PS2 Suikoden III Drying up like a sponge sitting in the Sun

[dsullo]

Being a fan of the RPG's and not being a fan of paying full price for games. I decided to start searching for a used copy of Suikoden III for the PS2. I checked a few local stores and they claim the game is discontinued?

Some received only a small amount of copies and sold out quickly.
I checked most online retailers and it is either on backorder or not even on their page.

Finally I found a New Sealed Copy , full price ....

Anyone else notice this trend?

I would like a strategy guide but it appears one was never released.

[hamburgler]

They are lying.Don't believe them dsullo.There are tons of copies of that game where i live and the game hasn't been discontinued from the shelves.

[Kid Fenris]

Word is that the strategy guide was canceled, possibly because it would have been too frickin' huge to be profitable.

Anyway, Suikoden III is worth its full price, in my book. It's not the best in appearance, but the sheer length and scope of the game are just staggering.

[dsullo]

could it be what is on the shelves is all they have?

I am not saying they pulled it from the shelves. But that they did not produce too many copies. Its hard to find in Northern NJ and I have about 6-8 dfferent stores I can hit

[bluecollarninja]

my friend hated it and he loves RPGs. so i brought it off him for 37. tis a damned good game.

[D_N_G]

gamestop database here in dallas shows as discontinued

[CrazyImpmon]

Gamestop also reported Broadband adapter for GC discontinued. They have a tendancy to report game or accessories as discontinued when they are simply sold out and no new stock are expected soon. It's probably just to avoid rainchecks, pre-orders, and possible lawsuit for unfilled promises. :P

Never believe what Gamestop, Funco, or EB says.

[samuraiX]

GameStop employees don't always know what to look for when they tell you something is discontinued. Sometimes an item will be shown as "delisted" and this is something they aren't getting any new stock replenishments on. Though some items do show up as "discontinued" like the Broadband adaptor (which I am unsure of the truth in that). Hope this sheds a little incite into the matter at least.

[Chunky]

s3 and REZ and some vampire and and time cops 2 i think...i saw soooo many of these at circuit city, along with a ton of cheap games and stuff i've never seen before, they added another section. they clearing out stock fo rthe new year or something.

[Six Switch]

Never believe what Gamestop, Funco, or EB says.

Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.

[Oobgarm]

FYI:

If the Gamestop/Funco computers say "Discontinued", it just means that their supplier is out of stock and is unsure on replenishment. GC Broadband adapters are a prime example. They were "Active", then "Discontined" right before Christmas. Then, they were active again for about a day when we got some in. Now they're "Discontinued" again.

Suikoden III and Contra: Shattered Soldier are both listed as "Discontinued", and have been for a little over a month or so. I'm not seeing too many of them around here at other stores.

[maxlords]

Hamburgler, you're a moron. No one HIDES games from the counter unless they're on hold or buying them themselves. The only reason they'd hide games from you is that you're not old enough to buy them. Suikoden 3 has been delisted by EB and several other places as well. That means no more orders for it. It's not HIDDEN, it's just not there at all.

Word from the local EB manager is that Konami isn't making any more unless they get X more orders for it, as it didn't meet sales expectations. So as a result, whatever was in their warehouses got sold out and if there's enough demand they'll print more, but it's looking like they may not. Sucks.

As for the strategy guide, it was cancelled due to the fact that the writer didn't make his deadline, according to what I was told. It's not so complex of a game that it would require an Arc the Lad sized guide anyway. Sucks that there'll never be a guide for it tho.

[geelw]

one thing a lot of folks don't know is:

somewhere along the chain of modern game manufacturing, major game distributors will very often prebook a certain number of a particular title, and that is how many are produced in a run. often, more than enough of a game is made for those who want it (sports games, which are ALWAYS overproduced even though it's fundamentally the same thing year after year), but there are some developers/publishers who produce more than one genre of game that will force a distributor to take some lesser quality titles in the same amount as the more popular ones. i'm going to go out on a limb and gather that konami did one of two things:

1) they pressed a limited amount of suikoden III's and contra: shattered soldiers, not realizing how popular they'd be (doubtful, given the almost unanimous positive response both titles got);
OR:
2) they wanted distributors to take equal quantities of evolution snowboarding, evolution skateboarding, whiteout, nba starting five, and whatever lesser quality gba games they produced, and as no distributor worth its salt wants to be stuck with a few ten thousand games that won't sell (especially not at the $40-43 they charge retailers for $49.99 games), everyone underordered both games.

NOW, it could also be a combo of both factors- there may not have been that many produced, but distributors still had to push the other games, and they underordered anyway. this means that somewhere, someone is sitting on a nice sized STACK of suikoden III's, simply because they can hold out and resupply a retailer at an even higher markup. and for those of you who're about to ask: even though the money is there, a distributor can't put new games on ebay- i believe it's against the law for them to do so...

a third factor- the games sold faster than expected, and as konami publishes other games, they haven't had time to produce another run. well, there's always the *GASP* greatest hits run that's bound to arrive, frustrating the more easily frustrated collector types (chuckle)...

and one more thing: wake up, folks!!! if you're not gonna pay the 40 or 50 bucks up front when a game comes out and wait for a used copy to show up, you're shooting yourself in the foot twice, and setting yourself up like marion berry walking into a crackhouse. don't be a cheapskate when you KNOW a game is going to be hot. suikoden III was a no-brainer to pre-order or buy right away ESPECIALLY if you saw or heard what part II was going for on ebay.
and contra? c'mon! the first one in YEARS by a japanese team- how could it miss? pay that 40-50 now, or pay 80 on ebay. what's smarter? end of lecture...

[maxlords]

*bows to teacher* Thank you geel-san for explaining that so everyone can understand!

[kainemaxwell]

One the things I heard was that S3 didn't sell as well as they expected, guess that was wrong then.

[geelw]

One the things I heard was that S3 didn't sell as well as they expected, guess that was wrong then.

well, you may be right in a way. if reason #2 stated above is true, then the number of copies of suikoden III sold DIDN'T meet konami's expectations because no retailer wanted to carry an equal amount of their not-so-good games. therefore, if they made say, 850,000, and retailers only bought 300,000...then the game did poorly because there are that many unsold copies (for the moment)...

another factor i forgot to mention is: there were a LOT of games released over the past few months, so it's VERY difficult for some retailers to know what to order in some areas of the country. sports titles will always sell, as will the usual wrestling, racing and licensed movie games and platformers, but frankly speaking, a lot of people can't even pronounce "suikoden" let alone play it. i've seen people order 120 pieces of a new wrestling or basketball or football game, and 2 to 4 pieces of a RPG or niche game like sky gunner. why? well, when most of your clientele is set in its ways, you go with what makes money NOW, not what's going to make you money later (when it's "rare"- i HATE that word now).

on the other hand (WARNING: rant wave cannon loaded) ...RPGs (other than the last couple of final fantasy games) usually don't do as well during the first few months of their release because u.s. RPG fans are loyal sheep, plain and simple. FF gets a massive ad budget, expensive commercials, and huge magazine coverage, but games like the suikoden series, wizardry (the ps2 one), shadow hearts, etc. have always been word of mouth games. People will buy a FF game based on the commercials alone (especially new PS/PS2 owners who know nothing of the game and are blown away by the visuals), while the other titles they'll wait until a friend buys it, or rent it first. Then when the game goes out of print, everyone comes out of the woodwork begging for a copy. xenogears, anyone?

square could make a FF game where the characters do nothing but wash dishes and change their socks, and as long as it's got good visuals and those appealing-looking characters, it'll sell. meanwhile, you'll see people overlook other games by them, because they're NOT FF games. case in point: i was working in a game shop when vagrant story, threads of fate, and front mission came out- almost NONE of the regular FF heads picked these up because they were afraid to try something that wasn't familiar, and square didn't push these games that much outside of some so-so print ads (and parasite eve II only sold because the resident evil fans were buying it, heh). i heard threads of fate described as (among other things) a "zelda rip-off", front mission called "ff tactics with robots and a stupid story", and vagrant story called "UGLY and boring" by people who should have known better...

the best way for the market to change and grow is for more people to broaden their horizons BEFORE they step into that game shop, and not just buy the same games they've been buying over and over. or wait and see if their friends like it first before they take the plunge.

geez, this sounds like an editorial...

[maxlords]

I agree with you 100 % geelw. The people that are buying massive quantities of RPGs and making RPGs a "hit genre" are the ones who buy whatever the ads tell them to. Not trying to start an "FF is good/bad" fight, but the caliber of games of the PSX FF series is NOT high. They're just not on the same level as RPGs like Suikoden and Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile and Xenogears and the Personas. That's the thing that's making all these RPGs "rare" is that no one fricken bought em (except me) when they were out! I went out and bought Valkyrie Profile, Suikoden 1 and 2, and Xenogears and every other oddball RPG new back when they came out, and put off buying all the FFs and other highly pushed RPGs. Turns out taht I got the better games, and there's no way I coudl afford those games now cause everyone is realizing that they're actually GOOD!

MOST of the best RPGs have bombed at release, and I sure as hell don't blame a company like Konami for stopping production on a game like Suikoden 3 (if they have) because it sold poorly (assuming it did). I mean, honestly, what do THEY get out of it if everyone waits for it to drop in price before buying it?? They get nothing...and so why should they keep it on shelves for those of you who won't buy it. A lot of people I talked to didn't like the $50 price point on Suiky 3 and said "I'll wait till the price goes down." That's the mentality that causes stuff like this. Between that and everyone buying stuff like Devil May Cry 2 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, it's amazing that Suiky 3 got put out at all. I just hope that game companies continue to make the GOOD RPGs for the few of us who go out and buy them at release....cause they sure as hell don't have to, considering the return they usually get on em!

[Starcade]

Well, to me I could care less if it is discontinued, I bought the game on realese, played it, and it now sits nicely next to the rest of my PS2 games, so if it is, in a few years I may just have a gem.