Pikmin 3

[wizardofwor]

It's $100 bucks on Amazon.....what gives?

[Leo_A]

Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, hasn't reprinted it and the original print run is now all but sold out.

It was a lengthy journey to selling out as Nintendo doesn't typically follow the usual practice of dropping prices to maximize sales, meaning that inventory had to trickle out at or near launch MSRP after the initial release when it saw most of it sales. But over the past six months, prices have steadily been on the rise as that supply finally dwindled.

And the icing on the cake is that Nintendo just recently released a demo of it on the eShop. While available in full on the eShop meaning that there was a purpose behind it, why they didn't lower the price and reprint this fine release at retail at the same time is anyone's guess. The Wii U is a troubled platform, this is a fine game that has sold about all it ever will at original MSRP, and could've sold many more copies at a lower price. And it's in a franchise that they're clearly invested in and would like to grow.

Yet it's essentially only available via the eShop proper, where apparently it's still $59.99 according to at least one major retailer that sells the download code (I didn't fire up my Wii U and check). Just another example of their foolishness that so often puzzles everyone else.

[Tanooki]

I got mocked for being conspiratorial about that game over at racketboy by a resident douche who I have on permanent ignore.

The thing is Nintendo is out to get your money as any company is, and for them to get the most money it serves them best handling this generation, and in particular due to the failings of the WiiU by doing a good for the time batch run of titles, and when they're gone, that's it. They'd rather have you buy it straight from them without the middleman through their network straight to your box. They don't have to deal with others, and they can also regulate the price 100%. While stores may run buy 1 get 1 50% off sales or whatever, Nintendo can just keep it at $60 and be happy about it. In the long term they win further, if you can't buy it at the store without resorting to putting up with Gamestop and their shitty policies and pricing, you have to buy it from them or get it used elsewhere. Because of the increase of system sales since it came out, more people want it, and there aren't copies, so you can buy it for like $70-100(amazon is high) or you can buy it from Nintendo and save $10-40. That'll make more money for Nintendo because people will see a discount there.

As long as you don't care about having true ownership of the game, everyone wins. You pay less, a scrub profiteer online doesn't get paid, and Nintendo gets their full cut, so balance is kind of restored because the deserving parties pay what's right and the recipient gets what they earned making the product.

Sure maybe Nintendo could do a run later, but it's not in their normal behavior to do that, not until years into the system pass and they want to do a rebadged budget run as a Players Choice type game which would then pop it at probably $20-30 like what happened on the Wii after like 3-4 years on the market. So you can wait and pay less, pay the MSRP, or get ripped off by a third party troll.


I bought Fire Emblem back when it came out, oddly due to the kid and junk never could play it and sold it nearly a year later, got back out of it what I put into it thankfully. As it stands now I still think I'd enjoy trying that game out and it's a concern I could get horribly ripped off wanting that since I do only buy big games physically. Look at Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, it's like $70 for the complete package used (retailed $40) and it's only what 2 years old? Sucks!

[kai123]

I have no love for Nintendo right now when it comes to their games. I got my Wii U a couple of weeks before Smash Bros came out and now if I want to get the physical copies of the older games for the system I have to download them or get gouged on them? I thought this was still a current console?

Do you hear that? The Nintendo defenders are just over the hill to explain how I should feel privileged to even be in the presence of a Nintendo console.

[YoshiM]

Nintendo, I think, has reached a kind of "Disney" status where games will be made and then either never go down in price or be put away into "the vault" for later release. Come to think of it, with the HD re-releases of classic titles along with the fact retail prices don't seem to go down on their titles since the Wii era, they may already be there.

[Tanooki]

Kai Nintendo's idea of current is 'while supplies last' and they don't reprint or even print in large numbers anymore, just what they safely think can be moved. It's an issue because the WiiU has sold crappily and as people jump on board this year or next or even in 2017 they'll have a rough time and probably not bother unless they just want copies they have no ownership over because the prices just blow and this counts for the 3DS too.

I think that Disney status comment is on the nose. Disney vaults away a movie for a good stretch, then brings it back out with a few little extras and on a new format. Nintendo has been slowly doing this since the SNES (Mario Allstars) and GBC (Super Mario Deluxe) and has just increased it ever since and in particular with GBA and then into the virtual console and other promos. They know what they're doing and you can either like it or leave it really.

[Leo_A]

Come to think of it, with the HD re-releases of classic titles along with the fact retail prices don't seem to go down on their titles since the Wii era, they may already be there.

Assuming we're counting Wii Sports Club (Which is so changed, I personally consider it a remake of the original), they've only done two HD rereleases.

[PizzaKat]

I still see it from time to time in stores for $59.99

[kai123]

I still see it from time to time in stores for $59.99

It sucks because I used to see it all the time before I got my Wii U. My daughter really likes Pikmin too. I will just be patient about it.

[YoshiM]

Assuming we're counting Wii Sports Club (Which is so changed, I personally consider it a remake of the original), they've only done two HD rereleases.

Two for now. We've got the two Zeldas on 3DS (not HD but still...rereleases). If they sell more will come.

[Leo_A]

Two for now. We've got the two Zeldas on 3DS (not HD but still...rereleases). If they sell more will come.

They're not HD remasters, so they don't count.

And frankly, I think they're both ambitious enough to deserve to be considered remakes. Much more is done than just porting the source material over largely intact, displaying it in a higher resolution (Or in the case of the 3DS instead, in 3D), and with a few minor adjustments here and there.

I feel that they're too overhauled to be merely regarded as ports (Or "remasters", to use the term that has been popularized over the past half decade or so for ports of standard definition material to a high definition console). They don't go as far as something like Metroid Zero Mission, a remake of the original Metroid, did. But they're closer to it than not.

And again, Wii Sports Club isn't really just Wii Sports running in HD (And if the lineup of sports wasn't so diminished from that of Wii Sports Resort, I'm sure they could've easily gotten away with labeling it as Wii Sports 3 since it's that enhanced over the original). The Wii U has essentially only received one such title so far from Nintendo, so I really don't see how we can regard Nintendo as relying upon this concept to any significant degree.

[xelement5x]

Just wait for the price to go up more, then Nintendo will negotiate a Used only reprint with Gamestop and then there will be more copies. Easy as that.