Omnistalgic
Member
It's really annoying. I'm about 80% done with Horizon and just have to finish up TLG at home, then I'm ready to bulldoze into Zelda. I'll be ready long before April comes, come on Nintendo -_-
UK retailers sell out of Switch - Stock levels a concern
- Thread starter axisofweevils
- Start date
Omnistalgic
Member
where do you find this info from? Can we pre-order again?
Rellik
Member
It's Nintendo. They never produce enough for anywhere.
Yup. The Grey one even has savings of 99p!
Jezbollah
Member
This.
It's a NES Classic scenario again. Better to supply less units and be seen to "sell out" of them rather than have the images of lots of units on the shelves unsold.
Eh, they seemed to get their stock levels right this time. Enough to have them on shelves through the weekend even after the pre-orders, they just got snapped up after that. If there's more by the end of the month, then it's pretty good.
If they produced 2 million for launch like they said, then they've done a good job with this one.
The NES Classic doesn't really apply as that was a cock-up with estimating demand. If they re-stocked before Christmas, I would have agreed with you, but they couldn't even do that after the inital wave.
Mister Sloane
Member
One of my brothers was visiting me this weekend and last Friday, popped in to my local HMV. After he unsuccessfully tried to get the case/protector being advertised in store, we were told that although it was out of stock, they were getting a "big" shipment of consoles and Switch stuff the next day.
However, when going back, although they had received games and consoles (no idea how many), no accessories were.
However, when going back, although they had received games and consoles (no idea how many), no accessories were.
How many times do people need to answer this stupid post? After the WiiU it is normal for them to be conservative about how many consoles they were shipping on launch.
UK is Sony territory, of course they would allocate less there.
I am pretty interested to see how this shapes up.
Zelda being a 10/10 GOTG + contender is driving a decent amount of this demand I would wager. New Console release hype + Zelda + Nintendo Superfans+ Scalpers+ Limited supply. I hear a minority excited about the switch in the gen pop, but a ton of Zelda hype as the must play game.
Zelda being a 10/10 GOTG + contender is driving a decent amount of this demand I would wager. New Console release hype + Zelda + Nintendo Superfans+ Scalpers+ Limited supply. I hear a minority excited about the switch in the gen pop, but a ton of Zelda hype as the must play game.
Magicpaint
Member
Or maybe the last time they launched a console they overshipped the thing and want to avoid that this time around. They gauged demand well, considering it was a worldwide launch. It's not a NES Classic scenario of extremely small shipments.
Marketing has been really strong. Driving all over Slough and it seems every bus stop has a Switch advert plastered on it.
Very interested to see if this stock situation will improve through out the year or if the heavy hitters like Splatoon and Mario Kart keeps demand at a high level.
Very interested to see if this stock situation will improve through out the year or if the heavy hitters like Splatoon and Mario Kart keeps demand at a high level.
I grabbed mine on launch from Sainsburys after all the usual places were out of stock. The server said that they had more stock than they thought they would. Perhaps Sainsburys got a more generous shipment than most others?
John Lewis have the system in stock now.
I just received their e-mail.
Strange, because the marketing here in Birmingham have been very minimal. Only seen 3 posters so far in south Birmingham and all 3 of them were the smaller ones.
I just received their e-mail.
Strange, because the marketing here in Birmingham have been very minimal. Only seen 3 posters so far in south Birmingham and all 3 of them were the smaller ones.
Not really. Even though the UK got a comparatively small shipment they still sold double what Wii U did and they managed their best launch in Europe and US ever.
In Spain they had one of the best launches ever and stock is still available.
Do you travel much? That costs like 5 bucks. I don't think it's an issue.
KillerMan91
Member
Europe overall has been traditionally the weakest region for Nintendo. It's not just UK. Obviously Wii and DS were crazy popular everywhere but before that any of Nintendos home consoles hadn't even crossed 10 million in Europe. GBA also sold only half of what it sold in US.
It's pretty low for a worldwide launch, and Kimishima said they were increasing production 2 months ago.
Visualante2
Member
Interesting that MCV led with a quote from HMV. I'd say HMV will be the first retailer out of the big ones to drop Nintendo if the Switch doesn't take off at the end of 2017. My local store has a paltry game section and it has been just PS4 and Xbox One.for the past few years. Expensive at that.
UK is not Sony land, particularly compared to most of Europe.
UK is BestPrice&FeaturesLand.
France is Nintendoland.
Germany is Sonyland.
UK is Sonyland
It's actually a medium amount, but Nintendo did increase production before launch due to demand. It's neither incredibly high or low. It's a good, sensible amount to launch with. The problem then arises with continuing to resupply.
A lot of people have this impression that you can just turn on the magic manufacturing tap and thousands of machines will be spit out in minutes. In truth it takes a long time to ramp up production on consumer goods.
Except for the last gen when it was MS land. Before that though very much sony land and is back to being so again.
SlickShoes
Member
haha, mine is in Stirling
Wii was very definitely crazy popular in the UK. The country went crazy for the thing. 360 only overtook Wii after the console started to take a nosedive around 2010, and further still when Kinect hit.
However, NES wasn't much of a thing in the UK due to home computers like the ZX Spectrum and C64 being much more popular at the time, so there isn't the same feeling of Nintendo nostalgia here as there is in the US.
Flintty
Member
It sucks that supply is constrained but flip side I'm really happy the initial allocation has sold through. I'm really pleased things seem to be going well.
I'm away on business this week (first time in MK - nice city!) so it's a good road test. Playing BotW in my hotel room without bringing my U it pretty neat (I took my U to Bristol last year for Twilight Princess and it was damn heavy in my man bag!). I'm away a week at a time over the next few months and the Switch is looking like a damn good purchase for that - saves me a lot of cash in the bar!
I'm away on business this week (first time in MK - nice city!) so it's a good road test. Playing BotW in my hotel room without bringing my U it pretty neat (I took my U to Bristol last year for Twilight Princess and it was damn heavy in my man bag!). I'm away a week at a time over the next few months and the Switch is looking like a damn good purchase for that - saves me a lot of cash in the bar!
frankie_baby
Member
The Gameboy was absolutelt massive though so i dont think nintendo nostalgia is any lower here than anywhere else
mocolostrocolos
Member
Flintty
Member
I remember the NES being big aswell and SNES to a degree. Certainly in my area.
LordRaptor
Member
Even at the very heights of Wii & DS popularity, if you walked into a Game you'd assume the PS3 and 360 were the most popular devices because they comprised the majority of the "Game Top Charts", the quantity of floorspace in the shop, and the premium locations of that store space, right at the front as soon as you enter.
s_mirage
Member
Seen quite a few in Sutton Coldfield. More than I was expecting to be honest. I'm not entirely convinced of how effective posters are though, and they're so bland. I miss 90s style TV adverts.
NES was dead as fuck in the UK. At that time we were solidly 8bit/16 bit computer land. When the megadrive and snes launched only then did consoles overtake computers. When that happened the UK became Sega land until the Saturn which did poorly and we became Sony land.
frankie_baby
Member
That's because sony/ms were paying for the better positioning in store
Flintty
Member
I know it's anecdotal but I have clear (fond) memories of tribal warring between Sega and Nintendo fans from around 1990 right up till '97. The split seemed pretty even in my school and arguments usually (comically) came down to who would win in a fight between Mario and Sonic.
Mario would have destroyed Sonic, btw.
The megadrive had Desert/Jungle strike though and I often stole my brothers console to play 😄
Germany is more PCland from what I know.
chromatic9
Member
It really isn't. Last time I looked at Steams sales its fairly equal between UK and Germany. In terms of PC retail, you get the odd title appearing in the charts but its quickly gone. PS3 and PS4 software sales absolutely dwarf everything and set all the records and dominate the positions throughout the year.
JonnyDBrit
Member
I know my local GAME was posting updates whenever they get new - typically rather limited - stock of the Switch in, so I imagined there was some kind of constraint. But geez... Ironically, they're already filtering into the local CEX too.