Stock Gonna Be Like Wii?

[sterling976]

Pandora.

the only device you'll be forced to preorder AFTER official release.

please, tell me i'm wrong on this? there isn't gonna be steady supply and sales as with the gp2x???

?!?!

I don't know if there's an official word on this, but I seem to recall the word 'preorder' being associated with batch 2 somewhere in the forums. At any rate, look at it this way: The first batch of 3800 preorders each sold for $340 US. That's about $1.3MM. Even when you account for labor and a comfortable profit margin, you're looking at the greater part of a million dollars worth of parts to order. I doubt the profits from batch 1 will cover the production costs for batch 2, especially if they're planning to produce more volume. Doing so would require a much greater than 50% profit on each unit. Considering all this, I don't really see any other option than to use preorders.

Plus, from a business standpoint, preorders defer all the risk to their customers so they don't have to assume any of it themselves.

And yes, I'm a pre-ordering sheep. B) I'll get my Pandora before the end of the year.

 

[TaG]

Well if they take orders for batch two in December and deliver in March 2009 that sounds like a pre-order. They might not need to take the full payment then though.

 

[PoisonedV]

I agree, now, that the PS3 is starting to became a far better system than the Wii. i actually bought a ps3, which I NEVER though I would do, after my wii broke, and it was out of warranty, because of manufacturer defects. oh well, nintendo just loses another buyer of commercial titles.

 

[Chip]

Pre-orders in Dec. and shipping in March 09 is the current plan. I suspect the majority of people interested in the Pandora already placed their order for one of the first batch. I would be very surprised if the 2nd batch sells out before it ships. Whatever doesn't get pre-ordered will go into distributor stock and from there on out, manufacturing will (hopefully) outpace demand.

The manufacturing facility has the capability to make up to 5000 units per month, so the Pandora would have to become massively popular for demand to surpass capacity for supply.

 

[voidedx]

I've had the Wii since launch (stood in line for Gamespot preorders), but it's more of a toy than a game system. If Wii was the only modern gaming system out, I would think gaming is dead.

I've seen the Wii be in stock over the last month locally. I know that it won't be the case during the xmas season, but after that (Feb 2009), I think the Wii supply start to meet demand.

The hype for the system isn't called for. Nintendo's PR are doing an incredible job without having good hardware and very few good titles.

It will be a good day for the consumer when Pandora supply can meet its demand. Until then, I wonder how high the eBay prices will go.

 

[Sphinxter]

also, im loling like i did when people didnt get the wii

There is considerable sport there.

 

[yosh64]

hey

I guess it depends where ya from, I don't think the Wii was that big over here. I mean I just went to my local department store (kmart) on launch right before opening, and there was only one other person, and they didn't even have the things out in the store yet, I had to actually ask about it.

The Nintendo 64 would have to be my most exciting console , I think we laybuy'd it from kmart on launch, it was like the first thing we ever got from the get go. I remember when I first played Mario 64, we went on some car trip with our grandma or something, and we went into some toy store and they had a Mario 64 play booth, it was only some little town, so we were darn surprised and thought it was the best, it was like one of the first 3D games we had ever played .

cyas

 

[God Ginrai]

The hype for the system isn't called for. Nintendo's PR are doing an incredible job without having good hardware and very few good titles.

I think the Wii's hardware is fine, except for the poor motion sensor in the Nunchuk. I'm not one of those graphics idiots who freaks out if he can't see a bead of sweat on Madden. Good gameplay is what I look for in a game, graphics are just fluff that is nice to have if you've already got everything else in top shape.

I agree however with the comment about there being very few good titles. Most of the games coming out are focused towards the casual gamer. And that's not good gameplay, that's just gimmicks.

-God Ginrai

 

[javaJake]

Edit: Ah, I'm off-topic again. Dern something-vs-something debates get me every time.

 

[CandidStan]

I'm sure they'll be happy to expand the size of the second batch, should the demand be there, as they did with the first.

Let's hope its an unlimited pre-order, which will tell them how many to pump out.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

My impression of the Wii launch was that at least one third of the people were stupidly grinning young adults who only bought it to make a quick buck on ebay. There was one who complained at the cashier that he preordered three Wiis and was only allowed to buy one.

As for the Pandora. The demand for the first batch significantly slowed down after the first 3000 orders were placed. They waited for several days to receive a further 800 orders. I do not think that the demand for the next batch will be so overwhelming that people will go away empty-handed. I read somewhere that mass production will start next year. So I guess if you are not served in March you may in April and then in May and so on. The real problem is Imo not a too great demand but the fact that they need money to pay for everything in advance. So they had to set a deadline and turn away some customers who came late.

 

[PoisonedV]

My impression of the Wii launch was that at least one third of the people were stupidly grinning young adults who only bought it to make a quick buck on ebay. There was one who complained at the cashier that he preordered three Wiis and was only allowed to buy one.

As for the Pandora. The demand for the first batch significantly slowed down after the first 3000 orders were placed. They waited for several days to receive a further 800 orders. I do not think that the demand for the next batch will be so overwhelming that people will go away empty-handed. I read somewhere that mass production will start next year. So I guess if you are not served in March you may in April and then in May and so on. The real problem is Imo not a too great demand but the fact that they need money to pay for everything in advance. So they had to set a deadline and turn away some customers who came late.

thats life. you seem to be in contempt of the person who preordered three and only was allowed to pick up one- if they let him preorder three, they should have given him three.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

QUOTE
thats life. you seem to be in contempt of the person who preordered three and only was allowed to pick up one- if they let him preorder three, they should have given him three.



He did not want the consoles for himself or friends he just wanted to sell them on ebay. You could infer that from the way he was complaining. It was like "I ordered three!!!! and you just gave me one. Why could that be hahahahha!!!!" He thinks he is so smart because he takes away as many consoles as possible in the morning so that anyone who has other things to do in the morning will have to pay him a much higher price on ebay if they want the console at launch. I find this behaviour annoying. Besides, I do not think that it was worthwhile for him, too. Because many bidders tend to never pay the price when they realize that they have to pay way too much for the console. Chances are that he had trobule with his bidders and never got a really high price for the consoles. Wii prices fell significantly after the first 24 hours similar to all the PS3s who where bought off Japanese shelves by the Chinese. A week or so later ebay prices for these consoles were even below the official launch price.

 

[craigix]

There is still big demand now to get on the preorder list, and closer to the time we may have some extra slots available from people who have canceled orders or from orders which turned out to be fake (always some).

We won't be making ANY money on the first 4000 - we thought we might make a little profit but the global money markets saw an end to that dream. So right now we just want to get it out there.

 

[ashdjones]

There is absolutely no evidence that I could find to support the claim that Nintendo was intentionally withholding stock ever on any system, current or previous. The only posts I can find that even suggest such are blogs, forum posts, and comments on news sites; in other words, rumor, speculation, and unfounded conspiracy theories.

You want to read Game Over by David Sheff, possibly the only serious book on gaming ever written. It's a biography of Nintendo in the eighties, the people who were involved, how they met up and went about business. Back then the retailers, even big ones like Wallmart were completely at the mercy of Nintendo - they desperately wanted shipments of the Nes which was selling like crazy, but had to agree to Nintendo's conditions and put up with them rationing stock to keep demand strong.

If you still think this is a conspiracy theory then I can dig out the book and quote it to you if you like. It was a serious book, heavily researched with years of interviews with all the Nintendo staff (and many other Japanese and American companies).

 

[x68000]

Here's hoping that you can turn round the initial batch quickly Craig, so you can start concentrating on that second batch and hopefully recoup some of that initial outlay.

 

[AireTamStorm]

There is still big demand now to get on the preorder list, and closer to the time we may have some extra slots available from people who have canceled orders or from orders which turned out to be fake (always some).
I sent you a PM regarding that a few days ago- did you end up getting it? I have a couple dev buddies that would like a unit, so I figured I could pick up an extra if you had one.

 

[darkstorm classic]

You want to read Game Over by David Sheff, possibly the only serious book on gaming ever written. It's a biography of Nintendo in the eighties, the people who were involved, how they met up and went about business. Back then the retailers, even big ones like Wallmart were completely at the mercy of Nintendo - they desperately wanted shipments of the Nes which was selling like crazy, but had to agree to Nintendo's conditions and put up with them rationing stock to keep demand strong.

If you still think this is a conspiracy theory then I can dig out the book and quote it to you if you like. It was a serious book, heavily researched with years of interviews with all the Nintendo staff (and many other Japanese and American companies).

It's been a long time since I read it, but wasn't this more revenge for the shops originally wanting some sort of buyback guarantee if the NES didn't sell?

 

[PoisonedV]

QUOTE
thats life. you seem to be in contempt of the person who preordered three and only was allowed to pick up one- if they let him preorder three, they should have given him three.

He did not want the consoles for himself or friends he just wanted to sell them on ebay. You could infer that from the way he was complaining. It was like "I ordered three!!!! and you just gave me one. Why could that be hahahahha!!!!" He thinks he is so smart because he takes away as many consoles as possible in the morning so that anyone who has other things to do in the morning will have to pay him a much higher price on ebay if they want the console at launch. I find this behaviour annoying. Besides, I do not think that it was worthwhile for him, too. Because many bidders tend to never pay the price when they realize that they have to pay way too much for the console. Chances are that he had trobule with his bidders and never got a really high price for the consoles. Wii prices fell significantly after the first 24 hours similar to all the PS3s who where bought off Japanese shelves by the Chinese. A week or so later ebay prices for these consoles were even below the official launch price.

it doesn't matter, hes an asshole, but thats how the market works and he should have gotten what he paid for.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

QUOTE

it doesn't matter, hes an asshole, but thats how the market works and he should have gotten what he paid for.



But he didn't pay the three consoles in advance. He just paid for the one console he got on launch day like everyone else. Where I am from we normally do not pay in advance for videogames preorders. The small videogame stores take preorders from their custormers without demanding them to pay in advance and big electronic marktes normally do not even do official preorders. If you tell them at a big store that you want to preorder sth. they may or may not keep their promise. Many shop assistants will just say yeah yeah you will probaly get your ten Wiis on launch day :lol: They do not even know what they are talking about. Preorders in big stores are only done when it is an "official thing" from the console manufacturer. I remember only one such occasion. It was Christmas 1996 when Nintendo's N64 didn't make it in time and was going to launch in spring the next year. Nintendo encouraged all shops to sell vouchers for a N64 console that cost only a fraction of the launch price and entitled the holder to get their N64 on launch day. However, the console wasn't really scarce on launch day anyway.