Are multiple game shortages hurting Nintendo's bottom line?

One of the unfortunate aspects of game releases that we’ve had to deal with in the last few months has been shortages, especially with Nintendo titles. The Wii U has only been available since November, but since that time there are three separate incidents where supply shortages of games caused a negative attitude toward Nintendo.

[konnerbllb]

Yes.

..next.

[PopRocks359]

Wouldn't game shortages hurt any gaming platform?

[Whymii]

Makes you wonder how anyone can disagree with your statement. Of course game shortages hurt platforms, it'd be hard to see how they would help!

[PopRocks359]

I said the same thing to Ck1x lol. People will probably just assume I'm blindly defending Nintendo when I'm not. I could state that the sky is blue and probably get disagrees for it.

Back on topic, game shortages do indeed hurt the sales of almost any platform. If there is not much coming out in terms of software, then hardware sales probably won't really go anywhere fast around that time, especially when we're looking at its earliest years.

[Whymii]

I've been playing games since the Atari 2600 and have owned just about every platform at one time or another. I can tell you that it is a fact that a lack of software and easy access seriously hurts a platform. Ask anyone that has owned an Atari Lynx, Sega GameGear, Dreamcast, 3DO, whether shortages hurt the platforms?

I used to have to travel for 2 hours to go a shop that sold Lynx games, yet every shopping centre at that time was full of Game Boy games. Much the same with the 3DO(3DOA - dead on arrival) and Dreamcast. We all know how successful those platforms were.

[Yodagamer]

I think they're trying to avoid retailers breaking release dates by shipping later than usual. It happened on the 3ds as well with fire emblem. They just need to take the risk if that is the case.

[Wagz22]

Yea its pretty bad with luigis mansion. At gamestop we didn't get enough to even cover reserves and we've been sold out for like a week now. Its a shame because its a really good game.

[ZeekQuattro]

Call be insane but I think Nintendo is purposely having shortages for some of their big name games to boost Eshop sales. FE, MH, & LC all had shortages in some places and all are available on Eshop. Nintendo stands to make more profit from online sales than having to pay for shipping and paying fees to retailers to sell their games.

[TruthbeTold]

I agree. They want to push downloads on the E-Shop more, so games that have small or questionable followings, they want people to download.

After not being able to find Fire Emblem for a week after launch, I downloaded it. Problem is, I had to delete a bunch of stuff from my 3DS, and after downloading the game, I'm already pretty close to full. It's the Wii all over again...

[Yodagamer]

How is it like the wii again? you're only limited by what sd card you buy, nothing else. The wii even with an sd card you were still limited by the 512 mb since they transferred over for the entirety of the gameplay.

[Rearden]

To boost eShop sales? There arent enough consoles out there to "boost eshop" sales. There needs to be Wii U sales before there can be eshop sales...

[ZeekQuattro]

Eshop covers the DSI, 3DS, and Wii U. Please try again.

[Knightofelemia]

Yup lack of games hurt a console. Still surprised two big titles have missed the Wii-U Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite

[1upgamer99]

Uh, dude they were not talking about "lack of games" did you read the article?? The article was talking about GAMES BEING SOLD OUT OR NOT AVAILABLE...

[1upgamer99]

I have not had the problem. Look around, Target, Walmart, Costco, Fry's, Gamestop, someplace WILL have the game...sheesh.

[Bigkurz85]

Hahahahaha. RIGHT...because if Wii U is having problems, then supply is SURELY one of them /s.Just can't keep up with all that demand.