Ocarina of Time 3D rumored not to be in print now

[Tanooki]

Has anyone actually confirmed this from a US site or NOA themselves? I've been trying to find this game and it's become a damned headache. Yes I can buy it off ebay, but people are ginning up this story to screw people out of twice the retail price which isn't happening. This thing was at various places around Christmas for the normal $40 retail price so this just seems screwy for it to play the 8/16bit Nintendo predator game in barely over a month. At most I'd pop for the original price, shipping and stuff as any rational person should (that or trade something of equal value.)


I got impatient and called. The NOA rep said and I quote: "It is both widely available at both retail and on the eshop."

What the F! Goddamn rumors causing people to scoop the stuff up potentially here.

[Daria]

Maybe the Majora's Mask release has people scrambling to pick up Ocarina?

[Tupin]

I think Nintendo wants people to buy older games like that off of the eShop. It wouldn't surprise me if physical copies of Nintendo games in general get smaller and smaller print runs in the future.

[kai123]

Maybe the Majora's Mask release has people scrambling to pick up Ocarina?

That would make more sense to me. I can't imagine the shelves were over flowing with Ocarina in the first place.

[Leo_A]

Hopefully they finally do a proper rerelease program once again, and get this one back out there along with some other in-demand projects that are getting scarce these days.

[Tanooki]

I agree that Majora may be a bit of a factor, but if you check it out, around a month or so ago PlayAsia put this bs story out that Nintendo supposedly told them it wasn't being printed anymore on their site. Some US gaming media picked up on it and started spreading the story, some listing it as a story and others legitimately as a rumor. Either way, you can actually track the date of that story against the ebay sales and see that thing go from like $30-40 up to $80-100. That's what has me bugged. I wish people would just think before they act instead of letting people take advantage of them like that when a simple call to NOA would have had those asinine stories amended and shot down to cut these resellers off.

I was holding out getting this thing back to play it properly in 3D with that New3DS, and it just figures about a month before the N3DS hits that story blows things up.

It's right up there with the Amiibo pilfering going on keeping about 1/2 the lineup off most store shelves so they can up sold online. I'd really like to get Fox and especially Shulk for when Xenoblade drops and that is becoming a headache. I was happily surprised when I found Mega Man and Toon Link this week, the first two I've picked up. I have no interest in getting them all, but certain ones I grew up with I would + Shulk. Go look up something like Little Mac, Captain Falcon and Pit from the older stuff it's annoying, and if you get into the realm of single store release stuff or the unpopular until it was expensive Villager and Trainer - ugh (glad I don't want them.)

[kai123]

I have three Amiibos sitting in front of me. I swore I wouldn't buy any and I got three for Christmas. I got Little Mac, Fox, and Link. When I opened them the first thing I asked was where they got them. Luckily they found them in store so they didn't get hosed on ebay. I opened them up and they are in front of my TV now. I didn't realize the Amiibo was just a CPU character you "trained". I used it once and I haven't put in on the Wii U since. They are nice figures if you can get them for retail but nothing I would actively seek out.

I can't tell if Nintendo is brilliant or not when it comes to their retail supply chain.

[Leo_A]

I wish people would just think before they act instead of letting people take advantage of them like that when a simple call to NOA would have had those asinine stories amended and shot down to cut these resellers off.

I don't understand the problem. You're mad that reports are circulating that this game has fallen out of print, with new stock all but dried up in recent months, because someone at Nintendo replied to your email saying otherwise?

If you have that much faith in that email, I don't get it. If it's accurate, they're going to restock retailers and you'll be able to order a new copy at MSRP. All you're out is perhaps two or three weeks of waiting.

Unfortunately, the evidence says otherwise and I doubt the Nintendo rep that replied to you had that type of information available to them. So I think you're either going to have to aim for a used copy, settle for a download, or cross your fingers that it's eventually rereleased as a budget title.

[Tanooki]

I didn't email Nintendo as I don't trust to ever get a human on that so I called their main line and the guy took a serious look into the computer, had went through a few systems and had me on hold for a moment with it. He said it's in production so I'd believe him over a stock email. He said he wasn't thrilled with people who are doing that because even as an employee he had to go through retail to try and get a majora's mask new 3ds xl and he missed out so he understood the frustration with the situation.

I'm mad people are taking a shit rumor from an Asian website and using it to screw people and pick off all the copies from retail chain stores that'll ship to home or closest retail shop to throw that shit up on ebay for 2x or more the price as it's disgusting. Had that rumor never got started a little over a month ago I could have freely walked into probably 10 different stores in a 5mi radius and would be playing it now. So yeah, I'm peeved about it.

[Daria]

The amiibo craze is actually pretty funny. It's becoming a self-fullfilling prophecy as speculators try and guess the rare preorders and then whip everyone up into depleting the supply.

[kai123]

The amiibo craze is actually pretty funny. It's becoming a self-fullfilling prophecy as speculators try and guess the rare preorders and then whip everyone up into depleting the supply.

I go on slickdeals a lot and that is so true. They are constantly posting threads for preorders.

[Tanooki]

Well said, that is a far greater issue than the lie around OOT 3D. I've just got Mega Man and Toon Link, was lucky when I found them due to the supply problem. I went around the other day looking to see if I could find Shulk for when Xenoblade pops up and no gamestops have it, one did earlier that day and it was gone, and no one anywhere has Fox which is weird. I did find at Meijer they were picked clean on one horizontal row of them and that's all, but it was the only store I saw DeDeDe and Ike along with one other at anywhere. It's like some vicious circle of devouring where anything that starts to trickle out off the boat all get poached and thrown online for 2x the price, and then the stuff that's single store based gets even worse. The annoyance there is that they're only bad if you buy online, find one in the store and it's retail, so it's not even a dead limited market item like old Nintendo systems cartridges.

I won't buy them online, love to have them, but it can wait for sanity or a local find but I want some 8/16bit era characters for my desk like Little Mac, Captain Falcon, and Fox to name a few along with the overly common stuff you can get anywhere anytime like Mario.

[Jorpho]

Wasn't there some rumor about a labor dispute in west coast shipping ports causing supply shortages?

[Tanooki]

Actually that was true. It's also why during the first days of the New3DS being on the shelf it was harder to come by, but now you can find it in various stores much easier. The Amiibos are a victim of it as well. Nintendo said something to the effect that small thin items that ship in small boxes (games, very small accessories) they fly in because it's faster and cheaper due to the size, but larger bulk items like the Amiibo, systems, large accessories and other junk come in on a boat. There was a strike with the unions for the docks on the west coast and they screwed a lot of people over tying down freight at the docks and not allowing it to leave the grounds. I personally could never fathom an union getting away with that since it's other peoples property, it's technically defacto theft, a kidnapping of product that had nothing to do with the dispute. It was resolved fairly recently and since that time I've seen more Amiibo and systems on the shelf in the Nintendo area at various stores.

[FieryReign]

I noticed the price rise of Ocarina right before Majoras Mask dropped and secured me a copy. Just the sleazy resellers snatching up all the copies because of the recent interest in Zelda. I seen quite a few copies being sold from Canada, that's where I picked mine up for retail price(playable in French).

Is the same thing happening to A Link Between Worlds? The price is up to 50 bucks on Amazon, yet I see plenty of copies in stores for 40? It's getting ridiculous

[Tanooki]

Maybe a Canada thing? I just checked the first page of 'sold' on that one and it's a range of $30-40 (CIB to new) on it, so it hasn't spiked, but it's also a couple years newer. I guess it's not just a US thing if you're seeing the Canadians trying to screw their own as well on the game. I'm going to ride it out, do want to play it, but it's not vital as it's not like I haven't finished it before on N64. I'm only I think around 25% through shin megami tensei 4 anyway.

[Leo_A]

By then, the economics will surely have sorted themselves out if it's truly still in print.

[Tanooki]

It may, but also knowing what I do about Nintendo and older games they keep in print, they don't keep them in large print. I imagine it'll bottom out probably above the original retail but not well over like $50~ which is what Gamestop sells it for now as they end to be some weird barmometer for the stuff.

I was able to track the game down also out of town here a moment ago for a fair price, when I'm off work in a bit I'm driving to get it. I'd have the mail it, but my wife needs to go out that way anyway so mini-road trip. Scalpers be damned.

[jonebone]

You won't find it for MSRP again unless Gamestop does a reprint. Which ironically enough, they actually may with how expensive it has gotten.

No internet article it to blame, it is simply a post Xmas spike lined up with the re-release of Majora's Mask. Price starting trickling up rapidly after the beginning of the year with all of this hype.

The Zelda 25th Anniversary bundle (that came with OOT) actually stayed pretty flat as a CIB during this time period though. So I just caved and bought the entire bundle around $225 shipped (waited for an auction) and that satisfies the collector in me. You could quite literally buy one, then part out the bundle (sell game and the system separately) and turn a profit without even trying.

[Leo_A]

It may, but also knowing what I do about Nintendo and older games they keep in print, they don't keep them in large print. I imagine it'll bottom out probably above the original retail but not well over like $50~ which is what Gamestop sells it for now as they end to be some weird barmometer for the stuff.

If it's still in print, it's going to be sold at MSRP at retailers like Wal-Mart.

They're not going to be shipping these direct to the small scale scalpers that are always on the watch for the next thing to grab in the hope of selling it to someone else at a profit.

If you don't see these reappear at MSRP at such a retailer, there's a reason for it and that's because it has gone out of print and they're not being restocked, as the situation appears to be the case here until proven otherwise.