Nintendo Blames Retailers for Limited Console Colors

[StewShearerOld]

Nintendo Blames Retailers for Limited Console Colors

Nintendo says color options are limited by American on-the-shelf policies at retail.

Gaming hardware in North American can, at times, be lacking when it comes to color options. For the most part consumers can probably expect their hardware to come in some boring variation of black or <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121593-All-White-PS3-Bundle-Hits-Stores-on-January-27>white. While it might be easy to blame console and handheld makers for their seeming Model T approach to color, the real issue, according to Nintendo, may lie with the way American retailers sell hardware.

"It really comes down to the nuts and bolts of how we manage our [stock keeping units] at retail, and how we do it in a way that's effective for us and effective for our business partners," said Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Nintendo of America. According to Fils-Aime, retailers in the United States have more of a tendency to stock hardware on shelves so consumers can look at them up close. Japanese retailers meanwhile keep hardware locked up behind the counter, making it easier to stock a wider variety of colors. "In our [North American] market, it's all out there on the shelf. When you visit our retail, if I had to try to have 25 different SKUs out there, Wal-Mart would kill me," said Fils-Aime.

There are exceptions to the rule, of course. <a href=http://www.gamespot.com/news/fire-emblem-awakening-3ds-bundle-revealed-6402370>Special edition versions of consoles occasionally rear their colorful heads in America, a trend Nintendo could be investing in more itself in the future. "What we're seeing is that if we do this right, we can have a more limited quantity, have it sell through in a fairly short period of time, and use that as a way to satisfy the consumer's desires to have a range of different SKUs and some special hardware."

Source: <a href=http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/18/nintendos-3ds-is-surging-but-where-are-those-colors>IGN


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[Rossco64]

So... every shop in Japan is an Argos?

 

[Dark Knifer]

Is it really that hard to have a sign saying "Also comes in these colours"

What a pathetic answer.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Surely this has a simple solution?

Sell them on your website. Also means that you'd be taking all the money from it too. And it means everywhere can get all the special editions, not just Japan.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

Wouldn't it be simple to just have retailers put, say, three different colored versions of a console on the store-floor (maybe the three colors that are likely to sell/catch the eye) and have a small catalog at the register that shows off the different available colors? I get the impression that, if retailers did have multiple unit colors, this would be something they would consider. Maybe Nintendo doesn't want to risk making hardware that has a chance of not selling due to Western buying habits, and to be fair the lack of console colors available in the West is not something I count against the 3DS or Nintendo, but at the same time this seems like a lame excuse.

 

[Jumwa]

Is it really that hard to have a sign saying "Also comes in these colours"

What a pathetic answer.

Pathetic yes, but it's not as if Nintendo made the answer. They answer to retailers and how they want to sell stock. I doubt anyone would be changing the mentality of North American retailers about displaying stock any time soon.

Retailers of all ilks have a long and storied history of punishing or rewarding their suppliers with prime shelf and marketing space in their store. Not to mention other readily available methods to get what they want. It's why game makers are so desperate to win over Gamestop or BestBuy by adding in "exclusive" skins and such, because if they don't give the retailer what they want, they'll shove their games into some dingy hole, order low stock, and push forward their competitors onto customers.

 

[1337mokro]

The answer as always is the INTERNET!

Put it online, cut out the retailer if no one wants to sell them, then sell directly to the customer and charge shipping.

THERE problem solved.

These people just LOVE to pretend there are huge insurmountable problems everywhere don't they? The answer is so phenomenally simple it boggles the mind how they think anyone will actually go "Oh it's the retailers fault" NO!

Fuck you Nintendo! You could literally allow me to order any number of colours straight from your warehouse, yet you don't. You could allow online retailers to sell any colour they want given that they basically all operate from a giant warehouse, yet you don't. You could even just ship the regular ones and keep the weird technicoloured ones on a built to order basis, yet you don't.

Take these weak ass excuses and come back with better ones. I have no desire for a corn yellow and purple 3DS, I like my red one just fine, but if you are going to feed me bullshit that's where I draw the line. We are not stupid, no matter what the focus groups say.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Nintendo hardware now comes in bullshit brown? I was not aware of that.

I'm going along with the prevailing opinion that this is a weak excuse. I'm sure there are several easy solutions Nintendo could work out with retailers, especially specialty retailers. Or, you know, Nintendo could take the initiative and find some alternative method a hawking their goods. Really, are they just incapable of fully wrapping their heads around this internet thing, or is it just me?

I don't particularly care what my 3DS XL looks like, mostly due to being borefest white. I would care a lot if I could get it in snazzy metallic candy apple red.[footnote]I know there is a red XL, which is kinda nice, though I'm not overly fond of the matte finish. But, I want red so in my face I'll need a towel to wipe off the saliva as it bellows "I'M FUCKING RED!" at a volume that would impress even Brian Blessed.[/footnote]

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Well...

1. Get rid of region lock, and 2. Why do you have to see every colour at once? Why not just have a display model and a colour chart of the options? This is ridiculous.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

So I take it this is why comsumer electronics in general come in black, white, and silver, with very few exceptions? I woud love, say, a blood red DVD player, but they just don't make them. There's a company that makes TVs with colored bezels, but it's just one company, and besides, the TV is the one component that really shouldn't have a weird color, since human color perception can actually be tricked by that sort of thing, making your TV look like its colors are off when they're actually perfect, the colored bezel is just screwing with your brain.

I mean, at least with game consoles you'll occasionally get some color variation. The consumer electronics world is a colorless place. Black boxes are nice in that they disappear when the lights turn off, but so do dark shades of other colors. Silver boxes need to go die in a fire[footnote]These modern "silver paint" ones, anyway. I like old stereo recievers from the 50's through the 70's. Those things were all wood paneling and silver finish, but it was the actual color of the metal (usually stainless steel or aluminum), not some crappy paint. And it definitely wasn't painted plastic.[/footnote], and white boxes should probably stick to portable devices like iPods and handheld game systems.

 

[Terramax]

"It really comes down to the nuts and bolts of how we manage our [stock keeping units] at retail, and how we do it in a way that's effective for us and effective for our business partners," said Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Nintendo of America. According to Fils-Aime, retailers in the United States have more of a tendency to stock hardware on shelves so consumers can look at them up close. Japanese retailers meanwhile keep hardware locked up behind the counter, making it easier to stock a wider variety of colors.

Bullshit. I live in Japan. They present consoles in the same way as people in the west do. They have boxes, or pictures, on the shelves in most game stores. Cabinets are for 2nd hand consoles. I challenge Fils-Aime to find a store in Japan that has all 25 colours on display. I haven't even seen that happen in the 8 story mega-electronic stores I've been to.

 

[Dragonbums]

Well...

1. Get rid of region lock, and 2. Why do you have to see every colour at once? Why not just have a display model and a colour chart of the options? This is ridiculous.

Again, that is purely up to the retailers that sell their hardware. They can do all those things, but if the manager is too lazy to implement them than what is the point?

 

[Dragonbums]

Also Midnight purple is the most gorgeous color you can get for the regular 3DS.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Wait, Retailers can only stock certain colours because they put the units out on the shelves for the customer to see? That doesn't make any sense. Why couldn't they stock all the colours and just put up a poster saying "Also available in these colours."

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

I was going to mention the special edition 3DS's, but the article covered that.

When I purchased my Limited Edition Pikachu 3DSXL, it was right there front and center.

 

[Duckman]

I'm wondering why they need a different SKU for each color... I worked in retail for a really, really long time, and the very first thing that a good inventory system does is make sure you get rid of any redundancies that you can. In this case, the products are often given the same SKU regardless of color variation. This is an extremely simple inventory problem that can be solved by nintendo OR the retailer any time they want. Now, the argument tends to come back that certain colors will sell better than others, and they want to have numbers that reflect that. Again, that's an inventory issue that they can solve by simply tweaking the SKU. Really, this isn't difficult to solve, but Nintendo is making bullshit excuses all the same.

And console color options really aren't something that bothers me. In my mind, the only thing Nintendo did wrong was talking about it.

 

[soren7550]

Sooo... does this mean the Charizard 3DS XL won't be coming state side?

And yeah, that kinda sounds like a weaksauce argument.

 

[DuelLadyS]

Wait, Retailers can only stock certain colours because they put the units out on the shelves for the customer to see? That doesn't make any sense. Why couldn't they stock all the colours and just put up a poster saying "Also available in these colours."

Having worked in retail for a long time, you'd be surprised how many people just don't get the 'look at the sign' thing. I work in a craft store. We sell a line of beads with colored tags. We have signs explaining that each color is a different price. I get asked at least twice a week how much those beads are. Oh, and if one price/color goes on sale? Man- it's bad when the signs say "30% off red-tag beads", but if they make them say "30% $3.99 beads"? I'll have people screaming at me every day!

There's also the in-stock issue... I've worked in a shoe dept. before, with signs above popular shoes showing all the color they come in- but most are ship-in, and not available in the store. People don't like that- if it's on the sign, it must be in store and in stock, right?

So yeah- I hate the logic, I kinda wish they'd slowly force it ("it's just one more sku!" every few months)... but I get it.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Wait, Retailers can only stock certain colours because they put the units out on the shelves for the customer to see? That doesn't make any sense. Why couldn't they stock all the colours and just put up a poster saying "Also available in these colours."

Having worked in retail for a long time, you'd be surprised how many people just don't get the 'look at the sign' thing. I work in a craft store. We sell a line of beads with colored tags. We have signs explaining that each color is a different price. I get asked at least twice a week how much those beads are. Oh, and if one price/color goes on sale? Man- it's bad when the signs say "30% off red-tag beads", but if they make them say "30% $3.99 beads"? I'll have people screaming at me every day!

There's also the in-stock issue... I've worked in a shoe dept. before, with signs above popular shoes showing all the color they come in- but most are ship-in, and not available in the store. People don't like that- if it's on the sign, it must be in store and in stock, right?

So yeah- I hate the logic, I kinda wish they'd slowly force it ("it's just one more sku!" every few months)... but I get it.

Still if the sign was there Nintendo wouldn't be able to blame retailers. Although it's a weak excuse regardless.