Nintendo: Doing a Crappy Job on NES Classic Edition Restocks

I walked into my GameStop last week. They had a hefty supply of the latest amiibo wave. Rosalina, Wario and Waluigi were all there for the buying. Nintendo was even kind enough to ship my store a plethora of Ness, Lucas, Samus, Pit and Robins! Now that is great news for anyone not wanting to go online and paying shipping for an electronic toy. You know what I didn't see a nice chunk of? NES Classic Editions. The closest my store had to an NES Classic Edition was a display standee.

It isn't like Nintendo didn't know the NES Classic Edition was going to be a super hot item. Sure, they did launch that sucker just in time for the holidays, but even if we weren't about to roast some chestnuts or whatever it is you prefer to roast over an open fire, anyone with the slightest ounce of intelligence knows the NES Classic Edition would sell like hotcakes. Unlike a lot of these other systems that come with a ton of pre-installed games, a lot of TLC went into the NES Classic Edition. I only wish Nintendo went the same distance to make the freaking thing easier for us to get a our grubby hands on.

Available if you can actually find one and may
or may not be at an insane price.

Nintendo has done an absolutely craptastic job of making the NES Classic Edition obtainable by supplying retailers with abysmal amounts of units. I'm no retail expert but when the majority of stores are getting units that don't even make it into the double digits, then you know your supplier is effing up. Target may not be the king of video game sales, but they do have a pretty meaty video game section and it really is quite telling when a store like Target can't even get six NES Classic Editions.

At least this game is easy enough to find. Unlike the NES
Classic Edition, Nintendo made buying the latest Pokemon
game hassle free.

Yes, I'm fully aware that time and money goes into making a product. But Pokemon Sun/Moon is ridiculously easy to get your hands on. Nintendo made sure they had more than enough supply to meet the demand. Even if you didn't pre-order the game, you can easily walk into just about any store that sells video games and leave with a copy of Pokemon Sun/Moon. Bottom line? Nintendo felt like making sure they had enough copies of Sun/Moon to go around but couldn't be bothered to have the same attitude when it came to a little box containing some huge hit games that helped get them where they are today.

One of the worst things about this whole ordeal is that since Nintendo can't get with the dang program on this, they enable scalpers to go about their notoriously aggravating practices of buying what little NES Classic Editions are out there and then re-selling them for astronomically high prices. The other bad bit is that retailers often have to feel the wrath of angry customers that come into stores looking for an NES Classic Edition only to be told that they are sold out. Human beings aren't always the easiest to deal with and even though it is the most wonderful time of the year, people tend to show their ugly sides when it comes to Christmas shopping.

Not long ago, I said that most people would have to wait for the NES Classic Edition to be restocked. Since Nintendo's restock game is terribly weak, I suppose anyone that wants an NES Classic Edition has to be in the right place at the right time or be prepared to wait for a good, long while. I think your patience will be rewarded. Eventually.