We store cookies, you can get more info from our privacy policy.

UK Nintendo Store Temporarily Hit by Accidental Discounts on First-Party Games

by Tom Malina - January 14, 2014, 6:29 am EST
Total comments: 10

Speedy buyers were able to make vast savings earlier today.

Nintendo UK's digital store accidentally discounted numerous retail games to less than £10 for a brief time earlier today.

Between 1pm and 2pm GMT, the website was temporarily selling first-party Wii U titles such as Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 for £8.95 each, while 3DS games including Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team were priced at £7.95. 

These huge discounts were quickly amended to their normal prices, but according to reports on social media, users who were quick enough to take advantage of these cuts did receive their redeemable download codes, indicating that these purchases will be honored.

At the time of writing, Nintendo has so far declined to comment on the situation.

Talkback

Pixelated PixiesJanuary 14, 2014

Damn it!

Leo13January 14, 2014

That's awesome of Nintendo to honor them. Awhile back something similar happened to Walmart and they canceled the orders.
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmarts-website-accidentally-sold-expensive-items-for-cheap-but-walmart-wont-honor-the-sale-2013-11

I'm not sure Nintendo would have a choice but to honour the purchases, lest there be complaints to the UK's consumer watchdog.

Besides, this probably doubled W101's worldwide sales.

Kytim89January 14, 2014

Wonderful 101 might sell better if Nintendo cut the price for physical and digital down to say $29.99 and then marketed the game a little more. As I said before, it would be smart to make a Wonderful 101 TV series on Nickolodean or whatever kids channels they have these days. This is because it is a new IP and needs as much exposure as possible to garner sales. Lastly, Nintendo needs to offer sales on their digital first party games in a similar manner to that of Steam. Third parties would do the same once they saw sales increase.

Leo13January 14, 2014

Truth is Wonderful 101 is an incredible game. I really wish more people had tried it. A sequel would be awesome some day, but with those sales numbers it'll never happen.

StratosJanuary 14, 2014

I never got into Viewtiful Joe and W101 seems to channel that style so I never felt terribly compelled to get it. I may grab it down the road as it could become a highly sought after cult classic.

sisibakbakJanuary 14, 2014

Grabbed Pikmin 3. Couldn't believe they honoured it! Really wish I got W101 too but oh well, I'm still very happy about Pikmin.


I wonder what happened? :/

StratosJanuary 14, 2014

I'll bet the system is automatic so that once purchase is processed the code is automatically sent out and once the code is out there is not much they could do about it without a huge amount of effort. And the recovering the loss of a few games sold at a steep discount would be outweighed by the bad PR and upset customer potential of a recovery effort.


It was probably a clerical error or typo in the code when they made a new update and they didn't fully test it before updating the site.

smallsharkbigbiteJanuary 14, 2014

Quote from: Leo13

That's awesome of Nintendo to honor them. Awhile back something similar happened to Walmart and they canceled the orders.
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmarts-website-accidentally-sold-expensive-items-for-cheap-but-walmart-wont-honor-the-sale-2013-11

I don't think that is remotely similar.  Walmart was selling a TV that probably cost them $1,600 for $200.  Nintendo was charging $9.99 for something they already paid for.  The potential for lost revenue was there (if people that would have paid $60 paid $10), but it wasn't an additional cost for the company. 

Got a news tip? Send it in!
Advertisement
Advertisement