Iwata confirms in investor Q&A session that the west coast port strike has had an impact on N3DS/Amiibo shipments. pic.twitter.com/oGpNxt1yZH
— Kyle McLain (@FarmboyinJapan) February 19, 2015
Yesterday we reported on a story from Kotaku that suggested that the reason for the severe stock shortage of both amiibo and New Nintendo 3DS in the United States could be down to the west coast port strike that is currently taking place. Well, it turns out that this is indeed true and it’s having an impact on shipments for the New Nintendo 3DS and amiibo. Thankfully it turns out that it’s not having a big impact on games because they’re light and can be flown to the US.
Iwata also says that the strike hasn't had a big impact on software. "Games are light and can be flown to America." pic.twitter.com/hYWPGiwoNo
— Kyle McLain (@FarmboyinJapan) February 19, 2015
Well well…
What will the cattle come up with excuses now?…
They keep saying “West Coast” So… Pretty Much California right? Los Angeles, San Fransisco… The entire west coast? I should know since I live here… But I haven’t been keeping up with normal people news lately.
Just because it’s on the west coast, doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect the rest of the country whether it’s the east, north or south…
That’s like saying if the Seoul airport in Korea suddenly closed down plane business won’t be negatively affected at all
You just made an argument that means the same thing as mine does, your point is what?…
It means a heavy source of $$$ went down the drain?
Since, well, Seoul airport is the biggest in Korea?
Actually it probably does. Any thing from China that comes in ships comes in through a west coast ports, because its the shortest and cheapest route. They are then moved my Truck (Semi) or by Train to the rest of the country. This probably affect Canada too.
Nintendo is just the first to have to explain it cause they are the ones with hot selling items right now. Expect other large items like TVs to have problems. Small stuff like cartridges and smart phones maybe not as much cause they can be air delivered to distribution centers.
Like I told the other one, you just repeated the exact same thing I’ve said, re-read it again…
Sorry, yeah I thought you were saying the opposite that it wouldn’t effect it. I got tripped up on your double negative.
This is awful. Every Gamestop in a 100 mile radius is out of stock. Sure they have more coming in, but they only have so much
my gamestop and Wallmart is got lots of amiibo and the gamestop still has over 20 New 3DS systems right now.
Can’t you guys just wait? I just found two bundles on the Gamestop website
Meanwhile there’s plenty of Wii Us in stock
Exactly, toys get hit hardest when the west coast ports close. It’s b/c almost all toys get shipped from China and go through the ports on the west coast. Odd that Nintendo is just now confirming this crap.
Its from an interview, I think its the first time someone asked.
Just sneak them into a drug cartel, they’ll be here in no time.
Wow! People have known about this west coast strike for months now and yet *now* they say it’s the west coast strike holding them up???
Strange how this doesn’t explain why they “discontinued” certain figures literally two-three weeks after release or why they manage to have enough stock of certain “popular” amiibo…also they’re not shipping amiibo stock going to other countries to the west coast are they? Because America isn’t the only place with ridiculous stock issues, hmmmm.
Maybe when people were frustrated at having to pay hundreds for Marth amiibos would have been a good time to communicate about this instead of now?
They have never actually been discontinued noir has Nintendo said it. Most of the reports of this are people checking price guys and it showing no more are coming in stock, which if you ever worked in retail (I did when I was younger), it just means they don’t know when they are getting any more in, but it doesn’t mean they won’t ever restock.
Most of Europe seems to be able time find them ok, just go on craigslist, the majority of the ones being scalped now are coming from Europe.
If they’re not discontinued then why hasn’t Nintendo stated they’re not? Every single answer to “Are these figures being discontinued” has again, led to shitty PR responses and confusing statements that can be summed up as “well……”.
I’ve already looked around and asked, the response so far from multiple retailers is that they’re not getting anymore of certain types at all. Even if this was a case of ” we don’t know when we’re getting more” that’s still a god awfully bad hindsight on Nintendo for not informing retailers when they are getting more. It’s 2015 all the guess work out of having to buy a plastic toy, let alone preorder one, shouldn’t be happening.
Not discontinued? Then why in the last direct did Nintendo specifically said that Some amiibos would be coming back? Straight from the horses mouth, they told us Marth would be coming back, why would he be coming back if he never got discontinued?
Those fuckers need to go strike somewhere else. I want my fucking pit amiibo.
Yeah I really need a Pit amiibo too. I liked Kid Icarus before it was cool.
Kid Icarus has always been cool. I don’t know why they don’t make more games of that franchise. Kid Icarus uprising is golden and I think a part 2 should be made.
*points directly at Sakurai who apparently hates to delegate the work needed to make games he’s in charge of* Blame that prick for it. Maybe if he’d delegate some of the work, he wouldn’t be having to complain so much about how much of his life is being taken up by making video games. With that in mind, I have no sympathy for him when he complains about his broken hand. Not anymore. If he won’t do anything to stop his suffering, he deserves to suffer.
I 100% agree with you on every word. Making video games is so time consuming and can rip you apart from your family if your not prepared for it. You have to love and be dedicated to making video games in order to enjoy your job. That fucker didn’t know what he was walking into.
Does this mean we’re getting more Villagers, Marths and Shulks? And they’d better not be those darn amiibo cards they were talking about.
This seems super fishy to me, really. Why do they tell people that NOW, right after Kotaku has posted an article about the strike possibly being a reason for the stock issue? Why haven’t they told consumers from the very beginning? Low stock has been a problem since the first wave of amiibo, and those were released months ago. But now, all of a sudden, it’s the strike that’s been causing the low stock? Not suspicious at all.
And I’ve said in the previous article about this – How come retailers don’t know about this? I’m pretty sure Nintendo tells them how much stock they will ship to them, so if it really was caused by the strike, retailers would have told consumers that the stock that has reached them is much lower than what was originally going to be shipped to them, no?
Also, still doesn’t explain why other gaming companies aren’t experiencing stock issues with their hardware either, or why there’s no issue with WiiUs.
I don’t know, it just seems very strange to me personally.
Cause its the first time the news have asked the question. Sadly enough Kotaku is ahead of the news much like TMZ beat the associated press with accuracy on Michael Jackson death. Another sad day in journalism.
Hmm, people shouldn’t have to guess around about what might possibly be a reason for the issue and directly ask about that particular possible reason to make them finally tell us. People have been wondering about the reason for the problem for a long time now, after all. They kept everyone, both consumers and retailers, in the dark about the whole issue for way too long imo.
I honestly think its a few different problems, scalpers being the largest one. Nintendo’s never been good at being open to the public about problems, most companies aren’t especially Japanese companies. Its pretty hard to find someone within a company exposing problems even with a pretty open company like Google.
I doubt retailers have been in the dark at the upper levels (i.e. regional managers, distribution, etcs. ) The lower level people never know what is going from the regional managers unless it comes from a memo and then still they are pretty much in the dark to why its happening.
You do have some points. Though, I believe that this is a problem critically concerning consumers, so an explanation really should be given. Leaving people in the dark like that isn’t a solution; at least give people a heads up about whether or not sold out items will be restocked. I haven’t experienced it myself, but I can imagine that having a preorder you have placed months in advance get cancelled just like that, without any kind of prospect about the chances of the product getting restocked again or not, could be quite frustrating.
If they truly have produced a way too small amount of certain products, they need to be honest and tell the consumers instead of keeping quiet and leave them hoping for no reason; not saying anything certainly isn’t the best way to handle this situation, and in the end, they’re just harming themselves and their reputation with it all.
And about the retailers, you might be right, but I believe that the higher ups would care to at least let the customer support know about what’s happening, as those are the first ones customers will turn to when questions arise. At least I personally, as a consumer, would expect them to know what’s going on. After all, the retailer will also harm their own image if they can’t satisfy the customers, and that probably isn’t something a business would like to aim for.
But I definitely agree with you about the scalpers. Pretty sure they’re taking good advantage of the situation, getting even more profit out of the items than they usually would, seeing how the low-stock issue is in place very eminently right now.
Yes but when every other non Nintendo empire do the same thing, you are one of the first in line to defend them at all costs…
Cattle hypocrites…
Oh, really?
Then tell me, which other “empire” has done something like this? Seemingly giving retailers extremely low stock with intent, when they exactly know that there is high demand for the products? Apart from the amiibo, what about the special editions of the new 3DS? Good job Nintendo, you helped scalpers gain a lot of money through your true supporters who had to spend way more on your product than they should have to.
And unlike others, I don’t crawl up a company’s ass at any given chance. I defend what I think is right, and criticize what I think is wrong. Sure, I might have a little bias for a couple of developers, but I won’t deny their faults and mistakes when they obviously made some. I’d say the same things about any other company out there if they did this, don’t you worry.
But thanks for your very valuable input, hun.
On another note, I’ve decided to break the silence towards you, it’s been quite a while. But after seeing how you keep replying to my comments, I can’t break your heart any longer. :)
There have been other instances where you gave things like the Ubisians or whoever they were the benefit of a doubt but always assume the worst about Nintendo…
And if people weren’t so blind by their silly hatred towards me, they would see that I hate a lot of things the empire has been doing since the release of the 3DS…
And further more, I’m nothing near any of the few things you “dislike” me for since most humans to me are of equally worthless…
Oh, I think I remember what you’re referring to, it was me saying that I believe it’s understandable why Ubisoft dropped support for the WiiU. Just for the record, without wanting to go too deep into the subject, I don’t agree with everything Ubisoft has done “to” the WiiU, but I (still) do think it’s only natural for them to not support it anymore.
But either way, that’s not the same thing as this situation, so giving it as an example of me supposedly defending others when they do the *same* as Nintendo is doing in this low-stock issue is not correct.
Other than that, well, I didn’t specifically say that you in particular support everything Nintendo does; I just said that “others” do. :)
And you didn’t deny that I have been breaking your heart by ignoring your previous comments, how flattering. <3
Well I don’t have a heart anyway…
*wink*
If you took things too personally I apologize, you aren’t a troll or anything near so just ignore my cold cybernality…
I very much appreciate the apology, and surely won’t turn someone down who actually has the frankness to apologize.
I as well am sorry if I have said something that you didn’t think was a right thing to say to you, just so we’re even. :)
Thanks, now let us move forward and have respectable wars and so on…
*wink*
Yes, war is pretty much inevitable between us, so let’s have some good ones. :p
Well, I wouldn’t call it war anyway, since you don’t attack the empire directly like others that are just blind haters…
I grew up with Nintendo, so I’ll always have a little bias for them. :)
But that also means I’ll criticize them when I think they’re doing something wrong, because I actually care about them doing things right.
But you will pretty much dodge the “bullets”…
No need to dodge your bullets, they’re not very effective to begin with. ;)
Haha, good good, the force is strong with you…
Does not answer for the discontinustion of pretty much everything on their fastest sell through list. I am okay with waiting on the ones I have preordered so long as gamestop doesnt pull a toys r us and just cancel my order.
People are asking why they are saying this now, they seem to be forgetting we literally just got the sales data for the amiibo, which Nintendo was probably looking over and realized that the numbers weren’t adding up
But certainly they keep track of how much stock they send out to suppliers? Also there were multiple times when nintendo reps gave shitty first grade PR responses to people asking about amiibo. Especially with the stock issues being so prominent online if they “just now” figured out amiibo is having stock issues that just shows Nintendo is even more incompetent than everyone thought.
Just to add my own two cents on it, I don’t think that its the only reason stock is low in the US. Its more like its a combination of Scalpers, retailers beings weary of order lots of stock from Nintendo products, distribution problems from the strike, the holiday season, low stock making it sound like it the thing to get, and really bad weather making it hard to get an even amount of stock.
Could this also be the reason it was hard to get majoras mask limited edition? I know its called limited edition for a reason but it just seemed so scarce.
wait, amiibo aren’t light? seriously the only ones that have any weight to them are bowser and DK.
I think they are talking dimension when they are talking bulk. It might be an off translation. They are very light.
IDK with the timing of this statement it looks more like they are trying to make excuses for themselves.
No, this really comes from an Interview from Japanese new paper with Iwata, I believe after a stock holders meeting, so that has more to do with the timing more than anything. I would imagine Nintendo would love for this problem to go away, cause its hurting their business.
I promise you, they are purposely limiting their product. and it’s a terrible business practice, it’s so backwards it doesn’t even make sense.
i understand that this is a nintendo news website, which i love to visit and read, however i just wanted to correct the information of this article. there has been no strike by west coast workers. they have been working without a union contract, in good faith, while contract negotiations continue between the coast workers union and the employer. there was some work lockout action along the coast by the employer but no action by the coast workers. work has been slowed down by the employer thru action of cutting manning along the waterfront, this explains the hold up in discharging goods along the coast… there has been no strike…
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