Having supply THIS low has gone from sharp marketing ploy to 'throwing money away'
Lowered supply can increase hype and has, which is great for a console. But I was shocked that they were still non existent even on and after Black Friday weekend. Losing out on the impulse buying is insane for a $60 console. My mother probably would've bought 4 of them herself for her grandkids and nephews just because it's a console and she's heard of it. Instead I think she ended up getting them the atari one because in her mind Nintendo and Atari are actually the same thing, and she got the kids done first week of Dec. for just over $200 total.
You CAN get them for $150-200 EACH on ebay, which might have been doable as the big gotta-have-it Christmas item, but no kid is going to pick almost 30 year old system as their gotta-have.
Then there's old guys like me who want it because we remember playing them as kids...I wanted it bad enough to even brave Black Friday crowds to try to get one. I tried Best Buy...who said they actually have no plans of getting more in at all, and Target which said I might get one if I show up when they open every single day on the off chance the the truck brought more that day and none of the sales clerks have ebay accounts.
...and that might be a decent sales strategy for a week or so, but after that: I just got myself a USB controller and downloaded a free emulator online. I've been playing the games on my laptop all week and I'm already getting bored with them.
At this point I may end up just picking one up in the spring when they go on clearance. Even then it's become a maybe for me. To be honest, I've discovered it might be better having them on my laptop with an emulator, since I can actually watch TV while I play.
They are still going to make money off this, no question, but not nearly as much as they would have with decent supply. The hype will never equal the lost impulse buys or the people who got impatient and went another way. It just doesn't work as well with games this old, since we have so many other options available when supply is too low.
Lowered supply can increase hype and has, which is great for a console. But I was shocked that they were still non existent even on and after Black Friday weekend. Losing out on the impulse buying is insane for a $60 console. My mother probably would've bought 4 of them herself for her grandkids and nephews just because it's a console and she's heard of it. Instead I think she ended up getting them the atari one because in her mind Nintendo and Atari are actually the same thing, and she got the kids done first week of Dec. for just over $200 total.
You CAN get them for $150-200 EACH on ebay, which might have been doable as the big gotta-have-it Christmas item, but no kid is going to pick almost 30 year old system as their gotta-have.
Then there's old guys like me who want it because we remember playing them as kids...I wanted it bad enough to even brave Black Friday crowds to try to get one. I tried Best Buy...who said they actually have no plans of getting more in at all, and Target which said I might get one if I show up when they open every single day on the off chance the the truck brought more that day and none of the sales clerks have ebay accounts.
...and that might be a decent sales strategy for a week or so, but after that: I just got myself a USB controller and downloaded a free emulator online. I've been playing the games on my laptop all week and I'm already getting bored with them.
At this point I may end up just picking one up in the spring when they go on clearance. Even then it's become a maybe for me. To be honest, I've discovered it might be better having them on my laptop with an emulator, since I can actually watch TV while I play.
They are still going to make money off this, no question, but not nearly as much as they would have with decent supply. The hype will never equal the lost impulse buys or the people who got impatient and went another way. It just doesn't work as well with games this old, since we have so many other options available when supply is too low.
