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[NeonZ]

Not when these games are essentially guaranteed to be sell out on day one. (...) Not to mention 1 month for restocking is completely ridiculous.

SRW J didn't break 150k in its launch week, IIRC, so that might have something to do with the lack of supply of W(which is basically a J sequel, even though it doesn't follow J's storyline).

Besides, the sales of the GBA non-OG SRWs were in the noticeable downwards trend since SRW D (and R sold less than A too, though it still did much better than the others).

 

[Magicpaint]

Yeah, I think selling out of initial shipment is fine. The main problem we have is the time it takes for stock to be replenished. It's absolutely ridiculous. A game like FFIII suffered because of it. Nintendo needs to sort this shit out or lots of third party developers are gonna be pissed.

 

[Burnst]

Edit: Also, MHP2, SimCity DS and Layton are still selling. The latter 2 are in shortage. Layton will restock in weekend and SimCity needs to wait 2 weeks....

In 2 weeks half of the demand will forget it was even out. Did they ship like 100k last week or even less?

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

This is proving to be one long stumble. Bladestorm... What's bigger in Japan? The Bladestorm franchise, or VF?

I'm trying to be polite.

As for the shortages, Nintendo needs to get another factory or two going. There are shortages on every major release these days, and in the case of some games it's really cutting the sales off at the knees. I bet FF3 could've easily squeezed another 500k out if the stock was there, and lord only know where Joker would be at.

They also need to take care of system shortages too. Worldwide demand, Nintendo. You want to be king...act like it.

 

[Evlar]

Yeah, I think selling out of initial shipment is fine. The main problem we have is the time it takes for stock to be replenished. It's absolutely ridiculous. A game like FFIII suffered because of it. Nintendo needs to sort this shit out or lots of third party developers are gonna be pissed.

Are NA and Japanese DS cards produced in the same facilities? I'm thinking they are.

That delay in replenishing stock seems longer than normal even for DS. Perhaps- and I hate to use this excuse, but it needs to be mentioned- perhaps this unusual delay is due to preparing for the North American Pokebomb.

 

[Pureauthor]

We could let them off on DS shortages since they were already pumping out 100K a week, and demand seemed steady regardless - but games have far shorter shelf life. They need to fix this mess before more games don't sell as well as they should.

 

[NintendosBooger]

Something tells me that a lot of these undershipped games are the result of a reoccuring wait list. I think Nintendo can allocate only so many carts for a new release before they have to replenish that of other past games like Pokemon, NSMB, and DQM: J.

 

[Dave Long]

Are publishers being cautious? Sure, I can maybe buy that to an extent. I don't think 500k copies of Revenant Wings is "caution," though, as I don't think there's a chance in hell Square Enix would willingly go to market with so few carts of their next huge game right in the middle of Golden Week.

So maybe there's some caution in that initial orders are smaller than they might be, but it is unacceptable that it would take two weeks to a month to replenish supply on a game. That's what is happening here. And that has nothing to do with a slight reticence when it comes to first day shipments.

Games really can't be expected to sell a million in a day, which is what you're expecting Square-Enix to think will happen with this new Final Fantasy game. That's a hell of an investment to make in silicon for a single shipment. Did any cartridge game ever have that kind of day one shipment? I doubt it.

Also, two weeks to a month seems perfectly reasonable for a restock given you're going to get back in a queue for production and other new games are also in that queue as well as ongoing reprints of other top selling games. Just think of how much silicon you're talking about pumping out across all publishers including first-party! And no one wants to get stuck with overruns either!

I think folks are spoiled by the optical disc. That is a whole different world of production compared to the chips for the DS. Number one, only the DS uses these chips so the more you invest in fabrication of said chips, the more waste you'll have when the day comes that chip production slows down. You have to find a happy medium of some kind and that's going to mean sold out conditions now given how red hot the DS is all over the world. With optical discs, there are just so many more places to go and the duplication process is entirely different and doesn't require actual fabrication of silicon and wires. It's "just in time" inventory but you then deal with "Now Loading..." waits once you have the disc in hand.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Games really can't be expected to sell a million in a day, which is what you're expecting Square-Enix to think will happen with this new Final Fantasy game. That's a hell of an investment to make in silicon for a single shipment. Did any cartridge game ever have that kind of day one shipment? I doubt it.

Dragon Quest. Super Famicom.

Also, two weeks to a month seems perfectly reasonable for a restock given you're going to get back in a queue for production and other new games are also in that queue as well as ongoing reprints of other top selling games. Just think of how much silicon you're talking about pumping out across all publishers including first-party! And no one wants to get stuck with overruns either!

The fact it's going on STILL is a testament to Nintendo's stubbornness: whether retailers are not ordering enough for DAY ONE might be their fault, the fact Nintendo CANNOT and WILL NOT restock quickly is NINTENDO'S fault.

I think folks are spoiled by the optical disc. That is a whole different world of production compared to the chips for the DS. Number one, only the DS uses these chips so the more you invest in fabrication of said chips, the more waste you'll have when the day comes that chip production slows down. You have to find a happy medium of some kind and that's going to mean sold out conditions now given how red hot the DS is all over the world. With optical discs, there are just so many more places to go and the duplication process is entirely different and doesn't require actual fabrication of silicon and wires. It's "just in time" inventory but you then deal with "Now Loading..." waits once you have the disc in hand.

The DS cards were designed to have "optical disc" like reprint speeds and numbers, essentially to prevent the problems that were found with reprinting GBA games. We are not seeing that. At all.

 

[Dave Long]

Not when these games are essentially guaranteed to be sell out on day one. There is no way that FFXIIRW won't sell 500K on it's first day. Not to mention 1 month for restocking is completely ridiculous.

There is no guarantee of sell-outs. You're always guessing (educated of course) when you make that initial print run of your new game. What if the game is no good? What if people decide they don't really want that? You have to hedge your bets.

Selling out is better than leaving stuff on the racks, and the investment to print that first run is always going to be a hefty one. You can't go throw your company into the red with a giant print run and then end up sitting on chips. Go dig up some E.T. carts if you need proof of what can happen when you overproduce.

 

[Pureauthor]

Games really can't be expected to sell a million in a day, which is what you're expecting Square-Enix to think will happen with this new Final Fantasy game. That's a hell of an investment to make in silicon for a single shipment. Did any cartridge game ever have that kind of day one shipment? I doubt it.

I'm not going to deal with the rest of your comments on restocking, but this:

It's a sequel to a game that sold 2.5 million (much of the 2.5 million being in the first week) that is coming out on the hottest piece of hardware ever in Japan. It will sell out it's entire first day shipment of 500K, this is guarantee you.

And as for your 'did any cartridge game get 1 million day one' thing, look no further than the lightning rat.

There is no guarantee of sell-outs. You're always guessing (educated of course) when you make that initial print run of your new game. What if the game is no good? What if people decide they don't really want that? You have to hedge your bets.

...Yeah. See above.

SRW W's initial shipment we could understand - it's a game from a franchise in decline, until the DS apparently turned things around. Whatever. But it's taking a month to restock. A month. Unacceptable.

 

[ethelred]

Looking at the sales of previous Super Robot Wars titles really puts "250k day one" into perspective -- it's a really impressive number... but it would be more impressive if there was going to be a subsequent restock over the weekend and in the following week. Looking at it from that angle, W would've absolutely smoked the GBA SRWs and been pretty much in PS2 territory.

Alpha 2      PS2      330,559    511,517  
Alpha 3      PS2      463,507    603,257 
Impact       PS2      436,304    632,536 
MX             PS2      402,953    520,701 
A               GBA     161,272    310,513  
R               GBA     158,993    285,314 
D               GBA     107,703    199,607 
J                GBA     111,862    181,534

I think it could've hit at or around Alpha 2's first week numbers.

Games really can't be expected to sell a million in a day, which is what you're expecting Square-Enix to think will happen with this new Final Fantasy game.

Plenty of games do sell that much, and if Square Enix provided a million carts upfront, I think RW's first week numbers would move those units.

Did any cartridge game ever have that kind of day one shipment? I doubt it.

Yes.

And stop thinking in terms of 'cartridge.' It doesn't matter what the media format is. The DS has taken over the PS2's role in the Japanese market, and regardless of the media format Nintendo picked, they need to be able to provide enough to meet the third parties' needs.

Also, two weeks to a month seems perfectly reasonable for a restock given you're going to get back in a queue for production and other new games are also in that queue as well as ongoing reprints of other top selling games.

Two weeks to a month for a restock is not even remotely reasonable. They need to be making more carts; it's that simple. Nintendo needs to find a way. If it takes that long to restock a game, it will have an extreme negative impact on the lifetime sales of these games, and the only thing that's going to do is drive away these third parties or make them slash the budgets of their games dramatically in order to make stuff cheap enough that they don't care if they ever move beyond their first week sales total.

 

[Masklinn]

Oh... it's entire shipment is 150K? So much for a big boost...

I told ya, once acquisition of Japan is confirmed Nintendo will replace the yen with DS carts as basic japanse currency, so they're hoarding carts to put them in the circuit as soon as they announce the stuff.

Of course, jonnyram also mentioned how it's partially the retailers' fault: they aren't ordering enough cards from Nintendo! Apparently preorders haven't risen with demand: people are simply picking them up "on whim"...

Issue's that Nintendo seems to be very stretched out, as in production limit, so retailers ordering is a red herring: retailers propably order boatloads of new games as soon as they run out of stock (by day 2 right now) and Nintendo takes 2 to 4 weeks to deliver!

Nintendo is at fault. Nintendo's controlling the cart production; they need to do something so that these companies can actually get enough freaking games on the stores to sell. It's ridiculous.

QFT

There's only so much production available, and it's just as likely that the publishers are to blame for short shipping DS games because they're not ordering enough to start with.

Dude, it's the third month straight that new/interesting releases are getting out of stock with no restock in sight because of prod, I think Nintendo should start seeing the pattern by now, retailers and publishers preorders is a red herring.

W.T.H.?! J barely sold 200k through its life time, and this game is basically a J sequel (not in storyline, I'm talking about gameplay and featured series)... But has beaten J in day one?!

Anything that involves the DS is like entering....

 

[Neomoto]

PS3
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - 6,600

DC
Trigger Heart Exelica - 13,000

Oh well, the ps3 had a good run

Spoiler

well actually it didn't but what can I say.

 

[Dave Long]

Dragon Quest. Super Famicom.

Which likely had a larger installed base at the time of the game's release?

The fact it's going on STILL is a testament to Nintendo's stubbornness: whether retailers are not ordering enough for DAY ONE might be their fault, the fact Nintendo CANNOT and WILL NOT restock quickly is NINTENDO'S fault.

You don't know that Nintendo is the problem. Maybe S-E doesn't submit a reorder until after initial sales are in? That certainly would put them at a two to four week turnaround.

The DS cards were designed to have "optical disc" like reprint speeds and numbers, essentially to prevent the problems that were found with reprinting GBA games. We are not seeing that. At all.

Regardless of what was said about the DS chips, the fact that they are going to require specialized fabs instead of dime a dozen disc duplication facilities means that there's no way they could produce chips as quickly as you can a CD or DVD.

The demand is outpacing their ability to supply it. That's the simple answer. However, finding a way to meet that demand means a significant capital investment that hey, maybe they think they won't ever be able to get back? By the time they put another DS chip production line in, maybe the demand for DS drops back to sane levels? Then you've spent millions for nothing!

It's a sequel to a game that sold 2.5 million (much of the 2.5 million being in the first week) that is coming out on the hottest piece of hardware ever in Japan. It will sell out it's entire first day shipment of 500K, this is guarantee you.

...and so it sells out. They restock in two weeks and then restock again two or three weeks later, etc. You don't have to sell 2.5 million in a day and given the investment in 2.5 million for one day, you probably don't want to take that much risk on anyway.

 

[ethelred]

You don't know that Nintendo is the problem. Maybe S-E doesn't submit a reorder until after initial sales are in? That certainly would put them at a two to four week turnaround.

Because it's NOT JUST Square Enix. Jesus, have you been paying attention? Square Enix, Level 5, Atlus, EA, Banpresto, the retailers. It's everyone's fault except Nintendo's, right?

...and so it sells out. They restock in two weeks and then restock again two or three weeks later, etc. You don't have to sell 2.5 million in a day and given the investment in 2.5 million for one day, you probably don't want to take that much risk on anyway.

Because it DOESN'T always necessarily sell out later, at least to the degree it should have or would have. If you can't provide your product to market when people want it, they will find other alternatives. There is more software on the market.

FFIII's lifetime sales were hurt by this pattern. DQMJ's probably will be. Sekaiju's most certainly were. SRW W's sales will be.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

Which likely had a larger installed base at the time of the game's release?

Lord Reverend Long of the First Church of the Holy Excite, I'm not so sure that is correct.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Which likely had a larger installed base at the time of the game's release?

Not really, no.

You don't know that Nintendo is the problem. Maybe S-E doesn't submit a reorder until after initial sales are in? That certainly would put them at a two to four week turnaround.

That's really silly. After first day sales of FFIII or any other game, S-E would be going "OH SHIT" and have reordered pronto. All of their games are selling phenom. 500k for RW is insane.

Regardless of what was said about the DS chips, the fact that they are going to require specialized fabs instead of dime a dozen disc duplication facilities means that there's no way they could produce chips as quickly as you can a CD or DVD.

Then Nintendo NEEDS to do something about it. DS popularity is growing exponentially: they need to open new fab plants, etc. It isn't like this is the apex of how popular the DS is going to be.

 

[Evlar]

Dave Long does have a point about the cost of new DS card manufacturing facilities. With optical media the capital burden of manufacturing is shared by a lot of different companies making a lot of different things: DVDs, PS2 and XBox 360 games, etc. With DS card manufacturing the capital burden (and risk) is shouldered by Nintendo alone. Being cautious is the correct approach.

They're still being too cautious IMHO.

 

[ziran]

http://ameblo.jp/get6-2/entry-10026887122.html

Both Gundam Musou and Super Robot War W are selling very well.

Gundam Musou nearly sold all 150k first shipment, next shipment is on next week.

Super Robot War W should sold all 250k shipment during weekend, next shipment is the end of March :/

Edit: Also, MHP2, SimCity DS and Layton are still selling. The latter 2 are in shortage. Layton will restock in weekend and SimCity needs to wait 2 weeks....

Good numbers for Gundam and SRW. Looks like it's going to be a good week for sales all round.

The replenishment of DS games really needs to be sorted out asap.

 

[Masklinn]

You don't know that Nintendo is the problem. Maybe S-E doesn't submit a reorder until after initial sales are in? That certainly would put them at a two to four week turnaround.

Er... dude... both FFIII and DQM:J have sold out day 1 and come back for more every restock, even S-E can't be dumb enough to want more shortages for RW for god's sake!

The demand is outpacing their ability to supply it. That's the simple answer. However, finding a way to meet that demand means a significant capital investment that hey, maybe they think they won't ever be able to get back? By the time they put another DS chip production line in, maybe the demand for DS drops back to sane levels?

Do you really think that?

Do you really think that what's pretty much been a year-round Easter and software craze is going to stop just like that?

I don't.

Eternal Easter has started, we're in the 4th dimension, next stop is Nintendomination.

...and so it sells out. They restock in two weeks and then restock again two or three weeks later, etc.

The issue is that by going this, part of the potential user base switches to the "next interesting game", and by the time they could finally get the game (5th or 6th week after release) they don't want it anymore.

 

[Dave Long]

Because it's NOT JUST Square Enix. Jesus, have you been paying attention? Square Enix, Level 5, Atlus, EA, Banpresto, the retailers. It's everyone's fault except Nintendo's, right?

Not just S-E submitting re-orders after they see how the initial run sells? Yeah, that's probably what happens. You're the ones deciding this is some kind of grand conspiracy by Nintendo. I'm telling you that may not be the case. It's probably just typical business practice of estimating demand for that first week, putting in an order, and then looking at how much to reorder after the stuff hits shelves. Being fiscally conservative in the games market makes a lot of sense right now given how volatile it's been. Who would've believed Nintendo would be on top of both handheld AND home console sales right now if you told them that a year ago?

Because it DOESN'T always necessarily sell out. If you can't provide your product to market when people want it, they will find other alternatives. There is more software on the market.

FFIII's lifetime sales were hurt by this pattern. DQMJ's probably will be. Sekaiju's most certainly were. SRW W's sales will be.

I disagree that people will find alternatives. If that were the case, everyone would be buying PS3s right now because they can't find a Wii, or a PS2 or whatever else you want to use as an example. People buy software and hardware because it's what they want to play with. If they can't get it one week, they'll look for it the next. Sure, a few will decide to buy something else, but then they might also come back and buy that game they were originally looking for when it's in-stock again. Purchasing patterns aren't driven by DAY ONE like you think they are.

Finally, you have no clue if lifetime sales are hurt by out of stock conditions. No. Clue. You'd have to know what every customer was thinking and how they reacted to the out of stock/restock. If the stuff is so hot, people will simply wait, whatever the reason is that they have to do that.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

Dave Long does have a point about the cost of new DS card manufacturing facilities. With optical media the capital burden of manufacturing is shared by a lot of different companies making a lot of different things: DVDs, PS2 and XBox 360 games, etc. With DS card manufacturing the capital burden (and risk) is shouldered by Nintendo alone. Being cautious is the correct approach.

They're still being too cautious IMHO.

No, two years ago being cautious was the correct approach. Even last year at this time perhaps a little prudence was wise. But here? Now? Now that the whole world is rolling with the DS? No, they need to chuck that "caution" to the wind, as it's costing them and their partners more than it's insuring.

Finally, you have no clue if lifetime sales are hurt by out of stock conditions. No. Clue. You'd have to know what every customer was thinking and how they reacted to the out of stock/restock. If the stuff is so hot, people will simply wait, whatever the reason is that they have to do that.

The logic behind thinking that lifetime sales are hurt has to do with the used market. Every day a game is out, the number of used copies available increases. If there are no new copies available to purchase, most people would go for the used copy. A used copy sold is a lifetime sale lost. That's why it's pretty safe to say it. Especially for RPGs.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

No, two years ago being cautious was the correct approach. Even last year at this time perhaps a little prudence was wise. But here? Now? Now that the whole world is rolling with the DS? No, they need to chuck that "caution" to the wind, as it's costing them and their partners more than it's insuring.

Of course, they could at this very moment be building those extra fabs, but it still wouldn't exactly help the current situation if they were. But who knows?

 

[AshStrife]

Nintendo's over cautiousness is going to haunt them someday. It seems all the profit they make; they just go and store them in the vault. It will be much more worthwhile to use the money to open new production facilities. Sure the demand will go down eventually, but then they can always shut the factories down. Other companies do this all the time.

It seems in all their rhetoric of market expansion, they forgot to develop the infrastructure that would sustain it.

 

[Masklinn]

You're the ones deciding this is some kind of grand conspiracy by Nintendo.

It's not an issue of conspiracy, no one in their sane mind would think that nintendo wants to not sell. It's an issue of being far far too cautious, which ends up harming both Nintendo and third-party publishers in the long run

If that were the case, everyone would be buying PS3s right now because they can't find a Wii

Taking down strawmen doesn't count as an argument.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Of course, they could at this very moment be building those extra fabs, but it still wouldn't exactly help the current situation if they were. But who knows?

They'd have announced it; we would know about it; we would be saying "well soon the new fabs will be up and running. Shortages should be allayed soon enough."

 

[Moz La Punk]

Nintendo is owning our hobby right now. Get used to it is all I can say.

 

[felipeko]

using the logic that the consumer have limited money to spend on games and will buy a number of games, it really dont matter to nintendo if he buys a release or a old game, cos he will be spending his money on the games..
imo if the consumer dont find the game he will buy another, or will just wait... (even if he trades the game, still, he will buy another game with his money..)

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

using the logic that the consumer have limited money to spend on games and will buy a number of games, it really dont matter to nintendo if he buys a release or a old game, cos he will be spending his money on the games..
imo if the consumer dont find the game he will buy another, or will just wait... (even if he trades the game, still, he will buy another game with his money..)

And how do those who buy used games fit in? We know Nintendo looooooooves them.

 

[felipeko]

And how do those who buy used games fit in? We know Nintendo looooooooves them.

well, he will save some money.. and will use it to buy another game

 

[Moor-Angol]

I don't know if someone already posted it, but MHP2 is not the best performance on first week for a 3rd party company on a handhelp system.

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Master 4 for GBC did 1,228,599 on first week

I wonder if DQ9 will have better numbers this winter...

 

[Dave Long]

The used market doesn't go away because you ship more games. It just means the used market has more of that particular game available within it.

In fact, having more games in the used market might in fact more quickly drive down the price of the new game. That's probably all part of the balancing act of shipping 500,000 on the first day instead of 1,000,000.

Can our Japanese posters give us an idea what the used DS game market is like in Japan? Are people really buying these games the first week and dumping them into the used bins the next? Somehow that seems less likely to me given portable software costs less to begin with.

 

[LanceStern]

Yes it has Moor-Angel.

And maybe ethelred and Mashlinn can enlighten me, what's wrong with these titles having shortages?

 

[Galactic Fork]

The used market doesn't go away because you ship more games. It just means the used market has more of that particular game available within it.

In fact, having more games in the used market might in fact more quickly drive down the price of the new game. That's probably all part of the balancing act of shipping 500,000 on the first day instead of 1,000,000.

Can our Japanese posters give us an idea what the used DS game market is like in Japan? Are people really buying these games the first week and dumping them into the used bins the next? Somehow that seems less likely to me given portable software costs less to begin with.

The point is, the longer there are no new games available, the more time there is for used games to saturate the market. If used games are readily available by the time new games are, the used games are going to win, depleting the sales of new games.

 

[ethelred]

Yes it has Moor-Angel.

And maybe ethelred and Mashlinn can enlighten me, what's wrong with these titles having shortages?

As has already been said, it's not the shortages that are the really big concerning problem -- it's the fact that they can't get restocks, and by the time they do, demand has diminished and they end up selling a whole lot less than they would have.

Two weeks to a month is unacceptable. Period.

Unfortunately, the NES era is back, and the NES-era Nintendo is back with it, and they're in full-on "Screw all third parties" mode. :/

 

[Dave Long]

The point is, the longer there are no new games available, the more time there is for used games to saturate the market. If used games are readily available by the time new games are, the used games are going to win, depleting the sales of new games.

...if that's really what's happening. I don't live in Japan so I don't know what the used market is like for week-old titles.

Given most of these games sell pretty well on second and third restocks, used doesn't seem to have a major effect.

I know only from my own experience that I never trade-in old portable games. They end up in a drawer or back in their case. The amount I'd get back on them is hardly worth the trade-in.

 

[LanceStern]

As has already been said, it's not the shortages that are the really big concerning problem -- it's the fact that they can't get restocks, and by the time they do, demand has diminished and they end up selling a whole lot less than they would have.

Two weeks to a month is unacceptable. Period.

Unfortunately, the NES era is back, and the NES-era Nintendo is back with it, and they're in full-on "Screw all third parties" mode. :/

Which titles is it you are complaining are going to sell less than they should have?

 

[Galactic Fork]

...if that's really what's happening. I don't live in Japan so I don't know what the used market is like for week-old titles.

Given most of these games sell pretty well on second and third restocks, used doesn't seem to have a major effect.

I know only from my own experience that I never trade-in old portable games. They end up in a drawer or back in their case. The amount I'd get back on them is hardly worth the trade-in.

I honestly don't know Japan's used market either. But I don't see how the used market would be different than in the US.

As for your last comment, I'd imagine it'd be more than you are getting with them taking up space in your drawer.

 

[Masklinn]

As has already been said, it's not the shortages that are the really big concerning problem -- it's the fact that they can't get restocks, and by the time they do, demand has diminished and they end up selling a whole lot less than they would have.

Two weeks to a month is unacceptable. Period.

Unfortunately, the NES era is back, and the NES-era Nintendo is back with it, and they're in full-on "Screw all third parties" mode. :/

Sorry lance, but I can't do much better than that, can't be much clearer than the two phrases I bolded.

 

[jj984jj]

Those DS game restock dates are never accurate, DQM:J wasn't suppose to get another shipment until the middle of March IIRC.

 

[Moor-Angol]

Yes it has Moor-Angol.

fixed

And maybe ethelred and Mashlinn can enlighten me, what's wrong with these titles having shortages?

Uhm.. i don't know so much the japanese market, but i have this opinion: when sales for a certain game are poor but there are many copies on the market, you can find them in the big "1000yen basket", a place when you can find games with very discounted prices.

Maybe for japanese mentality, if a product is sold a lower price, this means is not totally good (but i could be wrong, as i said, i don't know yet japanese mentality), so companies started to make stocks lower than usual to prevent this kind of discounted sales.

On the other side, maybe japanese vg market is grown in the last year, and demand became high, it's common for DS titles, especially 3rd parties, to become sold-out, and probably this happened to MHP2 too, maybe CapCom underestimate the high demand about this title.

 

[justchris]

And now something completely different: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_drrgyeA5U

How could anyone with a soul have ever posted that? What are you???

 

[LanceStern]

Enough beating around the bush, here's what I'm getting at. The underlying concept being my 300k benchmark and the refutation you guys have provided for so long.

If you guys have been saying for the past year or so that titles can sell significantly less than 300k and still be considered a success in your eyes, the publishers eyes, the developers eyes, GAFFers eyes, and Nintendo's eyes, and you had no problem with it, why are you complaining abuot restock issues?

Most of the titles that have a shortage are titles that have already sold near 1 million copies already, shouldn't you and everyone else be happy with it by now, and then even more happy when they can etch out a couple more (two digit thousand) cartridges?

And for companies that are getting shortages and only selling around 70k or so. Not only do I ask "Shouldn't you still be happy with it and call it a success?" but also, "Aren't these the same companies that have a FREAKING HISTORY OF UNDERSHIPPING IN THE FIRST PLACE?" The answer, in relation to Atlus most definitely, is yes; I dont' need your sarcastic runaround answers.

Double standards folks.

 

[PantherLotus]

Well this last page was a quote forest of epic proportions. Thanks.

 

[kizmah]

How much has the first MHP sold so far?

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Enough beating around the bush, here's what I'm getting at. The underlying concept being my 300k benchmark and the refutation you guys have provided for so long.

If you guys have been saying for the past year or so that titles can sell significantly less than 300k and still be considered a success in your eyes, the publishers eyes, the developers eyes, GAFFers eyes, and Nintendo's eyes, and you had no problem with it, why are you complaining abuot restock issues?

Most of the titles that have a shortage are titles that have already sold near 1 million copies already, shouldn't you and everyone else be happy with it by now, and then even more happy when they can etch out a couple more (two digit thousand) cartridges?

And for companies that are getting shortages and only selling around 70k or so. Not only do I ask "Shouldn't you still be happy with it and call it a success?" but also, "Aren't these the same companies that have a FREAKING HISTORY OF UNDERSHIPPING IN THE FIRST PLACE?" The answer, in relation to Atlus most definitely, is yes; I dont' need your sarcastic runaround answers.

Double standards folks.

Woden would but strike him down.

 

[cvxfreak]

We all need to extend the DSL hardware mentality to its software: there's more demand than Nintendo can order and produce at the moment. It doesn't help that Nintendo will prioritize its titles, and that its titles just won't stop selling (NSMB, Pokemon, nintendogs, Brain Age, etc). Japan's also just one market, while European and North American demand is also going up through the roof. I bet that the next major cartridge shortage is going to be in April, when they begin with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for NA.

Not every DS game is under ordered. Retailers are stuck with tons of copies of Star Fox Command and Tales of the Tempest, for example, and these have made Moor's discounted bins.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Things certainly don't seem optimal for DS card production, but

It should not ever take a month to get a game that outsells its entire shipment restocked. And we've seen this now with too many games (DQMJ, Sekaiju, SRW, Layton, Sim City, and on and on and on) from too many companies, and some of them (like Square Enix) I don't think would ever be this reckless with surefire sellers like DQMJ.

didn't Sega have 1 million Love & Berry stock right from the start, shortly before DQMJ? If things are really so tight, do you think Nintendo gave Sega preferential treatment over S-E? Or that they just made the right move in ordering big?

If you guys have been saying for the past year or so that titles can sell significantly less than 300k and still be considered a success in your eyes, the publishers eyes, the developers eyes, GAFFers eyes, and Nintendo's eyes, and you had no problem with it, why are you complaining abuot restock issues?

Regardless of how profitable a venture turned out, no one is satisfied if they were cut off at the knee and could've done better.

 

[LanceStern]

Not every DS game is under ordered. Retailers are stuck with tons of copies of Star Fox Command and Tales of the Tempest, for example, and these have made Moor's discounted bins.

Could be that some of these titles are just undertracked by MC (like the week people said Wii had sold out of its shipment when reality there were about 30,000 somewhere out there, either undertracked or didn't sell) or really just aren't selling for one week.

I prefer the former, it's more logical