintendo completely air-balled thier only chance to make a decent splash in the holiday market. Good thing I didn't want one. I'll be pissed if the Switch has the same fate but I'm doubting that will happen.

What's even worse is how most of their systems are sold out everywhere. 2DS ran out like crazy as did the New 3DS.

I hope they at least make enough Switches to last until Holiday 2017

Wow, even in a topic about the NES classic, we have the usual bitter lamenting of the Wii U.

Jeez...isn't there enough places to whine about the end of a console that never sold well but was supported for four years, that you spent four years constantly inventing new reasons to criticize?

You know, once you get your way, it's bad form to keep kicking the defeated party. I guess you really wanted Nintendo to support the Wii U forever so you would have an eternal punching bag?

Well, you could always go back and beat up the Dreamcast and Atari Jaguar some more.

I don't entirely blame Nintendo for this one. Plug-and-Play units are not typically big sellers. Their function is not to light the market on fire, but to provide companies with a bit of extra cash leveraging their old IPs in a way that brings consistent, but not outstanding, sales.

Sure, they could've put their ear to the ground a bit more and assessed the buzz for the Mini, but MOST companies are terrible at gauging hype properly (and, really, social media trends don't necessarily lead to sales).

This isn't quite like Amiibo, where Toys-to-Life products were already hot items and they should've prepped for that better. Whatever brand power the NES has, Plug-and-Plays are just not the thing runaway sales numbers are (usually) made of.

I was lucky. Pre-order one from myToys (in Germany) and the Japanese version from Amazon Japan. Both arrived for a week now. =]
But Nintendo really should be prepared for that. Everybody went nutz when they announced the 'console'.

@slim80
@iGen

sorry not sorry

@Action51 If commenters would take one second to put away their inherent negativity and think rationally...wait, this is never going to happen, so why am I even bothering? But yes, it is tiresome hearing the same old complaints from people who don't realize that corporations are supposed to abandon unprofitable ventures.

I nearly got one on release date, I never did. I'll just wait for it to become a reasonable price.

@bezerker99 if i didn't already own one I'd still forgive you ... but only because of the 200X comic and Grayskull in your picture

@bezerker99 Almost as stupid as you exposing yourself as a scalper....... Tut tut.

@PanurgeJr - It's beyond that.

They attacked it for it's entire lifespan telling us how terrible it is and how it's a mashup of terrible ideas that should never have existed...

Then when they finally stop supporting it and prepare to move on to their next hardware platform, they whine and complain about how they're abandoning it and betraying their fans...

It leaves us with the impression it's not really about the specific things they complain about, but an agenda.

I don't get why would people pay for such an ancient console. I'd rather wait for the Switch instead.

every scalper today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vohNUTTx3A

Nintendo could have saved themselves some hassle by allowing pre-orders to possibly gauge the interest in the NES Classic. They miscalculated on the first several waves of amiibo and now they miscalculated on the NES Classic.

I waited in line on launch day at GameStop and got one or else I wouldn't be able to find one until well into the new year. My Target got only 6 in and the GameStop I ended up in line for only had 8 (and one extra controller). Pitiful.

Yeah, Reggie, it's very difficult to anticipate demand for this sort of thing... Especially when practically no one was allowed to pre-order for it.

Thankfully, I care very little about this, as I currently have my NES and Famicom still hooked up to my TV, with well over 30 games. If anything, I've been eyeing the AVS console from RetroUSB. That'll be more than enough for my HD retro gaming needs.

Such bullpoo.

@Jd12345678

Censor dat so a mod doesn't have to please.

@Jd12345678 Watch it...

I wish they'd made it so it played NES carts. Hopefully if they do a SNES one that'll happen!

This is pretty much the default statement that seems to come from Nintendo every single time there's a stock shortage issue. I was kind of interested in the NES Mini for a while, but sort of lost interest in it after thinking about what it offers. I don't believe that they didn't expect it to sell this well and under stock it, but it does make practical business sense to be conservative about stock and gauge how successful a product will or will not be, so as to minimise loss/maximise profit from it.

Then when you consider the fact that the Wii U and 3DS had really poor launches, as well as a few other issues with sales in the past, you can't really blame them for being more cautious then necessary. You can imagine there are still a good number of Wii Us around the world that are left unsold, so Nintendo hasn't recuperated money from the unsold systems (doesn't help that the price is still £250, when the Xbone and PS4 are now that price and offer more games and 3rd party support and aren't being phased out for a new console). Not exactly news that Reggie says "Oops, we didn't realise demand would be so high" either, so there isn't much to comment on other than the fact that they should have stocked more purely on the basis that it's the Christmas season and Nintendo have nothing to offer us outside of Sun/Moon and Paper Mario.

Scalpers will always exist, because they bank on the desperate to shell out on it (even with the stupidly inflated prices). If the Switch has this stock shortage issue too (which sounds like it will), then the scalpers will be seeing £££ in their eyes (especially since they can hike the price more than they can with the NES Mini). I suggest anyone who wants a Switch on launch to get a pre-order in now, so as to avoid missing out.

I will take a lesson I learned from Amiibo and wait till they flood the market and start selling them at half price.

Nintendo where we don't do market research to gauge supply and demand, and don't listen to our fanbase or look at fan sites such as this for what we should be doing.

Yah gotta remember, Nintendo HATES having their stock sit on shelves, so they'd rather under produce than over produce.

Eventually they'll saturate the market like they always do, it just won't be in time for Christmas which is why so many people are complaining.

Lets be honest though, most Young Kids probably don't want an NES classic though, few of them will appreciate the games and say they look bad. Yet parents pay 300-400% of MSRP value because they don't know better. What a shame

Guys don't waste your time on the Nes Mini, its garbage. Who want's to play Ice Climbers? Even when that game came out back in the day no one wanted to play it. This is what the Nes Mini should of been

_{Please don't link to emulators~}

I was totally ready to buy 2 NES Minis for Xmas (one for me and one for a gift). Those sales are lost now, as I bought 2 Raspberry Pi 3's instead. 30 Nintendo games is now 500 Nintendo games. Oh well, I'll buy the Switch sometime next year if it's actually available.

Absolutely absurd to say that they didn't know. Heck, upon announcement many fan commenters knew that 1. Demand would be great, as in every store would probably sell out of a whole floor piling of these, and 2. we'd be in the mess we're in now a la amiibo.

Incompetence.

As for Reggie's list of folks they wanted to reach with this product: they'll never know this thing existed this year because there was never any stock on shelves long enough! And people, like myself, said this would be exactly the case upon announcement!

Incompetence.

@Menchi187 It still doesn't excuse that most retail stock only had units within the single digits.

No business would ever create phony a shortage on purpoae for more than a few weeks. At that point the talk is happening, and you really want to sell as much as you can.

Nintendo are experiencing shortages becuase they wanted to play it safe. They're not in a position where they can afford to overproduce anything.

@Seacliff
Why woud anyone need an excuse for that? That was the circumstances. It's not like anyone was promised that they could have one.

I want the mini for nostalgia purposes but I can wait for stock. Been looking for a regular NES recently anyway.

Sorry boss, but pre-orders would had solved this issue. They kind of give you an idea of how many units you will be needing.

I love the comments on this site. People seem to think a supply chain is just a button someone presses and magically stuff gets made and distributed globally, WITHOUT ANY RISK WHATSOEVER.

Sure, it sucks that there's a shortage and they might have been able to prepare better, but that's easier said in hindsight than when jobs and capital is at risk. And to all who said preorders is the solution, that might be true IF Nintendo itself were in charge of fulfilling them or even being able to keep track of, for all of the major retailers in every region they support (which in reality would have been another nightmare to handle).

@NinChocolate The problem is not knowing in advance, they certainly knew. The problem is knowing "how much". "Just make a whole bunch" is not an answer acceptable in any business.

So nintendo isn't manipulating stock to drive up demand, they are just incompetent. That's much better! I can tell you with absolutely no market research that my local target was going to sell more than 3 of them, which is all they got.

Guys, chill. After the WiiU's low sales lately, and all the neighsayers online saying they don't want one, "cuz I iz already hav the games," (I partially blame those guys) and such, it's not too surprising Nintendo didn't expect it to be an insanely huge seller, and didn't make enough units. I honestly wasn't expecting it either, 'cause I assumed everyone only cared about FPS games, & cellphone shovelware now.

Though, this isn't the first time... I remember as a kid how hard N64 units used to be hard to find.

Taking preorders on a product is generally the best way to anticipate demand for it. This one definitely seems like a misstep on their part.

@LegendOfPokemon Wii was shorted for over a year in the US here, but yeah, we all know Switch will be short.

They knew the NES Mini would do good, and there's no excuse for it...they've been doing this for a long time now. The Wii...short for over a year, the Amiibo figures...same, certain games that they've made since the N64 era...short. I think it's a game they play, but they should know better and be able to fit consumers wants and demands. I know they're thinking of the business side (of being stuck with a bunch that they sit on), but it's better to have more than less. Looking around and hearing the people that put down nintendo constantly, this is one of the reasons (I said 'one'). Other than that, I'll get one once I end up finding it in a store, other than that, no biggie as I own all the games for it on my original NES, plus, we just bought the Sega Genesis Flashback (The one that plays Genesis game cartridges too) and also the Atari Flashback System (and the Atari Flashback Classics On PS4), so I'm fine right now with the retro goodies!!! There's no way I'd pay more than the listing price, but to those who do, sorry for you, and very sorry to the kids who are hoping for one under the tree that won't have one. There should have been a limit on the number people could purchase at a time in stores.

@ottospooky I knew that comic book and Castle Grayskull would be in my favor one day!

@nab1 "Just make a whole bunch"
Who are you quoting here? Who said to do that? No one here is talking so imprecisely about manufacturing.

Here's what happened: Nintendo announced a thing. Many people commented about it turning inevitably into amiibo scalping hell. That outcome happened. The trend was Nintendo's to break. Trend. No "hindsight" was required there. "Sold out" was on everyone's mind from the beginning. Absurd for Nintendo to say "greater than anticipated" given the combination of the present popularity of retro nostalgia and Nintendo collectible.

If only there was a way to see how much people would buy it, almost if they had pre-orders to show demand.

In other news water is wet......

@Luna_110 Production on this product SHOULD NOT TAKE THIS MUCH TIME. This is a stunningly simple device. We're not talking about a new console with complicated high end hardware. There's probably less processing power in an NES Classic than a low-end mobile phone. I agree that production should have been sped up. The extent to which the ball was dropped on this is amazing.

@Niinbendo Your profile pic wins the internets - today and forever!

@NinChocolate I'm not quoting anyone, that's just what you comment suggests as the answer to the question "How many units should we (Nintendo) make?". Now, to really quote you, "Sold out was on everyone's mind from the beginning" and "present popularity of retro nostalgia" depends very wildly on what group you are considering. It's very easy to see this only from the perspective of devoted gamers who frequent sites like this, but that's only a part of the overall market, and the device is clearly not solely target to it.

I'm betting they've got half the production line spitting out SNES mini's for next Christmas because that thing will be even bigger.

@nab1 That's exactly my point, Nintendo was looking to sell to a group beyond the fans it knew it could sell to. Only problem? They didn't even come close to satisfying the usual target group i.e. The fans. How were they ever supposed to reach beyond them if they couldn't meet loyal consumer's demand? Which is not hard to gauge, btw (pre-orders, looking at fan-sites, etc.) No excuse for Nintendo to not know what its usual primary consumer group is going to buy. And of course this product had appeal beyond them, it was clear from the start.

I said this in a Talking Point back in a July:

"Consumers who would first learn of this thing's existence by seeing it on a shelf, the audience Nintndo would like to tap into, won't have a chance to buy this thing this Christmas unless each store gets a quarry truck full" https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/talking_point_nintendos_nes_classic_edition_is_just_one_way_to_revolutionise_the_virtual_console

I don't even feel the slightest bit prescient for saying it. The pattern/expectation was there for Nintendo

If anything, this overwhelming demand should increase the chances of a SNES mini next year. They should strive to double the amount of games to sixty, including Super FX titles (Star Fox & Yoshi's Island), and third party titles like NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, TMNT: Turtles in Time and Tournament Fighters, and the Mortal Kombat's (at least II). Even at an increased cost for licensing, it'd be worth it at the end of the day.

I don't understand what Nintendo would benefit from faux shortages? Less consoles on the market means less profit for Nintendo, doesn't it?

I'd sure like to see actual sales figures to see just how much they cranked up out of those factories.

@Ralizah The only benchmark would have been Sega. I'm sure they've greatly outsold that now.

I'm curious. To those that say Nintendo greatly underestimated demand, how many would you have produced and why?

@jsty3105 Customer experience is widely coming back with single digit, low single digit stock in stores in major centers. So... maybe more than than the common 6-7 per store with a mere 3-4 in the restock shipments. And the stores that got between 20-40 on launch were not the majority of places and those stores didn't receive ample restock after they sold in the first hour of opening

It's easy to focus on these situations and point to the massive failures to anticipate demand Nintendo has made, but I wonder how many copies of, say, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, Chibi Robo: Zip Lash, and Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival are languishing in bargain bins because they hoped for larger sales and simply didn't get them due to lack of interest. (For those curious, especially for Chibi Robo, AC:AF, and the AC amiibo, look how cheap they are new on Amazon.... yikes....).

I don't doubt this was all a publicity stunt on some level, but I imagine the struggle of figuring out exactly how much stock to send out when you're not 100% sure of a product's success can be brutal. Had everyone decided not to care about it, these would be selling for $30 or less come January, and they'd be in a good deal more trouble. I imagine they'd prefer to underproduce and sell through at a 100% rate than to overproduce and be left with a ton of stock they'd otherwise never move early next year, especially with the Switch coming in March.

Pre ordered mine months ago from the Nintendo store. Sitting under the tree in the hope as an adult can replicate that vibe you got back in the day at Christmas.... 😊

uhh gee, you think? lol

I can just see them now saying "We didn't know there was such a demand for the Nintendo Switch".

"Greater than we anticipated"...

How much demand did they anticipate? Fifteen units? Sheesh, it's a wonder that company is still in business.

Gee, really?

It's frustrating, but we could literally be a day or so away from the demand catching up and the units starting to sit on shelves. It seems impossible to get one until it isn't. Going by my local Target the last restock was close. Lines of people at regular shipments (of those willing to track online) went down to 3-4 and I was in the two that got one (last week). If those other 1-2 showed up on next restock it's close to saturating those willing to line up and then the people showing up at the opening of the store start getting theirs. I guess we'll see what happens but I wouldn't be at all shocked to see them taking up shelf space in the week before the Xmas.

Nintendo did miss Black Friday but we don't quite know if they've completely missed the Holiday run up.

Just another miscue by Nintendo. They just can't seem to make a good read with the market and its demands nor what its fans want! Even the Atari flashback, which sells well every year, should've given them an indication of how in demand the NES-mini would be! Ugh!! And once again Reggie should be fired! How the hell he gets paid $21 million a year for being a moron in constant denial is beyond me!! Maybe Nintendo of Japan are the real true morons for paying him that?? I'll be a moron for 21 million a year! Where do I sign??

It can be hard to tell real demand from people just claiming they want or will buy an item.

That all said, there's still better options to anticipate demand. Nintendo could host a poll for 'preorders'. Or maybe even having some official way to get pre-order numbers from all the major retailers.

Not officially to fill them (since they send their stock to stores), but if they did a poll with who plans to buy / preorder, they can at least make enough to satisfy pre-orders (+ x ten or hundred thousand for those who don't do pre-orders) to meet demand.

At that point, if you didn't preorder and you don't get one, then they can't really complain as the fault lies on the consumer and can be explained as such. This would have to be polled early to actually have time to manufacture, but it seems the most solid way to anticipate demand, imo

This is such a load of crap. Nintendo you are all kinds of stupid. I knew the moment the second this got announced it would be the hot item of the holiday and that short sighted idiots at NoA would undership. Ugh.

If it's all the same with you, I'd rather play my NES Classics on the Wii U Virtual Console. There's MORE than just the existing titles on that overpriced plug-n-play.

I think Nintendo should compensate the masses with $60 Nintendo eShop Cards, so we can get whatever Download Games we want, be it Virtual Console, DuckTales Remastered, Shantae, or otherwise.

@Action51 The difference here is that the Dreamcast was great and ahead of it's time, while the Wii U was a huge disappointment and behind the times. Also, the Jaguar deserves to get beat up, the damn thing has only 1 good exclusive game amongst all of crappy ones, and the system appropriately looks like a toilet when you attach the CD add on.

I just don't know whether someone else posted this, but Nintendo sucks at anticipating demand (except for the Wii U):

a) Special 3DS versions: original Zelda Ocarina, yellow Pikachu, Yoshi, Luigi 20th anniversary, New Lime Green Mario, Black Friday special Black and White 3ds, Blue 2 and Red 2 2DSes, etc.

b) Amiibos.

c) Scrap the Wii U: I just remember that there was a drought of WiiU in Japan for over 8 weeks.

So there. I'm an avid Nintendo-related paraphernalia collector, in special anything portable, but big N don't want me to part with my money. I wanted to buy 2 or 3 NES Classic systems but no dice.

This sounds like deflection by damage control to me. It sounds a lot less self-incriminating to claim incompetence, rather than go into brutal detail about what's really going on in the company. I highly doubt it's as simple as "miscalculating" the demand for the NES Mini, as well as everything else this year that has been released in far too limited quantity in NA. (Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition and all of the smaller New 3DS special editions spring to mind.)

There must be some major restructuring going on within the company right now, based on their actions in this 8th console generation, for eight reasons:

1) They've been super fiscally conservative with their marketing over the past few years, paling in comparison to their bold efforts from past generations.

2) They put no effort whatsoever into making sure the Wii U was in the most competitive price bracket throughout it's life.

3) They completely botched their third party relations with the Wii U, and failed to have it stay competitive for any significant length of time at retail.

4) They killed the Virtual Console, and failed to develop a proper account system that separates a user's game download privileges from their Console ID.

5) They never made good use of Amiibo, whilst screwing up the stock order between what would be more and less popular.

6) They refused to bring the regular New 3DS to the USA at near or below the $150 price bracket, except for very limited quantity special editions.

7) We found out that there are now outsiders with a greater level of authority in Nintendo's hierarchy than people such as Reggie, who we would expect to be at the executive level.

8) With the failing health and then passing of Iwata, and the instatement of Kimishima, operations at Nintendo have significantly changed in ways that have not been fully made public. This probably has a lot to do with why current events are transpiring as they are, including the almost constant shortages of every single popular Nintendo product.

Nintendo has been struggling to normalize themselves with HD development to an abnormal degree of difficulty. (Examples of this include having no proper 3D Mario adventure on Wii U, and Breath of the Wild being delayed again and again.) I believe that this is symptomatic of greater organizational problems within the company, and so it is currently experiencing a period of upheaval. Little has been made public, but what has made it out is very telling:

These product shortages are no coincidence.

@PlywoodStick Regarding point 6), specially after all the clamoring for a small 3DS, they have a Special Black Friday edition that completely sells in hours (one hour at Amazon). Also, the relantionship with Amazon, is so strained that they usually don't carry any Nintendo consoles and let other merchants (that always overcharge) do the selling. Even the special Amazon Lime Green Mario New 3DSXL is currently selling for 400 because Amazon ran out of stock and Nintendo can't be bothered to ship more units.

@maceng The $100 New 3DS Mario Edition was more like a "Black Thanksgiving" release, since it actually released on the 24th of November, not the 25th on Black Friday. Even the restocks have been very limited, selling out almost instantly. Most brick and mortar stores have sold out in minutes as soon as they open. Online order totals are often settled in less than one minute after being restocked. Only the most well informed, adequately equipped, and lucky people are managing to get even one of them. I barely managed to get one myself during a 5 hour round trip, with only three left after mine, even though I was near the front of the nearly 200 person long Best Buy line before they opened at 5 PM. And I was in a less traveled business office district, with a big enough parking lot to accommodate all the drivers. I don't even want to think about what it must have been like in the major shopping district, which had nowhere near the parking accommodations needed...

Yet despite all of these difficulties, Nintendo is slow to take information and act on it. Or perhaps... they simply have no good mechanism for such things at the moment. But I doubt Reggie would admit something like that. That would be much more incriminating than these claims of incompetence.

@maceng

My buddy just told me the 2DS is out of stock and selling for $120+ on ebay. This is pretty crazy how Nintendo pretty much has nothing for sale this holiday.

@YoshiAngemon I wouldn't touch the Wii U virtual console for these games. Awful video quality and horrific lag that ruin the games.

@cleveland124 You can't find the 2DS anywhere online: Walmart, Amazon, ToysrUs don't have them.

Haven't check Best Buy nor Target, but usually Walmart usually has a very large selection and now is not the case. I'm starting to think that maybe some retailers think that the Switch is going to replace the 3DS and 2DS line because it doesn't make any sense.

So sick of Reggie's lies. He's a snake oil salesman, has always BEEN a snake oil salesman, and will always be one as well. I'm tired of the way in which he, formerly a marketing exec for Addidas, uses manipulation and scarcity to boost the appeal of Nintendo products. (Worked well for the Wii, though.) I'm not worried about getting an NES Classic, though. I'm patient and can easily wait until 2017 when the furor dies down.

I can't possibly see how Nintendo really thought the NES Classic wouldn't be in demand. There's only 2 options here: 1) They truly underestimated the demand but in turn means they suck at doing research and make them look like a bunch of bumbling fools who have no clue what their customers want, or 2) They're creating shortage on purpose which makes them look like a bunch of liars and manipulative corporate BS artists. Either way it makes them look bad. So next time, Nintendo, just produce more so everyone wins (except the scalpers, because, well, screw them).

Articificial demand is a funny creation, because Nintendo doesn't also earn as much as they could. They are really dumb. Because with proper supplies of goods, they would've been the kings of Christmas market.

Suuure you did. What a steaming load. You knew of course that NES titles are beloved, else they wouldn't be sold over and over. You knew that a good chunk of your fan base is from the NES/SNES era and has stayed with you and introduced their kids to your brand. And while comment sections are a toxic cesspool, there was no way you could have missed all the 80s and 90s kids practically writhing with nostalgic glee and saying I Can't Wait To Buy It! On your own YouTube channel. -_-

This excuse is tiresome and insulting. We're not stupid.

@Pod beanie babies and amiibo had shortages for months.

@HeroOfCybertron

I have no doubt in my mind that's exactly what will happen.

@Tempestryke

True.

Though that doesn't contradict what I wrote. Those shortages weren't on purpose. Manufacturers are not willfully being mean or disrespectful to consumers by not making enough of a popular thing.

They just can't set up production lines and distribution fast enough to meet demands, as both are time consuming and expensive. And if you try to dial down the time on either, then the price goes up. Quickly.

Rushing to meet demand on a popular low-price consumer product could very easily be and has many times been a poor choice financially.

@Kobeskillz Well, Nintendo needs to get to making a Compilation Disc with at least 60 NES Games, instead of 30! That way, we can have ALL THOSE Games the NES Classic Edition has, plus MORE that we missed out on, like Castlevania III, Mega Man 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, Dragon WARRIOR I, II, and III (Not Quest), Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels, and more! Compilations KILL Plug-N-Plays, and Digital Eclipse can do this!

Come on Nintendo we all know and you know the Nes Mini was always going to be a big seller.

More Nintendo lies! This is exactly the same as the GameCube adapter for Smash....the same as Amiibos. Tell the truth Nintendo!

Also, I don't blame the scalper; I blame the moron people that go out and buy products from scalpers. Both my sons want a Classic. Both love playing the old NES games. But I refuse to wait in lines or pay over the price of the retail price. We will wait until January/February when there 10 sitting on the shelf at Toys R Us or Target. We waited out the Amiibo craze, we'll wait out this craze too.

@Pod That's true to a certain degree with the NES Mini in particular. It's time frame is tight for right now. However, that's not quite a valid explanation when it comes to the near absense of products like the regular New 3DS in NA. It also doesn't explain the handling of other products that have have been in high demand, but rarely ever or never get restocked after an initial very limited release, such as the Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition. Those decisions have nothing to do with the manufacturing process. They're completely a result of executives choosing not to meet demand.

There must be something more going on- these are much more fiscally conservative decisions than Nintendo has made throughout the generations. Their bank accounts aren't exactly hurting, either. They could suffer millions of dollars in losses every year and still survive for a number of decades- not exactly a situation of being hard on cash, lest we forget the huge bankroll from the Wii/DS era.

On that note, Nintendo seemed much more on top of meeting demand as best they could in the 7th generation, despite coming off of a relatively fiscally weak 6th generation for them... And now we're expected to believe that after such a strong 7th generation fiscal performance, they simply can't handle stock issues anymore?

Make a mini N64 and I am sold!

@PlywoodStick
Executives choosing to not meet demand is always a cost benefit judgement.

It has got nothing to do with whether they COULD meet demand, but whether they judge that it is worth it to do so.

When the Wii was at it highest, they had an entire second production facility running, meaning they output about 24 million systems a year instead of 12, as they did in the first year.

As you may recall, the Wii was indeed a scarcety on shelves the first year, but the high demand meant Nintendo shelled out big to amp up production, and it paid off.

It won't always.

You can't just order 1500 copies of a 3DS game to get it to a few disappointed customers without each of those copies costing a disproportionate amount, and eating your profit.

When Nintendo sends a manufacturing order to China, and pulls the big Foxconn lever, we're talking tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of copies/units before bulk manufacturing cost + transport + retail reaches a break even at an affordable price to the average customer.
For Nintendo to make a really good profit, they need to be sure they can order millions.

You're not expected to believe that they simply can't handle stock issues anymore. You can believe whatever you wish. But the truth is that they made too few, and they need to make more, if they want to sell more. This doesn't happen overnight for physical goods, and neither does the decision of how many to make.

They last thing they'd want is to gamble up the sure profit they made from selling the full original run. Can they sell double? Triple? Maybe. Who knows. If they make double what they already sold, and only sell through half of those, the entire project will have been a financial fiasco. They need to make the judgement of whether it's okay for some customers to be disappointed, so they themselves can be sure of what money they made.

People being upset is bad for their image, but systems rotting on shelves is bad for both their image and their wallet.

@Pod

Well I can't really comment much on the beanie baby fiasco, as I was personally never into them. But the amiibo situation was on purpose. You can't release multiple waves for months on end, with the first being easiest to find and every subsequent wave being impossible and still saying oops we didn't realize it'd be so popular.

The NES Mini Classic, having a butt ton of nostalgic fans and being promised for Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas with minimal releases is definitely on purpose.

Nintendo just doesn't want to admit that they do it. Given their penchant for doing so in the past. Sooner or later this tactic and poor excuse is gonna backfire on them. Hopefully they'll learn not to do it.

@Tempestryke

I don't think we agree on what "on purpose" means.

I don't even understand what you're implying that they would get out of it. If you say "free advertisement" then you might need to hear me out.

The following waves of amiibo were harder to come by exactly because the first wave was easy to find. Amiibos were LESS popular than they thought they would be, so they scaled back production for subsequent runs.

The amiibos are a 100% cashgrab, so they absolutely want to make sure they can sell each and every one they produce, or there won't be any sure profit.

This means they'd much rather produce too few, than slightly too many.

It's always a "play it safe" situation with Nintendo. So in that regard, yes, they do it on purpose. They always set conservative sales estimates, and produces fewer than they might actually suspect they can sell, just to be on the safe side.

When they're in a bit of a financial bind, as they have been for the past three years, they get extra conservative.

If they really wanted to capitalize on shortages through the buzz that it generates, the only logical move is to have produced much more than they initially ship, and just have loads and loads of extra product stored in a shady warehouse somewhere, ready to roll out two weeks later.

This is obviously rarely the case, and there really is no evidence pointing towards Nintendo ever having pulled such a schtick.

To those ranting - How many would you have produced and what benchmarks or facts would you use to support that decision?

The closest reasonable benchmark would be the SEGA Mega Drive Classic Console. Does anyone know how many were produced and how many were sold? As far as I can tell, that's probably been oversupplied.

Also, factor in the massive amount of media attention Nintendo got when they made a loss and consider that in your calculations.