Author Topic: Nintendo: Out of Gamecubes? (Read 6514 times)

joshnickerson · « **on:** February 20, 2004, 11:55:22 AM »

Forgive me if this is old news, and if so, feel free to mock me openly.

We recently ran out of stock on Gamecubes at the Wal-Mart I worked at, and when we scanned in the UPC code to order more, we found out it had been deleted from the warehouse. Well, today we found out the reason why. Nintendo has simply run out of Gamecubes! So, it's gonna be at least a month before we get more in.
So it's basically good news that Nintendo has sold so many cubes, but bad news if people who haven't gotten one that want one can't get one.

WuTangTurtle · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2004, 12:31:47 PM »

Yeah a bit old news, Gamecubes have been gone since Christmas. I work at a Sam goody store, and we havent seen any since then and yet we have like 10 ps2 and like 5 xbox, yet we havent sold any for awhile either. I'm actually having a bunch of ppl ask for gamecubes alot and they keep saying "Dude i can't find it anywhere!"

Avinash_Tyagi · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2004, 11:18:32 AM »

Well remember Nintendo idled production in the summer and early fall, as a result they lost 4 months of cube production. When the price cut boom exceeded expectations Nintendo wasn't able to get its production back up in time to meet demand ,as a result their have been shortages in the market place, Economics 101, demand exceeded supply.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2004, 07:41:08 PM »

Be happy we have price fixing, in a free market the price of GCs would skyrocket now.

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2004, 08:57:37 PM »

The walmarts near me still have some, so does the best buy.

....
Kind of makes me wonder what the going price on ebay is. (Though I wouldn't do it.)

Matrix · « **Reply #5 on:** February 22, 2004, 08:07:37 AM »

The good news is Nintendo has a ton of demand.

The bad news is that they're sales are going to drop really low until the GC supply is renewed. If you check this monthes sales chart, I bet big N has dropped to third again.

Sort of a double-edged sword. It turns out halting GC production was a bad idea.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #6 on:** February 22, 2004, 08:42:52 AM »

Only in retrospect- at the time it was the only thing Nintendo could have done.

Matrix · « **Reply #7 on:** February 22, 2004, 08:55:41 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mouse_clicker
Only in retrospect- at the time it was the only thing Nintendo could have done.

Aye. I don't think anyone was expecting this much demand for the GC.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #8 on:** February 22, 2004, 09:03:49 PM »

They had to halt production. They ran out of warehouse space and noone bought their huge overstock. Now they are probably selling as many as they are producing...

ruby_onix · « **Reply #9 on:** February 22, 2004, 11:17:02 PM »

I was at my local EB about a week ago, and a customer asked the clerk if GameCubes were still coming with free disks full of the classic Zelda games. The clerk said that he didn't know, because they've been completely sold out of GameCubes since back in December (two months ago), when Nintendo launched that promotion, and everybody snapped them up.

Nintendo supposedly sold a cool million units in December (the entire amount that the XBox was leading by in North America). But they sold out halfway through the month. Then the XBox coasted along with two prime weeks of no competition (from the other "PS2 alternative"), and sold another million hardware units of their own in December.

I saw some January hardware numbers in another forum. So I have no way of knowing if they're real, but...

PS2: 338,000
GBA: 299,000
Xbox: 192,000
GCN: 131,000

Back down to last place in America, again. Because they're still sold out. Now that's just sad. Nintendo is going to completely kill off their "momentum" by the time they get their butts back in gear.

Sure, we can say that Nintendo had "no choice" but to cut their production because their warehouses were full, but Iwata himself has said that they made a mistake, in that the drop to $99 was a clear part of their plans even earlier, but after the lackluster price cuts of E3 they decided to "play it safe" and grab for some extra profit by just including the GBP with the GameCube instead of a price drop.

Nintendo has needed to "get serious" with the GameCube since day 1. They should've played hardball. Your competitors are showing a weakness? Maybe they're holding something back? So what? Use overkill. You've got a reputation to rebuild, and you need to impress people.

Also, if Nintendo knew they had a "plan A" (price cut) to fall back on, since "plan B" (the GBP instead of a game) wasn't working, why didn't they have a little more faith in themselves? Rent some more warehouse space. They should've known that there was a possible sales surge coming (although I suppose the GameCube up until now hasn't really inspired a lot of confidence).

Sure, it seems impressive to think that their warehouses were completely "full", and now they're completely "empty", but when it comes right down to it, their plan for this winter was only to "do as well as the XBox".

Edit: The MagixBox also has the same numbers I mentioned. They also have the total North American sales.

PS2 - 22,596,000
GBA - 20,248,000
XBox - 7,983,000
GCN - 6,996,000

Actraiser · « **Reply #10 on:** February 23, 2004, 01:58:42 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: BlkPaladin
The walmarts near me still have some, so does the best buy.

....
Kind of makes me wonder what the going price on ebay is. (Though I wouldn't do it.)

same as they always have, surprisingly. i guess because there isnt a xmas coming up, no one is really scrambling

Ymeegod · « **Reply #11 on:** February 23, 2004, 03:45:51 AM »

"Back down to last place in America, again. Because they're still sold out."

Hmm. If I recall correctly nintendo's plants can easily produce 1/2 million units per month and even higher.

Cap · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23, 2004, 04:38:24 AM »

obviously nintendo just doesnt care anymore. they are focusing their efforts on yet another piece of hardware while they cant even put gamecubes on the shelf? they had a real opportunity to catch up to xboxs numbers, and they blow it! good job nintendo! this is just plain stupidity on nintendos part in my opinion. they should have been prepared for the demand the price cut and free game give away created.

nemo_83 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 23, 2004, 05:52:00 AM »

lets just face it. the nintendo of today must be some sort of retarded offspring of Atari and Sega that is set on killing itself with addons, peripherals, gimicks, and now hardware supply problems. Lets not even get into thier image as kiddy rehash.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #14 on:** February 23, 2004, 07:50:35 PM »

Aren't addons, peripherials and gimmicks essentially the same?

jasonditz · « **Reply #15 on:** February 26, 2004, 08:51:27 AM »

No shortage here in Michigan... the local Gamestop had a display with about 50 of them in the Window.

DrZoidberg · « **Reply #16 on:** February 27, 2004, 05:51:16 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: nemo_83
lets just face it. the nintendo of today must be some sort of retarded offspring of Atari and Sega that is set on killing itself with addons, peripherals, gimicks, and now hardware supply problems. Lets not even get into thier image as kiddy rehash.

why arn't they saying they are better than jesus then? oh wate. melodrama ++

Pinnacle · « **Reply #17 on:** February 27, 2004, 10:41:35 AM »

My local game stores (and retailers like Target and Walmart) have stacks of all three systems. EB and Gamestop even have alot of dreamcasts left.

thecubedcanuck · « **Reply #18 on:** February 27, 2004, 11:23:53 AM »

My local deli is completely sold out of bologna.

Oh wait, wrong forum.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #19 on:** February 27, 2004, 11:59:43 AM »

What is this... "bo-log-na" you speak of...?

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #20 on:** February 27, 2004, 12:01:35 PM »

Quote
EB and Gamestop even have alot of dreamcasts left.

My EB doesn't even carry Dreamcast stuff anymore.

Joey · « **Reply #21 on:** February 27, 2004, 08:04:43 PM »

Quote
What is this... "bo-log-na" you speak of...?

sorry for going ot but it is a type of meat. The word actually sounds more like bal-oh-nee.

Avinash_Tyagi · « **Reply #22 on:** February 28, 2004, 06:56:27 AM »

Quote
My local game stores (and retailers like Target and Walmart) have stacks of all three systems. EB and Gamestop even have alot of dreamcasts left.

Its the opposite in my area, the sotres haven't had GC's on the shelves since december.

ThePerm · « **Reply #23 on:** February 28, 2004, 08:04:12 AM »

yeah bologna is a word mutch like cologne

jarob · « **Reply #24 on:** February 29, 2004, 01:51:03 PM »

It is good to hear stats on your area. But what area are you in?

News:

Author Topic: Nintendo: Out of Gamecubes? (Read 6514 times)