So I've been looking at Wii U games today and it occurred to me, Nintendo has lost it's effing mind! Pikmen 3 is already out of print and is trending at 70$ or more for a new copy, 65+ for a used copy. None of their games drop in price by much with Hyrule Warriors still at 50$, Zelda WW still at 50$ and most of their titles still at least 40$ or more. Plus what they've done with Amiibos, release them and immediately put several of them out of production, making the Villager Amiibo sky-rocket to 90$ a pop?

Why isn't this bigger news, what the hell is Nintendo doing and why aren't people flipping out about this?

I'd say it's probably because not enough people care.

I bought New Super Mario Bros. Wii four years after it released for $40. $40!!

They don't like lowering prices.

What is Zelda WW?

@alwaysbebombing: Wind Waker

I don't know...not "selling into retail" tons of games that don't sell seems like a GOOD way not now screw with retailers. I'm sure stores are happy to not have stock sitting on shelves. If Best Buy and Target have games not selling that is just forcing them to dump all Nintendo games -past their prime- into a $5 bin.

The real story for a reporter to investigate is if Nintendo is buying back stock from stores? If they are buying back stock to keep things from dropping in price THAT is a news story. Oh, its a smart short term business plan to not look like losers or scare retail buyers...but that sounds far less profitable.

Just buy games when they come out and they'll be easy enough to find and pay for.

@themasterds: I would but I don't think most Nintendo games are worth full price.

@red_piano: Well the market/Nintendo apparently disagrees.

If you want to buy Pikmin 3 at the proper price though you can just buy a digital copy for whatever that goes for. Definitely less than 65.

Eh, Nintendo has been doing it for probably a decade now. Most of them time I think they are right, as they usually put out one big Mario, one Mario Kart, one Smash, one Zelda per console. As opposed to other companies that iterate very soon after.

@themasterds: I guess they do disagree. I wanted to wait for Pikmen to drop to like $30, I'm not a huge fan but it seems like fun, but then it's a short little game with little to no replayability, not 50$ worth of game in my opinion. I would try Hyrule Warriors and Wind Waker too but I can't justify 50-60$ for games I may not be into.

@atwa: I know their games have always had a lasting value and they must continue to sell or they wouldn't stay up in price I imagine, I mean call of duty has always been a perpetually 50-60$ game, but Advanced Warfare is already dropped down to 40$ or so, I imagine because it's not doing as well as in the past.

But what seems more crazy to me is that they're putting things out of print so quick, Pikmen 3 is out of print, which is why it's shot up in price, but it never went down in price much, then they put out Amiibos and immediately OOP several models. I just don't get the purpose of this, it's the same with the gamecube adapter for Wii U, it's apparently just out of print and impossible to find. Don't they like money?

Let's bee honest, no one expected Pikmin to be a huge seller. Nintendo's not going to print more copies for a game like that. I'm sure if retailers were asking for them, Nintendo would oblige, but the demand isn't there.

@yukoasho: It still seems odd, I mean I can't imagine games like Demons Souls or Ni No Kuni were hot sellers either but you can still get them for 10-15$.

I bought a Gamecube sometime after the Wii came out. One of the few times where I skipped a system, but I was ready to pick up all those hot hits I missed. I assumed they'd be around 10 or 20 bucks a pop, and I was ready to clean house with Nintendo titles.

So Smash Melee ended up costing me $40, F-Zero was somewhere above $30. Sunshine was a good $35.

Nintendo does what it feels like.

Nintendo games don't go down in value like ever. It's been that way since the N64. I hate to say deal with it but deal with it. Also all Wii U games are available to download from the eshop theres a solution there.

Uh I'd actually say Nintendo games stay in print longer than other first party games. Quick Google search shows Pikmin 3 is still readily available at the standard price in a bunch of stores. Also Nintendo rarely do price cuts, this is not news. It's a concious decision by them. I mean it's not third party games where you can got to multiple platforms and different online stores to buy games... if you want Pikmin 3 for example you have to own a Wii U and can get it from retail or the eShop.

And also Nintendo are not the first to create physical goods with artificial limited quantities. Why? Because it generates buzz, it's makes them collectable and it means when a new batch comes out fans run out to get them. I mean trading cards have operated under the same principal for decades.

Next time you have a question about video games like "why doe Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo/EA/Activision/Whoever do this?" just assume "money" and work backwards from there.

Up until the WiiU came out Mario Kart Wii was still full price in all game stores I would frequent. Nintendo's first party stuff price changes how they feel like it. Not that I ever wanted to play Mario Kart with those controls, I just always thought that was weird.

Nintendo knows that at this point, the fans that still care about Nintendo games are a captive audience who will pay full price for that Nintendo magic. The only people who bought a Wii U are basically games press or Nintendo superfans, and in either case those suckers have to play the games, so Nintendo knows they'll pay full price for them. I am one of those suckers.

At this point, Nintendo isn't trying to lure in some wishy-washy, "I kinda like Nintendo games but I'll wait until they're $20 or $30" game player, because that person never bought a Wii U and isn't going to. That person is off playing PlayStation or Xbox games, not buying any games at launch, and Activision and EA are competing to see who can slash the prices of their retail games faster because OH GOD OUR CUSTOMER BASE IS SO FICKLE AND FEELS NO BRAND LOYALTY EXCEPT TO COD AND SPORTS GAMES.

If you really want to buy Nintendo games for cheaper, pay attention to the minor sales at your local Best Buy or whatever, and sometimes you'll get Nintendo games for $10 off or something. Nintendo doesn't give a fuck and isn't going to tell retailers "Yeah, you can permanently lower the price of those games". Not happening.

First rule of Nintendo, you dont say anything bad about Nintendo. Second rule, see the first rule.

Pikmin 3 is not out of print.

This^ and you can get it on the eShop...

It is called market price control. They print less than the expected demand, so that they control the rarity, lessen the saturation of the used market and can keep their products selling as close to full price for as long as they can. If the publisher flooded the market with copies, soon retailers would sell them cheap to deplete their new and used inventory (it is what usually happens).

Nintendo as a company believes selling games cheaper is detrimental to their value (they have come on record saying the mobile prices model in cellphones is a mistake), so they are more protective of their production cycle than other companies. It is the same they did with the Wii, and it is the same Disney does with their movies.

@csl316 said:

I was looking into buying a GameCube again. Melee is selling for $60 at its cheapest and Sunshine is still around that price. I got rid of my GameCube many years ago so I never got many games. Now I can't get any because I can't afford shell out such a fortune for old games. These outrageous prices for old games has totally put me off from getting a GameCube. I want to play these old games since Nintendo won't re-release them but it's not fair that people charge a fortune for these games.

Maybe because the console itself sells 50k worldwide in one of its good months...and the nintendo core fanbase will buy it regardless of the prices. Nintendo could charge $100 per game andno one would bat an eye at that. There is no healthy competition between titles. It's either buy MK8 at full price or buy cheap garbage ubisoft shovelware.

Because Nintendo is almost never responsive to what their users want and history has taught people that it's a waste of time and energy to try to yell at Nintendo to take the right lessons from their competitors. They will do whatever they want to do even if that means they make the wrong call more often than not. And also,

nobody really cares.

@red_piano: Idk man it seems more like Nintendo being Nintendo.

Their side of the market is pretty fucking predictable.

@me3639: a good 2/3rds of nintendo talk is negative/critical, at least if this site's anything to go by. At least some people lately are getting sane and realizing there's good stuff to be had on the wii u and not everything nintendo does is derisive/ass backwards. People getting angry about pricing on a console they don't give two shits about is also funny.

Is this much different to what they've always done? Apart from these days they have (relatively) very few fans so I guess it becomes more obvious.

Nintendo is basically the anti-Steam. They don't believe in sales, but every once in a while they slap a Player's Choice or Nintendo Selects sticker on it and it's instantly $20... 5 years later.

Well because this isn't new

and once upon a time this behavior was pretty normal for most of the console players.

These days thanks to Steam and such , steep sales are normal now. But it didn't used to be that way for decades. Nintendo may actually be right to price protect their products, even if that makes them increasingly isolated form their competitors.

@red_piano: Digital exists for Pikman 3 and it kind of makes sense for how small a game Pikman is. Nintendo has never dropped prices which probably works for them. They don't really have many games that make you think you're not buying it until it's at least X price. The Amiibo stock problems are there because Nintendo wants them to be collectors items since they probably aren't going to actually use them for anything. As for why people aren't freaking out it's because Nintendo is Nintendo. They make a lot of good games and a lot of bad buisness decisions. Fortunately these buisness decisions aren't near as bad as most companies now and their games outweigh those decisions my miles.

@bisonhero: "that person never bought a Wii U and isn't going to"

That is crazy. A lot of people who can't afford many luxuries buy consoles later in the cycle when they're cheaper, and when they can get plenty of games discounted. Even putting that aside, there are people like me who would like to play Nintendo's stuff later in the generation for less since it's not my primary console. There's a reason why consoles still sell pretty well later in a generation.

If you don't intend to replay it then you should just rent Pikmin.

Or the Wario version of Majora's Mask.

@brendan said:

Fair point. But in the game of chicken between you and Nintendo, Nintendo is not going to blink first. But who knows. The Gamecube had a fairly extensive Player's Choice line of games that were something like $29.99. The Wii somehow didn't until like, a year before the Wii U came out, and they only ever made like 8 games part of the Wii's "Greatest Hits" or whatever it was called. Maybe they'll eventually do the same for the Wii U.

No one (hyperbole) cares about Nintendo except Nintendo die hard fans and they already bought that stuff.

That's also why they tend to sell short.

Nintendo's been doing this for as long as I remember, and it's probably going to be the trend going forward with digital releases. Without the need to clear up shelf space retailers have no reason to lower the price of games except for the odd promotional sale. As for amiibos... well, that's just some beanie baby shit going on there.

Wajora's Wask?

Well I am that person, I used to be a big Nintendo fan like everyone, but since the Wii I have a hard time caring about them and their games. BUT they do a refurbished Wii U thing on their site, you can get a refurbished Wii U with the full warranty for 200$ flat and that was a cool deal so I went ahead and grabbed one, figured it would be a fine time to grab one. Initially I had bought 3D World and Zeld Windwaker, then I fell short on cash just before Smash bros came out and I had the 100$ bundle thing preordered so I was forced to sell 3D world and Zelda or pass up on that Smash bundle, which I'm glad I didn't as sealed copies are now 200$. And I buy games at launch and full price on a regular basis, it's just Nintendo's titles have felt, sort of iterative in a way I don't much like and I still hate motion controls so a lot of their titles these days just aren't that great to me or aren't for me.

Anyways, I understand it's something they've been doing forever, but almost nobody else does this and I guess I'm just now kind of realizing how egregious it is.

Nintendo's always been like this and the market for their games has always been like this. Outside of Player's Choice, their games stay expensive, and once they go out of print they stay level or go up in price. They seldom do discounts and the market reflects that. Games with limited numbers of prints have always remained expensive. Even back in the day it was that way. As an example, a complete (with case and manual) copy of Pikmin 2 for the Gamecube has always been at least $50, if not more to get off eBay. That game wasn't very common, even then. Even the Gamecube Mario Party games still average $40-50 a pop.

Then we get to super popular games and it's gotten crazy. Anything Zelda is basically never going to drop in price past the short term. The 3DS version of Ocarina of Time is a prime example. It's apparently out of print now and it selling for well north of $50 on eBay. I've seen it go for as high as $80 for a complete copy (I think I got mine for $30 at the local game store. They gave me a deal when I bought a 3DS. That's why mom and pop stores are great). Pokemon stuff is even crazier. HeartGold and SoulSilver, which are only what, 5 years old, are now $50 just for the cart, and $80-100 for the complete package with the step counter and outer box. In the case of Super Smash Bros. Melee, it's even more insane because of how popular it got. Anything related to it has skyrocketed (except Brawl). N64 Smash Bros. is usually north of $50 just for the cart now, Melee is climbing and is currently at like $80 for a complete copy. I bought the N64 Smash game a couple years back for I think it was $40 with a manual and box.

Simply put, they can get away with it because their user base is used to it and is usually willing to pay for it. The moral of the story here is to never sell your Nintendo stuff because if you ever want it again, it's probably gonna cost you more than you would have made selling it if you ever want it back. Also, keep all packaging related to a game. If you do want to sell it, having it complete can make you a ton of extra money. I'm lucky in this regard because my method is to take the game out of the case immediately and put the case in a box with other cases, so most of my cases are basically mint.

While I get why you would think that, this is the same pricing practice from the Wii and (a bit of) GCN days. I don't remember how the N64 and prior games dropped in price, but probably not much like other publishers. The point is this pricing strategy very well may have NOTHING to do with the current Wii U sales. Ask yourself this, why is OoT 3D on the 3DS out of print and selling for over original MSRP? They even do it on their beastly selling handheld! No sense.

This uncertainly has made me much more conscious about when I get a game. Wait too long and best buy will be sold out of something, and then I can't use my sweet GCU 20% discount on it anymore. With the lack of a true, long term digital games solution (like Steam, I don't trust live or psn yet) I feel the need to have a physical copy of a game. And don't even bring up physical goods like amiibo... shit.

See above.

@crimsonavenger: I mean for what it's worth, Nintendo certainly isn't making new copies of Melee these days, and over the past couple of years the demand for that game in particular is skyrocketing. At the moment, in the U.S. I would say Melee is the 2nd biggest fighting game after Street Fighter.

The irony of this post on this site is strong. I can't speak for Ni No Kuni but Demon's Souls with nothing but word of mouth sold well enough Namco Bandai bank rolled exclusive distribution rights for it's "not a sequel we swear" follow up Dark Souls and Sony America employees made public statements to the effect of "Not releasing Demon's Souls in the US as a first party release was a mistake." It also garnered strong enough fans in the US that the NA servers are still up.... cause private citizens who loved the game made a deal with Atlus to bank roll their server costs.

As for OP, this is just how Nintendo does business. They don't produce 1 copy more than they think they will sell, if they get it wrong and demand is there they will make more. If not they just let it ride and you pay full retail or you don't get the game. It is that simple. I personally don't understand why more people don't own a Wii U. As it stands now of the three consoles (not counting pc) it easily has the best exclusives. It isn't even a contest. If it weren't for bloodbourne I wouldn't own a PS4.

@karkarov: Well it depends on what you consider sold well, I love the series and I know it's "popular" but how popular do think is popular? It sold 1.70 million worldwide according to VGchartz, of course who knows how accurate that is but considering it wasn't a digital release I think that's probably a close estimate. Even if you look at other first party titles like Uncharted or Gears of War, Halo etc. they're all cheap. But if you look at Nintendo games, at least from the Wii to the Wii U, can't really speak for GC back when it was new, they just seem to want everything they sell to be forcibly rare. Pikmen DOES SEEM to be out of print despite a couple people here saying otherwise, it is going for 70$ on Ebay and Amazon has only 70+$ listings for new copies, of course you can get it digitally but some people prefer physical console games.

@belegorm: Yeah I got Melee for 15$, so it obviously dropped in price at some point, I don't think this pricing BS became a thing until the Wii era with games like Metroid Prime Trilogy running for 70$ or more currently.

It's absolutely mad. I've been buying old consoles from flea markets, and GameCube titles are insane. What kind of digital entertainment retains fifty percent or more of its value over ten-to-fifteen years?: Nintendo's, that's who! Would you like a GameCube component cable for $200? Perhaps a broadband adapter for $80? Meanwhile, the console itself can be had for $10.

I'm no market analyst, but it looks like the strategy is hook them with a lower price point and nostalgia; starve them of decent third-party titles; produce meticulously crafted first-party games to underline the nostalgia that caused the platform purchase; and maintain superb market throttling.

@red_piano: I mean Melee has had its ups and downs, I also got it for like $15 in like 2004 or 2005 at a gamestop, but the game didn't really blow up in a big way until recently.

Argh, stop writing "Pikmen", it's Pikmin.

GC component cables and broadband adapters didn't really have high attach rates so it's understandable that they're hard to find. And the people who did get them would probably tend to be Nintendo fans (thus more likely to hang on to their hardware).

Game prices are interesting, it's actually amazing that they are able to keep their value. It's not entirely on Nintendo either; it's not like they control the 2nd-hand market but Nintendo games are fairly consistently retaining more value 2nd hand also. I don't agree with calling them out on not printing a bazillion copies of every game as if that was a dick move or something -- distribution & inventory costs money, and it's no secret that Nintendo is in crisis-management mode. It definitely makes business sense to continue selling titles like Pikmin 3 via e-shop (which costs basically nothing), and it's unclear that they'd gain anything from selling physical copies at bargain prices.

Also it's pretty ridiculous to propose that "starve them of decent third-party titles" is part of Nintendo's business strategy...you don't have to be a genius to realize that of course they'd love third-party support but they did put an early emphasis (misguided or not) on not participating in the power arms race and consequently have not been able to establish a compelling base for multi-platform studios (meaning the value proposition compared to PS4 / Xbox One is a really hard sell for a developer).

I kinda want to get Metroid: Other M for morbid curiosity, but the target by me that has it still has it marked for $50 >.<

NINTENDON'T CARE