Topic: SNES Classic thread

[ejamer]

Wow. A full 30 minutes of preorders available before this product went out of stock in North America. Disappointed, but not surprised.


This was brought up before, but why allow preorders when they aren't adjusting production to match demand? Isn't that kind of the point? They clearly don't need extra hype, because selling out is a given. And it seems like a prime opportunity for stores to use different methods to draw customers in. Is this just to match consumer expectations?

[BranDonk Kong]

The reason you ask about preorders is the exact reason that they exist.

[ejamer]

The reason you ask about preorders is the exact reason that they exist.

So you're saying that they exist simply to increase frustration when it's clear that demand won't be satisfied..?


How is that better than letting people line up and get them at actual stores - something I could plan for and be involved in, if I know the release date, rather than being shut out of the random and unannounced 30-minute window when something is made available?

[BranDonk Kong]

No, they exist because supply will not match demand, just like with every console launch.

[nickmitch]

Yeah, but most console launches eventually match demand.

With these Classic Mini consoles, Nintendo seems to only want to make so many, regardless of demand.  It's an assumption that Nintendo isn't going to make that many more based on the preorders, but that's what they did with the NES Classic.

Wow. A full 30 minutes of preorders available before this product went out of stock in North America. Disappointed, but not surprised.

For what it's worth, it was an entire market's demand against one retailer's supply.

[lolmonade]

It appears my best possible chance of grabbing one of these like the NES classic will be happening upon one at a Walmart shelf unexpectedly.  Walmart pre-orders came and went as I was sleeping.

[Ian Sane]

Only Nintendo could release a product like the NES Classic, see it sell out so fast that it effectively never sits on a store shelf, discontinue it before demand is met for unexplained reasons, observe immediate cynicism from their fanbase upon the reveal of a successor product, claim they're going to do better this time, and then literally have the exact same thing happen again.  I suppose the only thing they've done differently this time is that they let us know that this is a limited product so I can adjust to never getting one ahead of time instead of waiting patiently only to have the product abruptly discontinued.

[ThePerm]

Technically, these don't even count as launches because they released these systems 25-30 years ago without a hitch.

[nickmitch]

Welp, Walmart has officially cancelled the SNES Classic preorders.  Emails were sent out today with the explanation that the preorders went live accidentally.

[pokepal148]

Meanwhile I'm playing through Super Mario Sunshine on my homebrewed Wii U.

[ThePerm]

and again amazon says unavailable.

[lolmonade]

Nintendo announced that retailers would be offering preorders at the end of this month.  I know that's still vague, but it DOES give you a window of time to expect it.

[nickmitch]

Good to know that I could turn off notifications from @Wario64 for a few days.  Not that the other tweets are annoying, just a pain having to remind myself of my budget.

[Mop it up]

Sometimes insomnia pays off, as I was able to get in a pre-order at Best Buy. Good luck to everyone!

[Ian Sane]

Naturally the Canadian preorders went live while I was driving to Whistler to visit a friend I haven't seen in over a year. Though it sounds like you needed some supreme luck to not get beat by a bot. Wal-mart apparently sold out in less than a minute.  Ridiculous.

There are a couple things that Nintendo could have done to make this whole thing not stupid and unfair.

1. Announce the pre-order date ahead of time so people can actually prepare ahead of time.  It isn't like concert tickets go on sale at some random date before the show.
2. Open pre-orders at a normal times where people with jobs and lives aren't sleeping through it.
3. Just make enough of these damn things so that there is no scalpels market.  Why not take unlimited pre-orders to gauge interest and base the production on that demand?  You can't overproduce if literally every unit made has a pre-made sale associated with it!

Nintendo is good at making great games (when they don't get hung up on dumb gimmicks) and making reliable hardware with good build quality.  They are laughably incompetent at everything else.  I wouldn't trust them to make me a sandwich.

I guess I wait for the finished Star Fox 2 rom to get dumped and buy a repro cart. I want to give Nintendo the sale, they don't want it.

[Khushrenada]

Wal-Mart Canada isn't doing pre-orders. Neither is Toys R Us. Best Buy sold out in 3 minutes. EBGames took a bit longer since most had to actually go in-store to pre-order one as the website preorders were wonky. The last possibility is Amazon Canada but they can't even put a page for the SNES Classic for you to watch unlike Amazon.com which at least had a page ready for weeks. Depending on when (or if) Amazon Canada does a pre-order then you may be able to procure one that way.

Otherwise, it would seem that lining up early the morning / night of the release for the SNES Classic is your next step. Since Wal-Mart and Toys R Us aren't doing a pre-order but will be selling them then you'll just have to hope there is some stock with them you can snag. It's possible Best Buy and EBGames also get some extra stock for retail but I'm guessing they've basically pre-ordered all the systems they are getting.

[Shaymin]

Amazon Canada's SNES Classic page

I know, I've been stalking it for two days hoping to score one for my brother.

(Of course, if the US is any indication, it probably went up under a different name.)

[Khushrenada]

Well, it looks more legit than this page which nowinstock.net links to. However, if you go to Amazon.ca and type in SNES Classic or Super NES Classic in the search box, you don't see the page you've linked to in any of the first page results. However, if you enter those terms on the Amazon.com search box then you find the correct product as the first result. (Although I heard some rumour that Amazon.com ended up creating a different page for the pre-orders than that one listed which is why people, like myself, never got an e-mail notification when they did open up preorders.) At least there is a clear page with the product that you can find and see. Why can't Amazon Canada's search box take you to this correct page or have a product page ready?

[SNESliferate]

The retro store about 10 miles from me sells SNES stuff for dirt cheap. I haven't found better deals online. If anyone is interested in the GA area it's called Retro Games.

[Ian Sane]

Otherwise, it would seem that lining up early the morning / night of the release for the SNES Classic is your next step. Since Wal-Mart and Toys R Us aren't doing a pre-order but will be selling them then you'll just have to hope there is some stock with them you can snag. It's possible Best Buy and EBGames also get some extra stock for retail but I'm guessing they've basically pre-ordered all the systems they are getting.

That's not my next step because that's an insane thing to have to do and I don't care enough to go through that hassle.  I got a job.  I'm not going to take time off work to camp out at some store to MAYBE get one of these.  Isn't this supposed to just be some fun nostalgic toy that people see in the store and buy on impulse?  That's how the Atari Flashback works and this should work the same way.  My only chance of getting one is that Nintendo isn't full of **** when they talk about making more of these than the NES Classic.  Though I don't think they're lying, I think they're just too stupid to fix their mistake correctly.

I already have the real carts of the games on the SNES Classic and all I really want it for is to get a proper Star Fox 2 release.  I don't have all the NES carts of the NES Classic but those aren't really rare titles.  Compared to the cost of buying these from scalpers a collector could probably use that money to fill in the titles they're missing and a newbie could probably get a good start on collecting.  There is value in the HDMI output and the ease of having a great lineup of titles at once but that sort of value fits the MSRP, not the scalper price.

Those who would benefit the most of these products would be the non-collector who wants to replay some games from their childhood and maybe introduce them to their kids.  I'm sure hardly anyone in that group owns an NES Classic or will own a SNES Classic.  Those that get these things are hardcore collectors who probably own the individual games already.

[Khushrenada]

It seems to be no different than trying to get a Switch or the Wii in its first year where people had to be constantly vigilant in any store to check for arrival of stock. Personally, I was thinking of taking the morning off for that Friday if I couldn't get a pre-order. I'm not suggesting taking a week off.


On a different point:

I saw an ad on Craigslist for an SNES Classic already for $300. The best part was the message the seller felt compelled to include in it. Allow me to post it here:

 Before reporting this ad please email me with any of your concerns and I would be happy to address them. This ad complies with all of the terms of use on Craigslist and if you are just reporting because you are bitter about the fact reselling this for profit is a reality then I suggest you also report all of the concert tickets going for more than face value as well. Do not waste your time by reporting this ad as I will continue to repost it here and elsewhere, as long as it is not breaking any rules.

 Supply and demand: in economics, relationship between the quantity of a commodity that producers wish to sell at various prices and the quantity that consumers wish to buy (Britannica 2017).

Everyone's getting salty. People unable to pre-order are upset and the scalpers are upset at being picked on by the people they are trying to rip-off. Capitalism is such a wondrous thing.

[NWR_insanolord]

It's a bit different from trying to get a Switch or a Wii because Nintendo's explicitly said they're going to stop production on the SNES Classic fairly soon. With the consoles you could just wait until supply catches up, but if you don't get an SNES Classic in the next few months you're never going to get one.

[rlse9]

I don't know what everyone's complaining about, there was a stretch on Tuesday afternoon when Target had pre-orders available for 4 minutes.  Four whole minutes.  And three other times when the SNES classic was available for 10 whole seconds.  If you didn't get one, I don't know how you can possibly complain...


Seriously, it is a little absurd but hopefully Nintendo actually will produce enough systems to almost meet demand.  The forums and twitter account from cheapassgamer.com are both good for tracking availability for stuff like this (and is where the availability info from the Target pre-orders came from).

[nickmitch]

There was a chunk of time where the SNES was available online at Walmart.  Could've been a false flag though.

[lolmonade]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-exec-comments-on-snes-classic-supply/1100-6453238/


Maybe there's hope?