clearing up misunderstanding on wii u's gamecube adapter shortage

[orthicviper]

I noticed a lot of confused posts from people on why it is so hard to find the controller adapter. Some people think nintendo was afraid to overproduce more than they'd sell, or scalpers, or various other reasons that are only partially explanatory.

But to end the confusion once and for all I wanted to let you know it is because nintendo is afraid you will spend $20 on that adapter and use your pre-existing controllers, rather than buying up several wii u pro controllers for $50 each. SSMB was a major system seller for wii u, the best to date. Many of those players might not be buying games for a while so the best way nintendo could think of to extract money was to underproduce the adapter. They want to make money from both the adapter and the pro controllers. So they produce enough to sell to those desperately checking the internet every day for some in stock, but produce few enough that the less patient customer will just shell out the $50. It's a fine balance they must make to maximize profit.

As more gamers lose patience and buy wii u pros, they will then start upping production on the gamecube controller adapter so that those hardcore customers will then shell out money once more for the adapter and hopefully some brand new gamecube controllers on nintendo's website.

Nintendo was the shrewdest company of the 80's and continues to be so. I am amazed at their well thought out schemes.

Well, that is all. Hope it helps in your understanding. Have a good day!

 

[Aninymouse]

I wouldn't be shocked at this at this point, but you offer no proof for your theories, so... Cool story, bro.

 

[CyberHyperPhoenix]

I wouldn't be shocked at this at this point, but you offer no proof for your theories, so... Cool story, bro.

Basically this.
I've seen this specifically been theorized by many people, so really its not anything new.


Cool Story Bruh

 

[RespawningJesus]

One major problem with your theory:

Nintendo doesn't see any profit from people selling their adapters for a much higher price. You would think that since the demand for these things are so high, you would produce more to make some easy money. But you also don't want to produce them too fast, otherwise people won't buy other controllers. So in other words, a more ideal approach would be to produce more than what they have now.

 

[VelociRapture]

I finally got up to creating an account instead of lurking, I work for gamestop, It's kind of a thing Nintendo has done since I can remember. They have of habit of under producing games and/or accessories if it's not a product that's guaranteed to move units. For instance when fire emblem came out for the 3ds we sold out rather quickly and a majority of the units in the initial shipment were pretty much all pre ordered and it took almost a month before we were restocked. I recently acquired an adapter because a customer returned it basically telling me that her kids couldn't even use it ( they didn't know what it was for). That said it makes sense that Nintendo would under produce this product. Up until smash's release a majority of Wii u owners were kids, It's easier to sell this console to parents because the Sony and Microsoft consoles are geared more towards the demographic. With that in mind consider who is buying these adapters, mostly folks over the the age of 15. Considering up until smash's release most people above 15 didn't own a Wii u Nintendo decided to play it safe, like they always do. I mean they just broke even on the Wii u because of killer apps like Mario kart or smash.

 

[Raijinken]

It's basic business sense. If supply isn't sufficient, customers look elsewhere. When the only other choice is your own (more expensive) product, you win either way. They're trading a little reputation (which they have plenty of) for a gamble on a higher profit.

Where it differs from Fire Emblem Awakening is in distribution. Awakening rather harshly marked their first really big push towards digital distribution. Who can blame them? They get full (or near full) profit instead of sharing with retailers, you can't return or trade in the games, etc. However, there is no comparable tradeoff for the adapter. You can't purchase the adapter direct from Nintendo, they only sell it through a handful of retailers. Thus, the only fair assumptions are that they're either somewhat ignorant of the demand for wired Smash controllers, or are deliberately trying to manipulate their userbase's purchases. Both are likely, and they're probably both true.

As DAK075 said, producing more than they have so far would probably be a better idea, but overproduction is a very real risk in manufacturing, and seeing as there really isn't past demographic information for what ratio of adapters to games you sell, it's fair to give them some benefit of the doubt and say they really don't know how many to make. Inventory is expensive, stock-outs are costly in other ways.

 

[2busywinning]

I finally got up to creating an account instead of lurking, I work for gamestop, It's kind of a thing Nintendo has done since I can remember. They have of habit of under producing games and/or accessories if it's not a product that's guaranteed to move units. For instance when fire emblem came out for the 3ds we sold out rather quickly and a majority of the units in the initial shipment were pretty much all pre ordered and it took almost a month before we were restocked. I recently acquired an adapter because a customer returned it basically telling me that her kids couldn't even use it ( they didn't know what it was for). That said it makes sense that Nintendo would under produce this product. Up until smash's release a majority of Wii u owners were kids, It's easier to sell this console to parents because the Sony and Microsoft consoles are geared more towards the demographic. With that in mind consider who is buying these adapters, mostly folks over the the age of 15. Considering up until smash's release most people above 15 didn't own a Wii u Nintendo decided to play it safe, like they always do. I mean they just broke even on the Wii u because of killer apps like Mario kart or smash.

I used to work for Gamestop myself and I remember when the original Wii was so scarce that no Gamestop in the country had one. Nintendo knows what they're doing. As far as I can remember working at Gamestop, when I would look into how much money the top three were making annually, Nintendo was always destroying Sony and Microsoft in actual gross earnings. Now that may have changed in the past few years since I haven't had any interest in looking up these statistics anymore but I have always loved Nintendo and if they make something and put their stamp on it, you can sign me up b/c there's almost a guarantee that it will be good and most likely profitable.

I mean who doesn't get excited for a new Zelda game or anything with Mario's face on it?! The Wii system also used to put out more games than their competitors too. Granted, most of those games were garbage but like I said earlier; if it had that little Nintendo stamp on the bottom of the game case, I'd usually buy it or check it out b/c I hold their name to high regard b/c they've never let me down before aside from like Mario and Sonic Olympic games or something silly like that. But those games aren't geared towards me anyway.

Nintendo will make more GC controller adapters and when they do, they'll sell out again. This isn't Nintendo's first rodeo... They always have their next few steps planned out and it's usually beneficial for everyone (definitely for Nintendo lol)

 

[RespawningJesus]

It's basic business sense. If supply isn't sufficient, customers look elsewhere. When the only other choice is your own (more expensive) product, you win either way. They're trading a little reputation (which they have plenty of) for a gamble on a higher profit.

Where it differs from Fire Emblem Awakening is in distribution. Awakening rather harshly marked their first really big push towards digital distribution. Who can blame them? They get full (or near full) profit instead of sharing with retailers, you can't return or trade in the games, etc. However, there is no comparable tradeoff for the adapter. You can't purchase the adapter direct from Nintendo, they only sell it through a handful of retailers. Thus, the only fair assumptions are that they're either somewhat ignorant of the demand for wired Smash controllers, or are deliberately trying to manipulate their userbase's purchases. Both are likely, and they're probably both true.

As DAK075 said, producing more than they have so far would probably be a better idea, but overproduction is a very real risk in manufacturing, and seeing as there really isn't past demographic information for what ratio of adapters to games you sell, it's fair to give them some benefit of the doubt and say they really don't know how many to make. Inventory is expensive, stock-outs are costly in other ways.

Yeah, I should have made this more clear, but when I said more, I never meant produce up the butt and have GC adapters for days. I meant more than what they have now, but not too much.

 

[Mr.Jamaul]

nintendo just hates all of their fans.

 

[CyberHyperPhoenix]

nintendo just hates all of their fans.

U wot m8?

 

[allison]

nintendo just hates all of their fans.

This is a good business strategy.

 

[Starstealer]

I heard it theorized that its more likely that they shipped less to American retailers because Nintendo treats its Japanese market as a priority before it does its American market. So its likely that most of the units went to Japan first and that we'll be seeing more in America after they've appeased their local market.

 

[EGEofficial]

I just feel that by under producing towards market demand, you're asking for a 'knock-off' brand to produce the same product.. and potentially sell it cheaper. I just don't see why you would not want to fill a market want with known sales...
Honestly, I don't think the planning was sophisticated at all.. I can almost guarantee they've sat in a board room and said something around the lines of, 'Well, we seriously under-projected the sales rate of this product.'

 

[Zage]

One major problem with your theory:

Nintendo doesn't see any profit from people selling their adapters for a much higher price.

Its like you didn't even read his post.