Which games were sold out and unavailable for a significant amount of time?

[Kid Ice]

I was writing about Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast yesterday and I wrote that it is only one of only two games I can remember being sold out for a period of months (the other was Gran Turismo 2). Surely there must have been a number of other games that were unavailable for a while but none came to my mind.

Can you remember a mainstream title that was sold out and unavailable for over a month or so? Not counting limited editions, homebrews, etc. or pack in games like Wii Sports.

[Emperor Megas]

IIRC, Nintendo artificially inflated the demand for Super Mario Bros. 3 by limited the available stock.

[Clownzilla]

IIRC, Nintendo artificially inflated the demand for Super Mario Bros. 3 by limited the available stock.

Something they still do today...

[Gameguy]

The original Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk come to mind.

[CrazyGamesDude]

The original Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk come to mind.

Speaking of DS games, a little while ago the game 999: 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors was sold out and hard to find, and then I think a second wave became available after a while.

[bangtango]

Wasn't NES Zelda II: The Adventure of Link unavailable off and on the first few months it was out because of some so-called "chip shortage"?

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, I've heard talk of the Zelda II "chip shortage" as well, but I have no confirmation of it myself. I've also heard people say that Super Mario Bros. 2 was affected too.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Mario 3 was very hard to come by for a couple of months after release. Stores would still get them in, but in very limited stock. One of the greatest gaming moments in my life was when I arrived at Toy R US (or was it Children's Palace?) right when a truck arrived, and among the things on that truck were the bright yellow packages of Super Mario 3. I was finally able to pick one up.

I remember some Dreamcast games selling out at launch, but I don't remember any long-term shortages.

In today's world, with how easy it is to print a disc, I think shortages are a thing of the past. The only thing I could think of that would limit the supply of a game is the lack of shelf space. Target seems to have a lot of games crammed into thier small cases. Of course, you can order any game you want on E-bay.

[j_factor]

Panzer Dragoon Saga was presold out, and as I recall it took a good month for a second shipment to come in. Even then, it was never exactly plentiful.

[Steve W]

Mario 3 was very hard to come by for a couple of months after release. Stores would still get them in, but in very limited stock. One of the greatest gaming moments in my life was when I arrived at Toy R US (or was it Children's Palace?) right when a truck arrived, and among the things on that truck were the bright yellow packages of Super Mario 3. I was finally able to pick one up.

Of course, Nintendo had warehouses in Japan full of North American versions of Super Mario 3 ready to be shipped, but they instead decided to price gouge the US public by limiting stocks and overcharging for the game, resulting in a Senate investigation which concluded that Nintendo had broken the law. Nintendo got out of it by publicly apologizing and sending out $5 coupons to people who had sent in their registration cards. That was the tipping point where I decided to stop buying NES games and Nintendo consoles. That and the other anti-competition things they were doing, like forcing stores to stop carrying Atari and Sega systems under threat of having their Christmas shipments cut in half, made me give up on them. It wasn't until the GameCube came along that I bothered with another one of their consoles.

[Greg2600]

The list is very long from Nintendo for sure.

[Bojay1997]

Of course, Nintendo had warehouses in Japan full of North American versions of Super Mario 3 ready to be shipped, but they instead decided to price gouge the US public by limiting stocks and overcharging for the game, resulting in a Senate investigation which concluded that Nintendo had broken the law. Nintendo got out of it by publicly apologizing and sending out $5 coupons to people who had sent in their registration cards. That was the tipping point where I decided to stop buying NES games and Nintendo consoles. That and the other anti-competition things they were doing, like forcing stores to stop carrying Atari and Sega systems under threat of having their Christmas shipments cut in half, made me give up on them. It wasn't until the GameCube came along that I bothered with another one of their consoles.

Did this really happen? I never heard about any Senate investigation or any intentional supply constriction, at least not anything that could ever be proved. The only government action I'm aware of against Nintendo was an EU investigation and fine for preventing retailers from importing games for resale from EU countries where the cost was lower.

[The 1 2 P]

I remember looking for copies of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Ds shortly after it came out and being unable to find them anywhere. They eventually did a second printing but that didn't arrive for several weeks after it initially sold out.

[c0ldb33r]

Super Mario all stars for wii

[The 1 2 P]

Super Mario all stars for wii

Nope.

Not counting limited editions

[Bratwurst]

Did this really happen? I never heard about any Senate investigation or any intentional supply constriction, at least not anything that could ever be proved. The only government action I'm aware of against Nintendo was an EU investigation and fine for preventing retailers from importing games for resale from EU countries where the cost was lower.

http://www.davis.ca/en/blog/Video-Ga...TLEMENT-UPHELD

[klausien]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was hard to find for a while until they did the Greatest Hits reprint.

[dbiersdorf]

Definitely Pokemon Red/Blue about two months after they launched and their popularity starting hitting huge numbers. I remember my Mom had an incredibly difficult time locating me a copy for my birthday.

[TonyTheTiger]

Didn't Disgaea become somewhat hard to come by for a while before all the reprints?

[fairyland]

Yeah, I've heard talk of the Zelda II "chip shortage" as well, but I have no confirmation of it myself. I've also heard people say that Super Mario Bros. 2 was affected too.

I remember being told this by the store clerk at K-mart at the time and that's why Zelda 2 was some $60 dollars, which was $10 to $20 more than the average NES game. I think it was more about getting a higher price for the game as it never really seemed rare our out of stock back then.