Importers Report Possible Super Smash Bros. Shortages

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Importers Report Possible Super Smash Bros. Shortages


Wii [http://www.nintendo.com].

The game is expected to be one of the most popular Wii releases this year, having received a perfect score from influential Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu [http://www.famitsu.com/]. The game has already experienced one delay, pushed back to a March 9 release date in North America, while Europe is expected to see the game sometime in the second quarter.

According to a Play Asia [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=32574]has posted a message on its website saying, "Please note that Nintendo has badly cut pre-orders placed by all distributors and is only shipping very limited quantities into the market this week. Our first shipment of Super Smash Bros. Brawl has reached us today, only covering about 15 percent of all pre-orders that we have received."

Another company, National Console Support [http://www.ncsx.com/], was somewhat more upbeat, suggesting that sufficient quantities could still be received in time for the release date. "Our initial shipments of Smash Bros. are expected to arrive on Thursday of this week. We were able to obtain more copies than we originally expected after receiving the bad news from suppliers on Sunday night," the company said.

"Some of our suppliers in Hong Kong won't be getting any copies until this weekend which makes it more of a delay than an actual shortage. We also note that most of our Japanese vendors will receive the bulk of their supplies on February 2 and February 4 which is a few days later than the official street date," the report noted.


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ComradeJim270

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Nov 24, 2007
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Console shortages are one thing... consoles are complex and expensive to manufacture... but a shortage on a game? That's just stupid. CDs and DVDs are very cheap and easy to manufacture once you have a production line set up. I can't imagine there being a shortage on any game for more than a couple days after release, unless retailers were foolish and didn't even try to fill all the pre-orders, or unless someone responsible for manufacturing (or possibly coordination between manufacturing and the rest of the company) was a total bonehead. Judging by this story's wording, I'm guessing it's the latter. Either Nintendo needs to build up its manufacturing dept, or they need to take major steps to improve efficiency.

I can't help but picture a Nintendo assembly line being outpaced by a snail, as the two employees at a factory just stare at it and don't even think about pressing a few buttons to change the situation.

"Hey, can these machines work faster?"
"I dunno... hey, check out this cool snail!"
 

Arbre

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Jan 13, 2007
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Here we go again. Shortages.

Come on, even Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf has more credibility.