Nintendo’s disappointing release strategy for Super Mario 3D All-Stars.
How this relates to previous butchered releases from Nintendo.
Editors Note: This article, like many of our other posts, is an opinion piece and should be treated as such. Everyone has their own opinion on this topic. Nintendo could be practicing artificial scarcity, however, they could also just be very bad at handling their supply. There is no definitive evidence that they have purposely avoided restocking items to keep demand high. Regardless, it is still important to discuss the points in this article, as Nintendo has seemingly not learned from their past, and are very blatantly limiting the supply of Super Mario 3D All-Stars to increase demand, even with the digital version of the game. There is a clear line between making a limited edition product (Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.) and a product that should act as the definitive way for people to play games on a newer console. For example, the original Super Mario All-Stars for SNES was not a limited release.
With quarantine driving us all mad, we have all been dying for something new to take our minds off of the dreary situation we’ve in for the past several months. So when Nintendo announced Super Mario 3D All-Stars, gamers were a little more than excited. However, with its announcement, also came some disappointment. This is because the Nintendo Direct confirmed that the game would only be available from September 2020 to March 2021. Now, if this were a first-time occurrence, it would only be slightly annoying. So you may be wondering, why is everyone so upset? Well, to answer that question, we’ll have to dive into Nintendo’s history over the last few years. As you will soon find, this is not the first time this has happened…
The Problem
What we’ll mainly be referring to in the case of what Nintendo is doing is called artificial scarcity.
“Artificial Scarcity is the scarcity of items that exist even though either the technology for production or the sharing capacity exists to create a theoretically limitless or at least a greater quantity of production than currently exists.”
Essentially, if we break it down into the basics, artificial scarcity is when you make less of a product that you know people will want even though you have the materials to make a lot more. That way, you can sell it for more and induce something we call FOMO, which is an abbreviation of Fear of Missing Out.
Artificial scarcity enforces the idea that if you don’t get something right this instant, you’ll miss out and not be able to get it later. This will usher consumers into a panic of trying to get their hands upon the item in question before it goes out of stock and they either have to pay an absurd amount for it, or they can’t find it at all. Or even worse, people who think they don’t want the product will feel pressured to buy the item, just in case they change their mind. If they change their mind after the product is already gone, it will be too late.
Amiibo
Back in 2014, Nintendo’s interactive figurines, known as Amiibo, were launched. Plenty of people were excited about Nintendo’s take on the toys-to-life concept, and quickly Nintendo found themselves a new, profitable toy line. But, I guess that wasn’t enough for them, because not too long after launch, they were suddenly nowhere to be found. Amiibo were sold out everywhere, which caused price spikes and even higher demand. You may have even heard the story of how someone hijacked a truck carrying Limited Edition Splatoon Amiibo in 2015, in which customers who had already pre-ordered the figurines were left empty-handed.
Even Forbes, who say Nintendo’s artificial scarcity is a myth, admit that the Amiibo were kept intentionally hard to get and in low stock to cause hype and collector craze among consumers.
This ploy continues even to this day, although I can’t say how much people still want the figures. The hype has certainly died down a massive amount, though there is most likely a good amount of collectors that still carry a vast collection. It’s not hard to see that this was a very obvious way to drive sales of the figures, which worked very well. Although it also added some weight to the wallets of scalpers who sold them for twice the price on eBay as well.
NES Classic
On November 11, 2016, Nintendo’s NES Classic came out with very limited stock. Knowing Nintendo, they sold out immediately, selling 196,000 units in its first month. Selling out within a few hours, Nintendo had underestimated the demand for the console. However, rather then restocking fully and meeting the demand, they decided to keep the console in limited stock which made it incredibly hard to purchase if you were not keeping a constant eye on the system. Not even a year later, (April 2017) they ended the production of the NES Classic, sending out the last shipments within a few days.
Considering the scarcity of the product, this reasonably caused anger within consumers who had been trying to get a hold of the console for presumably months. Then-President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé, had this to say for the sudden halt of production:
“We just didn’t anticipate how incredible the response would be…we’ve got a lot going on right now and we don’t have unlimited resources.”
Later on, Nintendo announced the resumption of production of the console in June 2018. But then in December, once again, Nintendo announced that production would stop after the holiday season.
Looking back at the whole situation, it was a hot mess, and it’s hard to believe how poorly it was handled. But then again, was it truly a mistake? Combined sales of the NES and SNES Classic Editions by September 30, 2018, exceeded 10 million units. In this case, it is hard to tell if this truly was artificial scarcity or an actual mistake on Nintendo’s part.
There are other cases of which Nintendo may have done this, but these cases aren’t nearly as clear cut. Such as the demand of the Wii in 2007, the shortage of Nintendo Switches in 2017, and more. It’s hard to tell in these cases if Nintendo did this on purpose, or if it was truly a blunder of underestimating the demand for the products, and that could go for the other examples too. However, for Super Mario 3D All-Stars, there is no mistake on Nintendo’s part.
So, now you know a little bit about the history. Artificial scarcity, while good for the company, is unfavorable to the consumer as it preys on their anxiety of missing out rather than their actual desire for the product. And because the games in Super Mario 3D All-Stars are just emulated remasters, and the only way to legitimately play these games on the Switch, it’s not hard to tell why people are so upset about the fact that the game will only be available for a short time. It’s a tactic that Nintendo, and plenty of other companies, have supposedly done time and time again, and consumers are sick of it.
