Bowser Tries To Explain Why Mario's Games Will Be Removed On 31st March 2021

"Because we want you to buy stuff and this will preassure you into doing so."

That sounds like Bowser all right, always doing his best to end Mario.

I just feel sorry for people who buy a Switch after the anniversary is over. Really anti-consumer and it's going to become a scalpers paradise once the anniversary passes and copies of the 3D Collection are scarce.

"And it’s not strategy that we’re going to be using widely..."

Lies. Having 3D All-Stars sell 2.6 million copies in just the U.S. tells Nintendo one thing; that limited releases sell and making money is a plus in their eyes.

Haha he didn’t explain much by saying he can’t speak on plans for after that date.. but I don’t care because Nintendo always tends to keep great surprises up their sleeves.. 🧐

Delisting the digital version is dumb. Not like this isn't normal though, Nintendo's anniversary releases have always been limited, looking at the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Kirby's Dream Collection, and Zelda Four Swords Anniversary Edition.

3D All-Stars won't be going away, though. Mario All-Stars Wii was initially limited before getting a full release on Nintendo Selects. This collection has sold twice as well.

For those wondering, the rest of that interview is just Doug pulling a Joy-Con move and DRIFTING away from actually answering those questions and more

I’m hoping they release Mario’s 3D games on the e shop at least. Especially galaxy 2...

The limited time was interrupting my game purchase schedule as i have to consider 3D All Stars before 31 March 2021.
I'm not in the mood to play Mario Sunshine at the moment as i have hype for other games but the purchase of 3D All Stars just only to secure the game.
I don't even think to play Mario Galaxy 1 again on Switch as i have finished the Wii version in pain, not really fun to finish the game.

@Deadlyblack They already started doing it with other stuff, like Fire Emblem for instance as well.

@Deadlyblack
Mario 3D All-Stars would have sold 2.6 million in the U.S. regardless of whether it was limited or not.

I'll never understand why Nintendo wants to make less money sometimes. They are sitting on a gold mine of legacy content, just of their own IP alone. And the Switch is literally a dream come true platform to have all that content on!

And they choose not to release most of it. I don't understand it or agree with it.

But it is their IP, their games. I'm not entitled to them. So, dumb choice from them maybe. But oh well.

I'm sure Super Mario Bros. 35 will show up new and improved in five more years as Super Mario Bros. 40.

Some of y’all are too young to remember “The Disney Vault” and it shows. 🤣

But yeah, Disney use to release their movies, during VHS times, in limited quantities for a very limited time - usually 1 month. After that you had to wait a year or more until they released them again.

Disney’s approach never made sense to me, but this oddly does. The time frame has been lengthy, so anyone missing out has no excuse, and there will likely be separate releases at later dates.

@GamingTelescope
To be fair, that's also to celebrate the series' anniversary of 30 years.

I just hope it never bleeds over into regular releases. I hate the fact that they want to make things limited at all, but just keep it out of the upcoming big releases.

Was going to buy 3d all stars when it eventually got a discount but if it's a limited release then I'll be forced to pay 50 quid if I want it

You should change the title of this to "Bowser DOESNT explain why...."

Nintendo is going to be bashed for even existing here soon

still dumb pressuring consumers with FOMO tactics

Understandable, respectable that their trying new things, and I'm glad that it's not a strategy. I just think that this limited anniversary method isn't ideal. Although the backlash isn't too deserved. I mean, of course the Game & Watch is limited edition, what did you expect?

I don’t get the backlash. This is like every other marketing anniversary done since...ever. The march cutoff is for the fiscal year. At worst they had to delay revealing a lot of this stuff earlier in 2020 because 2020 has been on FIRE nonstop.

I'm tempted to set up the Wii U again just to give this man a Dr. Luigi sale if I still can.

@Deadlyblack Except that Nintendo games are notorious for having legs and continuing to sell throughout a consoles lifespan. It would honestly be not only-anti-consumer, but a horrible business practice to have more limited releases. Hopefully they realize that steady sales over years is better than a quick surge for a few months.

F*ing up customers is now a form of celebration. What a time to be alive.

Can people stop attacking the poor guy? He could literally be fired if he answers the questions in the way you want. I see this all the damn time, Aonuma for instance with the recent AoC controversy.

You are comparing the personalities of two radically different people. Yes, you need to compare the CEO to it's predecessor to judge if they did better or not, but you are not doing that. You are not comparing the two as CEOs, you are comparing them as people. You are essentially telling Doug to be someone else cause they liked that person. That is a little thing called harassment, if any of you have heard of it. Yes, I am aware that people compare anyone with a role like this in a company like that, but that means squat, just because a lot of people do it does not make it any less of a disgusting behavior. If that is one of the most abhorrent things a person can do to a person they didn't know existed until 2019.

No, you are not comparing them as CEOs either. The business practices of late that Nintendo has been under fire for have been happening in Nintendo long before Doug became president. You can criticize him for not attempting to make any policy regarding these awful business practices, but Reggie is as much to blame as Doug in that regard. It disgusts me that there was no criticism to Nintendo at this level until there were less games to distract them from these issues.

So how about criticizing the policy the company of Nintendo put instead of developers who are given a script and told to say it in front of a camera. Instead of judging a person's ability to be a CEO by comparing a persons personality to another person, judge their ability to be a CEO by the business decisions they make( this one is admittably hard, Nintendo isn't exactly transparent in these regards, but it is no excuse to be an arse) and the policy they enact to help the consumer. Instead of criticizing a developer for doing as they are told and condemning the entire studio for one bad game(starts with a Naughty and ends with Dog), criticize the person who made the decision and give constructive feedback, or better yet, actually criticize the game instead of throwing names around uselessly. Instead of going into literally every single comment section, live chat, or tweet and spamming the same incessant hashtag, keep it to its appropriate bounds and know who you should be criticizing. It's really not that hard to give constructive feedback instead of lobbing insults and spamming.

I needed to get that off my chest.

@Ryu_Niiyama Because digital games are way more prevalent now since the last anniversary. It makes sense that anniversary games like the Wii SMB All Stars were a limited physical run as there were all the production costs and special packaging etc. This is a bare bones port collection with zero special packaging that could very easily stay on the eShop indefinitely considering that there would then be zero production costs.

@Would_you_kindly can pick up a physical copy for £37

That's just a silly explanation. Anniversary-related games, compilations, and other products are released all the time, and while their promotional periods may be limited, they typically don't end with them getting pulled completely from the shelves and web stores overnight. Anyone with a shred of common sense knows this is about creating artificial scarcity and demand; explanations like this only hurt Nintendo's PR more because they're addressing their consumers as if they're idiots instead of simply being straight with them.

I guess they think they’re immune to being torn to shreds for this PR BS, people were saying very little thing Sony said or didn’t say about the PS5 was the return of “arrogant Sony” but Nintendo gets a free pass for actively stomping and spitting on their userbase.

You guys know what real FOMO is? It's having that monster breakfast cereal being only available in October. That's the real tragedy.

They should have made 3D All-Stars physical only and locked behind MyNintendo gold points. Like the Zelda collection on Gamecube.

"I can’t speak to plans..."

When you have the title President before your name you lose the ability to meaningfully say I can't as if someone else can. You aren't some unpaid intern or low level grunt who signed an NDA. YOU'RE the President, of course you can, you just don't want to. It's not that you can't, it's that you won't, and you're simply hiding behind semantics.

#corporatespeak

@rjejr To be fair, he does have people above him. He may be the president of NoA, but I'm pretty sure he still answers to NoJ in some way as that's where the answers to most of these come from. If Furukawa says Doug can't talk about this, then he can't. At least, I'm pretty sure the CEO has that kind of weight over the COO.

I guess it’s nice that we are finally getting some transparency from these guys.

Play these timeless classics! (Available for a limited time only)

@MakkaroniOni Except eBay doesn’t create stock. There’s still the same amount of limited stock which will only encourage scalpers on eBay. Look at the PS5.

Quite a lot of ***** in one interview.

@nessisonett I’m long winded so sorry in advance. I am going to sidestep all the “lazy port” stuff because that is an emotional response and how you (and some other people feel about it, before someone chimes in) personally view it which has nothing to do with my comment or the product’s inherent value. You feel the way you feel about it.

To address the part of your comment that is more relevant it would seem you and I are talking at different angles here, which is fine but it means that we are having a Venn diagram conversation.

Physical print runs are limited by their very nature. So trying to invoke a “times have changed since the last anniversary” argument isn’t really speaking to what is going on. From now until we get a near unlimited energy source and replication system physical production will forever be limited. So that in and of itself is not why these products are going away in march.

This is an anniversary celebration or a limited time marketing plan depending on how angry one is at Nintendo when being asked. So by its very nature this product and all the rest in the 35th anniversary were never intended to last very long.

Which is why the digital delisting will happen and the physical merch will stop being sold (more likely produced, as I expect a staggered shipping draw down). Many of the physical goods will last past march because it’s not like people are buying 10 mugs or tshirts for the 35th so the stores that carry stock may try to clear it out all next year. The seemingly arbitrary date is due to the fiscal year end and budget. Even something that doesn’t cost a lot (housing the digital games on the eshop, the marketing rebrand of the eshop) still costs something and is on a marketing schedule (which ties to the marketing dept’s budget) and this needs to be accounted for and then justified to management and shareholders. There is a real world time cost in the balance with marketing and product revenue and those costs and profits have cut off points by way of the fiscal year.

Of course I am well aware that the consumer doesn’t care about that. If Nintendo left the games up and delisted later, someone would still cry foul. most consumers want easy, persistent, very cheap access to a product no matter what. That runs afoul of budgets and shareholders, so we get the current anger/unrealistic expectations loop that is normal in consumerism.

Either way beyond any other logistics, this is billed as a anniversary product; which implies that it is limited time anyway. So even if Nintendo had the option to pump out carts until the end of the Switch lifetime, no one should expect them to as it is a marketing campaign product that is on a timeline. Now if they did this with Mario Odyssey I would understand the complaints as there is no underlying marketing campaign (beyond the normal “buy this thing we sell” ) however that’s not the case. That said, I would not be shocked if they did a non 35th anniversary rebrand later based upon sales.

However the consumer has been given notice, ample stock, and if all else fails, the second hand market to procure this product. There is really no reason for the backlash other than the customer is always right mentality (they are not). So I still say I don’t understand why people are making such a big deal of this.

TLDR: this is a limited time marketing campaign based around an anniversary. They are not going to be selling 35th anniversary anything 3 years from now. Print or digital. The cut off date is likely half covid19 setback and half FY ending. consumers have a large window to purchase this product if they so choose and barring that, the second hand market.

This plays into peoples FOMO and is disgusting

Still haven't bought Super Mario 3D All Stars and probably won't at this point. I don't want to support the practice of artificial scarcity in a digital market. And quite frankly, I don't feel like that collection is worth $60. I want Sunshine and Galaxy quite a bit, and I hope they appear in some more stable form this generation. If not, it'll hurt, but that's the choice I've made.

@rjejr most democratic governments that have a president have some sort of congress or something of the sort to balance out the president's power, just take a look at the American government system. What you are describing is a dictatorship. Doesn't necessarily mean it has to work all the time, but the entire purpose is to make sure all parts of governments can meaningfully say they can't, that's the goal of a multi branch government system.

And yes, he did sign an NDA. Nintendo of Japan is the primary branch of Nintendo, Nintendo if America and Nintendo of Europe are just regional distributors and whatever, they do have different policy, but NoJ is the primary section and has the final say on everything.

If he's saying he can't speak to what will happen after March 31, it suggests there will be some kind of repackaging of these games. Why not wait until then before bashing the guy?

And this is also not a Doug Bowser move. It's a Nintendo move. He's just telling us the company's reasoning. It seems every single issue these days turns into Nintendo is the devil on this Earth. What a better place the world would be if Nintendo would give away everything for free and let everyone mod and resell their games and hardware. Or maybe the company should just go away entirely and relieve us all of the daily aggravation it causes.

@Anti-Matter

Stop ya moaning

Those who are defending Nintendo here, remember a recently released game called Cyberpunk 2077. Don't defend corporations, they will come back to unpleasantly surprise you.

Nintendo knew for a fact that they where doing and they knew it was going to bring in the money.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Wow. You swallowed a wealth of nothing there. I'm inpressed

@San_D
What are you talking about

@GTHOLLAND Cyberpunk 2077 released with metric tons of bugs and as a nearly unplayable game on PS4 and Xbox One. Till that point, any criticism about the game or CDPR was being booed (understatement) by its rabid "fanbase". And now, nothing is right, it's a literal pandemonium around the game, and CDPR releases statements like they ignored the PS4/Xbox one versions, etc.

If you pull Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury a month after being on sale, I am going to riot

There is no excuse for this to be a timed exclusive.

What if we lose our download?

What if the server is shut down?

What if a cart becomes faulty or inoperable?

Limited or timed exclusives are an idiotic practice and just as asinine.

I really don't get it, but it is what it is. Glad I got my 3d Allstars collection while I could at least.

@San_D
It's just a game. On the flip side if it had been bug free then I'm sure you would be lauding them as geniuses.
But I do agree it shouldn't have been released in this mess. It's because developers are trying to push boundaries a bit too far

What a load of #$(*

@rjejr Yeah the president of the AMERICAN BRANCH. He's not the highest rank in Nintendo and he can still get fired. Just because he is the leader of one part of the company doesn't mean he controls the whole damn corporation.

Everyone attacking Doug Bowser should be ashamed. HE didn't come up with the idea of a limited release.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO COMPLAIN TO ANYONE, COMPLAIN TO THE EXECUTIVES AT THE MAIN COMPANY, not this poor guy who only has some say in the matter.

I don't agree with Nintendo's Anniversary schedule either, but that doesn't make it ok to bash on some innocent bald guy.

You've gotta understand that the people at Nintendo who have higher positions than him keep him from discussing this kind of stuff. I'm pretty sure Nintendo's highest powers were mad at Reggie for accidentally announcing a title wasn't in the U.S. at the time _{^{(some Fire Emblem game on 3ds idk)}}.

#leavebowserthehellalone

That's a none explaination lol

I'm sorry but limited digital run is ridiculous no matter what excuse they use.

@GTHOLLAND
What do you mean by moaning ? 🤨
I didn't really feel happy to finish Mario Galaxy 1 Wii version and to think to replay again on Switch, i will think twice even i have the 3D all Stars version.
I have never played Mario Sunshine and heard from people's review, Mario Sunshine was really hard in controlling. It makes me think twice to play Mario Sunshine in eager.
And limited time also forcing me to consider that game before 31 March 2021 as at the moment i want to buy other console games that i think more important than 3D All Stars.

This article is pure clickbait, if Nintendo Life wants me to keep visiting they will have to stop doing this.

Doug Bowser doesn't explain anything in this interview, it's pure corporate speech. He also doesn't make these decisions and even if he agreed with us customers he could never tell us because of his position.

I choose to believe this a post-Iwata strategy. Definitely.

Don't know why they ask Doug about these timed limited releases. He doesn't really have a say in the matter. Now if they asked the higher ups in Nintendo Japan they might get a proper answer.

Still extremely stupid to have a limited release. I get that its a celebration but still. What about the people who want these games but can't purchase them? The whole idea of limited releases is just stupid in every way.

What i find more interesting is that there is no mention of 3D Allstars being a limited product on the physical packaging or that it has any ties to Mario's 35th anniversary.
You would think it would have at least had the 35th anniversary logo on the box if it was supposed to be tied to the event beyond a marketing scam.
This is a blatant cash grab and the whole campaign is praying on fans FOMO.

I just want to say thank you for letting me play Mario 64 on modern hardware. I got my copy I’m happy xxx but yeah even a chocolate bar that says limited edition is designed to make u buy it so you don’t miss out, it’s just a sales technique. X x x

@Aerona 😈🤣

@0blivion This game already sold in the millions so pretty sure you could easily find one in the wild now regardless of where you live and if Nintendo pull the plug come AF 2021. The only version you won't be able to play is the Chinese version and that's the only region lock market on there in relate to Switch, everywhere else you could just pick one up and play.

@GTHOLLAND I am not bashing them as I'm not interested in Cyberpunk. My only point is, I don't think any company should be blindly supported or bashed. This limited time stunt by Nintendo should be something we as consumers should be cautious about, yet people blindly support them as if Lord Nintendo can't do anything wrong. Hope they don't end up in the same position as those Cyberpunk fans - corporations are not our friends and just see us as means to make money. We should also see them as entertainment providers and not All Father.

Expect more "limited time" releases. Celebration my butt, this is so Nintendo can pull them back out of the vault at a later date and continue to charge full price, in the case of mario 3D all stars.

Why didn't they ask him why Galaxy 2 wasn't included in 3D All-Stars? Why hasn't any journalist asked anyone at Nintendo this?

@Retro_Player_77 Haha I understand, I don't want to pick up a fight with anyone. I like Nintendo's approach to developing games, they are really great designers, but as publishers, not so much. It's just that I feel we need to be cautious as consumers, and no amount of reiteration of this is enough.

He just avoided the question...

"Tries" being the operative word here.

They always make statements like that. They never actually give answers.

Well, sometimes they do, but they're strange: for instance, they said there wouldn't be any more mini consoles because NES and SNES Mini were released to fill the gap while we were waiting for the Switch. Really.

This is nothing more than pushing people to buy these as quick as possible. There is no way for Bowser to giver a proper reply on this unless he were honest.

Oh, look that’s me!!! Arggghhhh!!!

And those that purchase it can't re-download it after March 31st, but cartridge users keep it until they lose the cartridge or sell it. I can understand limited release but pulling it so people that purchased it cannot re download it's absurd. At least those that purchased digitally should be able to re download super Mario 3D All-Stars. I like digital but for this reason on this game I bought the cartridge, luckily I ran into this information before purchase I feel sorry for those that don't know Nintendo policy and they figure it out April 1st.

@Kalmaro,

I am not so sure it will pressure people into buying, there are loads of copies of the Mario collection sitting in game/toy stores, and people have around seven months to decide to buy these.

I'm confused. It's a limited edition 35th anniversary deal. When is Mario going to have another 35th anniversary? I'm not gonna have another 21st birthday, or 40th... What's the point of limited edition stuff if it's not limited? The way people are going on in here as if it's a 48 hour offer, yet they've been complaining about it in here for months. During which time thousands of copies could have been bought...sorry I can't help but laugh.

That was a very fine non-answer

So many comments. I'm not sure why people are so bothered by the topic of this 'so called' limited release game.

Nintendo will have a plan for them after March. Whether that is Mario 64 on the Switch Online N64 service launching in September 2021 or not I honestly couldn't care less.

There are hundreds of copies sitting on shelves at Game and CEX in the UK. Even Amazon has reduced the price to less than £40.

If you miss out then it's your fault. If you buy a Switch after March 31st there will be plenty in 2nd hand stores. And if you buy a Switch 2 in a few years and then can't find a copy well too bad. It's not the end of the world.

From April onwards Zelda's 35th Anniversary will take over and hopefully Metroids 35th Anniversary too. And if they do another limited release for that we'll have another 50+ articles and the same 1000+ comments repeating the same sh*te that this game has got.

Merry Christmas.

@dazzleshell should we apply this model to every game then and only have them available to buy for 6 months or so physically or digitally and after that you just take your chances?

He basically said nothing, it's stupid no matter how you want to dress it up. I wouldn't be surprised if its more to do with them being added to Switch online at some point and they wanted a nice little cash injection first

It’s because come March’21 we will start the Decade of Metroid. One top tier Metroid game released each and every year for a decade! Obvs!

You folks must be foolish if you think Nintendo was going to sell 3 games from one of their most lucrative franchises in one package for $60 long term.

As for the folks that don't get why the digital version of the game is getting delisted, well it's because they're treating digital and physical releases the same because it's a 35th anniversary product.

Tell me, if 3D All-Stars is a limited release across the board per Nintendo, why would that not apply to digital? 🤔

I'm starting to notice that Nintendo fans no nothing about business and think their emotions are facts.

@carlos82

No. Just the limited release ones that are for an Anniversary only. Like this one.

@MakkaroniOni The eBay argument falls flat for two key reasons: 1) It doesn't help buyers who'd want to purchase a game digitally, and 2) As soon as physical editions are removed from retail, the prices for copies will immediately skyrocket.

I realize that it's easy to say, "Well, just buy the game now while it's available", and many if not most of us here already have. But there are a lot of folks (mainly "casual" gamers, kids, or others who don't regularly follow gaming industry news, but let's also not forget that many people also simply don't have the extra cash to spend on a videogame or any other entertainment during this COVID-ravaged year) who may not be aware there's a window of availability and thus will be blindsided when the games disappear and/or will be forced to pay scalpers on eBay a lot more than what they retailed for (and Nintendo doesn't get a penny of that money, ironically).

And what about digital-only titles such as Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon? Once something like that is gone, it's gone.

Maybe some or all of these will indeed get "repackaged" as others here have posted, and thus continue to be available to consumers in some form beyond March 31; that would be the ideal outcome. But even then, after hyping them as "limited runs" it would kind of feel like they blatantly lied to and manipulated their consumers, wouldn't it?

No, that explanation doesn't make sense or it doesn't even explain anything. The celebration should be that the games are realeased, not that they are taken away after the celebration is over. It's like getting a gift at your birthday party, but when the party is over, it's taken away unless you happened pay for it... 'oh it was just for birthday. What did you think? You though you could keep forever haha'

And what about the recent Fire Emblem release? That doesn't even have anything to do with the Mario's doom's day celebration. Yet it's taken away from the esop at the same time as those Mario games I believe.

Great. I hope when they celebrate zelda we will get the cleaner 3DS graphics of Ocarina & Majora's Mask, but also restore the mechanics.

@johnvboy You'd be surprised. Not everyone can get to stores that easily.

@Anti-Matter If there are games you consider more important than the 3D collection, then buy those games. No one is forcing you to buy anything. It also sounds like you don't even really care for a couple of the games in the collection. So I don't really see what your dilemma is

@andyg1412 thanks will probably get it as a birthday present to myself

@Aerona lol

@UmbreonsPapa
I should consider 3D All Stars before 31 March as i will unable to update the game after 31 March 2020.
Actually i can buy that game right now, my money is enough to buy but my hype right now is not to play 3D Mario games. My mood right now is playing Sly 2 PS3.

Limited time made me afraid if cannot buy that game anymore if i buy the game late, it forced me to reschedule which games should i pick together with 3D All Stars, should be combined with very cheap games to maintain the budget.
For Mario Sunshine from 3D All Stars, i can consider from Switch version, easier and cheaper than Gamecube version that tagged with more expensive price in my country.
Not interested with Mario 64, still thinking twice to replay Mario Galaxy on Switch after finished the Wii version.

So I purchased Super Mario 3D All-Stars, if I uninstall it after March and reinstall it to play later, will it not be available to me?

@HotGoomba___Rebrand lmao nobody who's upset about the limited availability feels that way because of the game & watch.

I am still surprised by the vitriol people show in these situations. To begin with how is the term "limited time" confusing? It is a well known strategy used in nearly every market and industry for decades at the very least. It means you have a limited window and if that bothers you do not try to purchase it. It is a pretty basic concept. I have missed out on lots of things especially in regards to Nintendo club items or preorder add-ons. I am not going to cry, bitch and moan on social media sites.
In regards to Bowsers comments it has nothing to do with an NDA it is simply a way to address the situation without providing concrete details. The reason behind this is partly to allow flexibility going forward and also to avoid legal problems by stating things that never come to pass.

And I am sorry but FOMO is not real and people need to quit naming things to make it so. We all want to be the winners in these situations but if you have "anxiety" (see that is a real thing) that overwhelms you about not being successful in these situations seek professional help.

@Kalmaro,

Seven months to either buy in store or online, plus you can download the game as well, and we do not know if these games will be discontinued as a package as yet, they could be still be on the e-Shop individually.

We may not like it, but there’s a reason nintendo has the deepest pockets in the gaming world. Can’t hate on them for making money. That’s what business is all about. It’s what it is.....

@johnvboy That's a big maybe, we don't know yet and that uncertainty helps preassure gamers who have a harder time getting to brick-and-mortar location right now.

@GTHOLLAND glad you are impressed.

They can run their company how they like, but imho it's beyond stupid to pull mario 35. I will be very surprised if they don't keep it going in some form.

Poor bowser having to explain some ridiculous lost in translation limited time offer that doesn't really bode well with the consumer friendly culture of the West. I have a feeling this is purely Japanese and they don't mind it nearly as much as we do.

@Dm9982 the Vault worked though. I am certain my mother would murder every exec responsible and not mind the jail time. Meanwhile I still own a VCR for my disney collection.

Pigs to a trough method. Consumers intake so much product it is insane (and likely unhealthy and I say this as a consumer) and companies have to compete for the short window of attention span that consumers have. Best way to do that is announced starvation. If you think you will be denied something “forever” you will ignore something that you deem more permanent and rush to get that limited thing.

I mean to an extent product limited availability is in part tied to consumer engagement. Nobody is clamoring for tv shows from the 70s and that is deemed ancient even though it really isn’t. Consumers always want the next big thing. Nostalgia sells but there is a wall it runs into.

@HotGoomba___Rebrand "poor guy"

That poor guy has the title President in front of his name. Not assistant or intern, President. You have a title like that, and the pay that goes along with it, you have power, and authority.

Yes, he has Nintendo Japan above him, but he's still the President, he can say what he wants, and he knows things, so he shouldn't speak like he doesn't know what's going on in his own company. Even if he doesn't get to make the decision, at that level you know the reasons behind the decisions.

@GilbertXI Nintendo of Japan has the final say, but as President of NOA he surely knows WHY these releases are limited, but he's speaking like he doesn't know. No, he isn't outright saying he doesn't know, I wouldn't accuse him of lieing, but that's what corporate speak is for, to obfuscate. But he knows.

He's not doing his job is he doesn't know and doesn't ask. And as President if he asks Nintendo of Japan and they don't tell him then he should quit, because he isn't a President, he's a spokesperson.

@MakkaroniOni He took the job of President of Nintendo of America. He is being asked about game decisions IN America. If they asked him why certain games go on sale in Japan but not the US, or why certain amiibo are released in Japan but not the UK, well I wouldn't expect him to know those answers b/c he isn't the President of Nintendo of Japan or Nintendo of Europe. But as the President of Nintendo of America he certainly knows what decisions are being made and implemented for Nintendo products in the US. As President he can't simply be a yes man, doing what he's told, he must be involved in the decision making process. He has to explain to Nintendo of Japan what sales and marketing are appropriate in America. The region in which he is President.

@AnnoyingFrenzy See 3 above answers. I'm all answered out, sorry.

@rjejr yes he definitely knows why, I never doubted that. But he could be fired if he says it like that. Rigged interviews are nothing new, if everyone quit because they can't say what they want to say in public about the people they work for, there'd be no jobs. He most likely likes his job, so I think he wants to keep it. I'm not here to tell him how to do his job and whether or not he should keep his job. It's none of my business. I'm not disagreeing exactly, but you are assuming this is all he does. He's a busy man, there are lots of jobs he has to do as president, he may be president, but he's not the head of marketing. It's just like how rarely presidents or prime ministers write their own speeches.

We don't know what Nintendo's policy is, it's not exactly public information as far as I know. He probably was straddling lots of company policy just for doing the interview on these fairly controversial topics. He is the president, that is correct, but he is not above the company policy. Not even the president of Nintendo of Japan is above company policy. We can't associate what he said to the interviewer with what his personal opinions are, that's all I'm saying.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this interview is technically a legal document. If for some reason Doug did something bad in Nintendo and Nintendo would press charges, they could use the interview as evidence in court for one reason or another. So anything a person of that level says publicly should be taken seriously, so of course he doesn't want to say anything that will displease them. I doubt anything that would get him in legal trouble would have anything to do with the topics discussed, but it's very important to choose your wording carefully, even if it were not entirely true or flat out dishonest.

"It's a 35th celebration" the suits and sycophants say.

Now I'm just saying, I only celebrated my 35th for 1 day. And when Luigi was celebrated he got an entire year. Mario got 6 months spread across two different years, coinciding with the release of the next gen consoles, and ends in the next fiscal year. And he didn't even get a new game. Not to mention that 35 is a weird number to celebrate.

You can call it a 35th celebration all you want, but it sure as hell feels like something else.

@Richnj I've noticed most companies seem to celebrate their 35th year a lot. Not the 30th, 25th, 34th, but 35th. just an odd thing most companies do for some reason.

@Kalmaro,

Pressure for seven months, now if Nintendo had said the game was only available for month I would understand....but.

@johnvboy Yep, and I wonder how many sells they'll pick up in the last month because of this.

It's all speculation, naturally. It's not like they would tell us anything.

I get that it's an extended birthday party that can only go on for so long... but that idea, while novel, is only going to hurt Nintendo in the long-run. I want to see the games remain on sale, and for Galaxy 2 to be added to the all-stars, as well as the Mario 35 servers remaining open. It doesn't make any business sense to remove them...

The thing that bothers me most is the battle royal mario 35 is going to be taken off. They made a great game I would play for years only playable for 6,months. Tetris 99 isn't being taken off for any reason, it drives me crazy

Why are people so upset about this? There’s plenty of time for everyone to get a copy. [edit: just talking 3DAS here] Heck, there will probably be used copies under $60 for years to come. Just buy the dang game or don’t. It’s not that much pressure. How much time do you need to make up your mind?

I don't get why no one can see that they'll just rebrand in april 2021 as three separate hd titles you can buy for 29,99$ after the 35th anniversary.

Yet I can still buy The Settlers 2 Anniversary even though that game is now itself 10 years old. And if I want a celebratory issue of a comic or a book I can buy it second hand, but for Super Mario 35 it’s digital or bust. Good thing I don’t have nostalgia for 3D Mario games.

@Wyndorfff Wishful thinking. See how long it took them to bring original Fire Emblem to the West? And it’s a timed game as well!

@DremrDrone That's the question that Nintendo is avoiding. I feel the same way: Since I bought a digital copy of Mario 3D All Stars, what happens if I need to download it again after March 31st?

@DremrDrone You will be able to redownload the game, but if you got a new Switch and wanted to make a new account, you couldn't buy it on that new account.

I think the game that is Super Mario Bros. 35 as a title will cease to exist, but the game itself will get a title change and go on. It's a very fun concept so I'm sure they will find some way to keep it going into year 36.

@GilbertXI OMG, thank you this is what I'm trying to say @rjejr.

100% makes sense for the physical carts (same reason why they don't print millions of every single smash amiibo, while it does make some rarer than others, any that don't sell is a loss, and likely they can't justify reserving manufacturing space beyond the first printing).

Doesn't make sense not to have it available digitally. If it was a rights issue that would be one thing, but not when they own the IP

@Would_you_kindly If you were legitimately expecting that game to be discounted anytime soon (or ever), then you don't know Nintendo.

March is still 3 months away. Got plenty of time.
Shame it's limited, but glad to know before hand.

what an *****. There is no way to justify false scarcity beyond just being anti-consumer

@Bret It's an example my guy.

It's just stupid in my opinion. Nintendo have been kinda disappointing this year. #freemelee #freesplatoon

@Knuckles

Thanks for the response.

Question: What type of soup is your favorite?

Doug Bowser: When considering the many varieties of soup it brings to mind the fact that, at Nintendo, we cater to every variety of gameplay. That's something we're really focusing on, and you can see it in our catalogue with diversity in games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and even Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System classics available to players who subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online.

Geez people......All that is being said is the Mario 3D bundle would be done after March......nowhere have they said we won’t be selling Mario64 or MarioSS on eshop. This is Nintendo people and they are still monetizing NES game for lords sakes they are going to keep these game purchasable in some way.

Also all physical games are essentially limited. Sure some games do sell for years and they stay around at retail but Nintendo or not that is a rarity. I think N does just fine and so do consumers of their games/products. I like that N doe some things limited. My 20th Anniversary GBA is going for 3 times what I bought it for. I wisely bought many plates for my N3DS and payed less than $20 for most of them and they go for $100, same with certain Amiibo. So I say keep it up N your collectables are my retirement plan.

@nessisonett - "This is a bare bones port collection"
Can people stop calling these ports, let along 'bare bones ports'? A bare-bones port is taking the game verbatim without making any changes whatsoever. It's like if they ported the Demon's Souls remake to Xbox Series X, a straight copy-paste job.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a remaster, because it takes the original game, and shines it up for modern systems (read: bumps the resolution up). Just because it isn't a remake, doesn't mean it's a port, and just because it lacks all the bells and whistles that the best remasters/remakes have, doesn't mean it's 'bare bones' (I mean to be fair, it's not that far from it, but having the soundtracks available means it is still at least a small step above being completely bare).

@Kalmaro exactly what l was gonna say. Aka money money

@SeantheDon29 wait and see when the game is long gone. people will sell it 100$ online and those who never got the game will have bad luck.

I don't think this is that cynical a move and folk are over reacting. If they wanted our money so badly, they would have remade each game and sold full price. Jeez. It's just a nice thing for fans. And if you feel pressured into buying it over the course of a year, then you have things to think about. If it was a regular sales tactic, I could hang my hat on the ranting and Nintendo would go down in my estimations. But I like celebratory events in our hobby. Always have. I don't always buy them, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Has no one else clocked that he hints that 3D World + Bowsers Fury is getting a limited run as well or is that just me?? 🤔

I can understand ending production on the Game and Watch and physical version of 3D All-Stars in March, but why delist it from the digital store? Nintendo is always pushing for people to continue to buy the console years after its release, so why are you punishing new Switch owners because they bought a console after March 31st?

I hope Super Mario 35 gets reinstated, somehow. That game is a lot of fun, especially the one-on-one battle as I fight for first place. It's one of the few times I don't curse my opponent, I genuinely respect their abilities.

@Shadowthrone
the people criticizing the limited digital release have made their points why they feel it is a bad move on nintendos part, if you feel like people are wrong for complaining it would be best for you to give your own take on the situation.

otherwise things can end up like those arguments you sometimes see where people accuse others of being "haters" or "entitled" rather than providing a counterpoint to their criticism

Millions particularly living in backward places like my home the United States are suffering through no fault of their own and Nintendo is engaging in artificial scarcity it’s disgraceful. It shows that beneath their public Disney like façade their heart is as ice cold as any other capitalist business’.

@Mgalens It's an anniversary product. When the anniversary is over, the product is gone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Nintendo hasn't said they will never release these games ever again, just this 35th anniversary package. Besides there being more anniversaries, these could also be sold separately or in a different package with different branding. Nintendo isn't going to say anything about future releases while this one is still available. It's an overreaction.

It's not just Mario. I prefer cartridges, and I feel pressured to buy everything on Switch fast or I won't have time t**poof**

...it's not good for my mental health, or my wallet!

Its just a selling strategy, and they saw that it worked. Limited editions always sell.

@Shadowthrone There have been anniversery remasters and re-releases in the past and also limited physical runs of games The criticism comes from people unhappy about the idea of the digital version being delisted the moment the anniversary ends.

in terms of the games being available separately after the anniversary ends, so far anything related to that is speculation and people only have what nintendo has said to go off of, if the information was different then i imagine the responses themselves would be

im not saying that this is some kind of great injustice but rather that i can see why people would be unhappy with the idea and disagree with dismissing those opinions outright.

Nintendo needs to realize that the more they do this, the more we emulate. I would happily buy this collection if I had the time to do it considering my back log.

"We're celebrating Mario by not letting you play Mario"

So when they remove Super Mario 35 from e shop does that mean it will be removed from the switch itself even if you have it downloaded and installed on your switch..

@Aerona 🤣🤣🤣