But at what cost?
Price drops on games for Nintendo systems are a rare breed. But this is no Nintendo tax. It’s far worse than that.
I’ve been keeping my eye on this week’s unfolding controversy involving used copies of everybody’s favorite comeback kid, Xenoblade Chronicles and oft-criticized retailer GameStop. And it stinks.
Nintendo’s limited release strategy of their Web store and GameStop for the Operation Rainfall-aided game’s release lead to an inevitable supply problem: Making too few copies.
Now, after 390,000 copies have been sold in North America (more than double the sales in Japan or Europe, and nearly as much as the entire rest of the world), there seems to be none left. Seems.
As it turns out, GameStop has found enough used copies of the game to ship several copies to all its stores. Those who didn’t have then $50 to jump on this great game last year now have ample second chances for the low, low price of $90.
Wait, $90!?
This sudden high-priced, high-inventory game has let to many hangers-on crying foul; that the only retailer to ever have a supply of Xenoblade sat on copies, took off the shrink-wrap and slapped a “preowned” sticker on it to pocket the $40 mark-up. Customers have reported the copies of the so-called used games are so pristine (including unused Club Nintendo codes) that they could even have been a fresh printing of the product.
An unnamed source told Kotaku that’s exactly what happened. GameStop, for its part, says it was merely stockpiling trade-ins for a large-scale rollout, which it will soon follow up with another hard-to-find Wii masterpiece: Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Frankly, I trust GameStop’s “no-shenanigans” claim about as far as I could throw a brick-and-motor store, but considering how standoffish Nintendo of America was about doing the first printing and the general untrustworthyness of autonomous one-source stories, it looks like they may just be doing the same thing they once did with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.
Which is still lame.
About The Author
Drew
Features Editor | Drew started behind the 8(bit)-ball in the video game world. He first became interested in anime by chance exposure on the Sci-Fi channel. Drew's the creative force behind blog-wide features, works the movie and food beats, and pioneered Damage Control’s entry into video, podcasts and streaming.
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I attempted to pick up the game at Gamestop a few weeks back; finding a location that had it preowned and in stock. Upon arriving I was told he couldn’t sell it to me and that it was being shipped to another location.
I thought ‘oh well’ it was a bit pricey for $90 but a 25% off coupon and some trade ins I wouldn’t mind at $40-50 mark. I then looked up if GS had a policy to ship games between stores since some games would be much more convenient that way. I find out GS had no policy of doing that on request which seemed very suspicious.
Now hearing about this game’s sudden reappearance in this fashion and the 25% coupon now expired; I’m actually less upset about not buying it now. Even if I had gotten it at a better price the entire practice of holding onto the games until market value/demand command that sort of price point was distasteful. At least for a corporation, its something I completely expect from ebayers.
I was following this over the weekend, too, and planned on tweeting “Gamestop is run by a bunch of crooks!” But I decided against it after considering they might be legitimate used copies from customers who sold it back to Gamestop after seeing the high trade-in price.
But seeing a bunch of opened-but-pristine copies with unused CN codes show up in multiple stores simultaneously is too coincidental for comfort. Yeah, I’d say they’re crooks.