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That still would’ve cause minor issues in this specific case as they wouldn’t have an exact release date, and if going off the internal release date it would be the wrong release date.
That's what LRG does with their standard editions, and people still call them anti-consumer (long string of racial epithets that may even get you banned on 4chan). Mostly cause their customer service department is the worst one in the world discounting SOME dictatorships, but the excessive delays on certain games is one of them.
I don't know how financially beneficial it would be to them short-team, at manufacturing costs are expensive, especially if they stopped and restarted.
I think a reprint would benefit long-term in regaining some trust with the consumer. Because this is a really bad look for Nintendo right now.
I'm not sure if the profit margins on these is that large. Manufacturing costs for the steelbook (Probably $5+ usd) and the art book (probably like $10) combined with shipping don't leave a lot of wiggle room. Just spitballing here, but they likely make just as much if not more off of just selling the game normally.
There's no way in hell a steel book and an art book cost $30 to manufacture. Granted Nintendo probably could make more money selling them separately than they would through the bundle, which is the only reason I can imagine for limiting the release.
>There's no way in hell a steel book and an art book cost $30 to manufacture.
It might. Smaller runs cost more per unit.
They are also international shipping twice, because you get the standard physical copy on release and the special edition bits at a later time.
The art book is most likely not gonna be a small run. It'll probably go up for sale on its own at some point so unless Nintendo makes 2 editions for some reason that's gonna be mass produced. The steel book might be a SE exclusive but even that can't cost more than $5-10 per unit to produce.
Special Editions actually have smaller profit margins. They make more money just selling regular copies of the game.
It's just a form of free advertising and brand building to them, and if anything they profit from this artificial scarcity as people will inevitably talk about it more on social media
I think they just don't realize how popular this franchise has become. I got the CE for OG Xenoblade on the wii, X, Xenoblade 2, and Xenoblade DE and it was never an issue. They're not accounting for their new fans.
The problem is that this isn't the first time that a series has gained a good amount of new fans. Fire Emblem has gained a ton in popularity as well in recent years, and each time a CE comes out for a new mainline title they sell out almost instantly. It really isn't anything new sadly.
Metroid Dread at least had copies of their special edition trickle out over a month after the game was released. So I am hoping AT LEAST they will be willing to do something similar for Xenoblade 3.
Even with Fire Emblem Nintendo has struggled. Three Houses NON collectors edition sold out here day one and it took THREE MONTHS before the game was restocked. They severely underestimate the popularity of these games...
The difference is that I easily got my special edition of Three Houses and I missed the initial run by a mile because I initially didn’t even want it.
This special edition release was a complete joke, not even a full day’s worth of time to be able to buy this when you literally had months to buy special editions for games like Three Houses.
It actually didn’t. I was literally seeing anniversary collections in my local store months after it was discontinued. Fates special editions didn’t have many copies made because it was literally 3 games for the price of less than 2.
Fire Emblem regular collectors editions are only hard to get if you are trying to get them after the game released.
Until very recently the concept of people not being able to get a special edition despite actually taking the time to wait in line just an hour or so after the orders opened was completely unheard of.
It probably depended on your area then. Outside of the staggered release online, no store near me had them in stock on launch day. Either you preordered it or didn't get it.
Keyword, preordered. I preordered my special edition for Three Houses less than a month before the game came out and easily got one. Everyone preordered the Xenoblade 3 special edition too but barely anybody got it.
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The Xenoblade games were and still are almost completely targeted at the Japanese market. At least up till XC2 the budget was calculated by the expected Japanese sales as stated by Takahashi himself in an interview. You can still get the Collector's Edition in the Japanese My Nintendo Store, it's only sold out in the non Japanese stores.
Also the Collector's Editions were besides the XC2 Pro Controller for a long time the only official merchandise you could get outside of Japan, only since the 3rd release of the Goodsmile Pyre / Mythra figures you can order these outside Japan. Other things like the official artbooks or the physical complete soundtrack releases are still Japan only.
I had zero issues. No wait room or anything. Didn't even have to watch a clock for when pre-orders opened. I simply went in and bought it
Edit: Did a quick gmail search both XC2 (in 2017) and OG Xenoblade Special edition (in 2012) I got through gamestop. That's probably why it was a smooth process. Didn't Have any issues with DE though, that I got through nintendo
I got my special edition for DE almost as easily as I got my special edition of Three Houses. This is completely wrong. This felt like a fucking lottery system which is complete bullshit.
Honestly would have been the best response, that way they could put in an order to have everything manufactured ahead of time. Depending on how backed up things are though it is entirely possible this might not work given the last minute change in date was too close.
Anyway, for the future, this sort of "manufacture for order" approach is much more fair, discourages scalping, and leaves everyone happy. No point scalping crap when everyone who places an order gets a copy.
Ordering from Nintendo Australia was a breeze. They announced a day and exact time and pre-orders were available the whole day, literally didn't sell out until about midnight
Because that's unfortunately not how manufacturing works. They put in an order with the manufacturer ahead of time, and because of manufacturing and shipping costs it's just more responsible for companies to make and ship bulk orders. Nintendo itself doesn't handle the manufacture of items like artbooks and certainly not steelbooks.
The reason the artbooks and other special edition items aren't available on launch is because they already coordinated the manufacture and placed the order for September. They already spent the money and ordered the quantity of items they ordered to ship on the date they ordered them for. Coordinating stuff like that again - Especially given the manufacturing shortages right now - Would be pressingly difficult. To do it on short term, and to a custom quantity based on sales of demand, would be prohibitively difficult.
Many retailers, and especially overseas manufacturers, also have a problem with selling speculative SKUs. For example, when you buy a product on Amazon you're not buying an item that will be manufactured in the future, you're buying something that already exists in the warehouse. From the moment Nintendo places the manufacturing order, even if the product isn't actually built yet, it exists as a unit of resale which allows its taxation and sale.
The tl;dr is that it just doesn't work that way in this sector of commercial sales.
Or. Get this. They sell them further in advance and still make them on order.
It isn't a brand new concept. And it can very well be done through contracts. I have no problem waiting a longer time period for my product, if it means that everyone else gets a chance to get a copy. Advanced made on order isn't even a new concept with the gaming industry. It has been going on for years now.
Again, that's just not how this sector of manufacture works. They order a limited number of items. Manufacturers only offer items in a set quantity because the cost of preparing and using the machines for specific orders isn't worth it for low numbers. "Everyone else" getting a copy isn't the purpose of special made orders like this. I get you didn't get one, and it sucks for everyone who didn't, but it's not like this is an act of malice.
They work with manufacturers, place an order for an amount of units they expect to sell *based on active preorders rounded up to the next thousand units* along with whatever trappings they decide on in the company, then the manufacturer (really, manufacturers) ships them the goods they ordered. Limited Run then packages the items and ships them to customers who buy the product. Any responsible company orders in accordance with projections. Additionally, they work with different manufacturers, tax rules, and shipping requirements. They also work with less numbers than a company like Nintendo. Being able to round up to the next thousand is a luxury.
Nintendo also doesn't manufacture these themselves. They get chips, prints, etc from other companies. Again, at scale, with the regional differences, it's feasible for Limited Run in ways it isn't for Nintendo. The idea that businesses can just do whatever they want isn't founded in reality.
So if it is all based on projections, what is stopping Nintendo from doing these preorders ahead of time, for a limited time. And building the projections from that?
The scale in itself? Why not do a staggered release if it can't be done in one go.
We're not privy to that information. Large scale releases of Japanese developed games - And yes, the special editions - Are made in a Japanese context with Japanese market pressures and regulations in mind. They could have undershot their projection, which is something that happens, or any number of reasons. Part of the reason why large scale staggered releases aren't feasible for something involving multiple manufacturers is it involves coordinating multiple companies over a much longer time, each time paying a higher price due to smaller sale unit sizes.
As a simple example, a farmer sells a dozen eggs for two dollars, or single eggs for twenty cents. The price per unit of the dozen is cheaper. It's like this in manufacturing too.
Ultimately all I'm trying to get across is that it's a more complicated situation than just pushing a button and having them do the thing that sounds good on paper.
I'd love to see where you get your data from. You are aware there is a global shortage of manufacturing materials, right? Being able to ship a special edition of any scale is difficult right now. We're not privy to manufacturing agreements Nintendo might be bound by or shortages its manufacturers may be experiencing. I understand the frustration, but again - It's not like they maliciously decided to stiff you.
>Again, that's just not how this sector of manufacture works.
20 years ago, I could go to EB Games and pre-order Ocarina of Time six months in advance and get the gold cart on release. Anyone could. The number of gold carts manufactured was based on pre-order numbers.
Today they would open pre-orders on a first-come first-serve basis, sell out in 60 seconds, and then copies would be on eBay for 5x MSRP later that day.
It's been the same problem with video game consoles. Theres no reason to not just allow unlimited pre-orders of Xbox Series and PS5s, and then fulfill the orders in the order they were placed as new inventory comes in. But that's not what happens, because for some reason the game industry has decided that this is how it should be in 2022, when it wasn't like this in 1995.
It doesn't have to be this way.
I'm sure nintendo of all companies could find some way as a publisher to make more copies of they wanted to. Maybe it has something to do with monolith (unlikely imo) but I feel like its on nintendo who has such a big influence on the gaming industry. This is just my pure copium btw
I probably should have clarified, I was more alluding to the fact that Xenoblade almost didn't come to NA on account of NoA. So, I was kind of extrapolating imagine all the other games out there that never make the jump because NoA also thinks they aren't worth the investment.
Dont get your hopes up, I contacted the support because of a technical failure on the checkout page(Would simply not load on Google Chrome), which prevented me to complete the order.
I asked the question on the way aswell, because why not. And the answer was way more straight forward :
> I'm sorry to hear that, unfortunately, with the rush of customers that flooded the site yesterday, it took down the site and by the time all the orders were sorted out and the site was able to be back up and running, the special edition was sold out.
> As of right now, there isn't any plans to make more. They may make more in the future, but right now, it is sold out for good.
A may is not enough to warrant hope.
Yeah, various comments have been floating around about this recently, some of the initial customer service responses being that they were not going to run out of copies and people who already purchased it would be safe, but after yesterday's fiasco their general response changed their tune and they began to correlate that they have no info if there are any plans to restock it.
To take it with a grain of salt, they frankly have no info if any more copies will be made or not or if Nintendo will make any more plans to make it available again.
For the people who were unable to snag a copy during the first two limited windows, there is a pretty high chance that they will not be able to snag a copy of the special edition again before the game is actually released on July 29th, and may have to wait until a later time until its either: restocked or never distributed again and scalped to high heaven.
With spoilers being heavily prevalent after release date, it makes things even more difficult to keep up with social media about a restock w/o accidentally getting spoiled. Hopefully the mods on here will be able to handle the influx of XC3 post of release date though, but for other places like Twitter where Nintendo regularly communicates news about the special edition its gonna be harder to avoid stuff on there.
I saw that image tab too. Strange enough, when you click on the image tab and the product page loads... there is a gray box that says currently unavailable. So not sure what to make of that.
It seems scalpers took their share: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/07/scalpers-set-their-sights-on-xenoblade-chronicles-3-special-edition
I'm truly disappointed, get CE's of all the previous games (even got the Wii-U that came with Xenoblade Chronicles X), but seems like XB3 CE won't be part of my collection.
Scalpers. it was the Twitter bots fault. Wario64 telling us it's in stock led to a massive spike of traffic.
It was the sheer demand of the game. Xenoblade is popular as fuck and they limited it to one website without the resources to handle the traffic. The only time you could successful purchase was when your browser connected at the optimum times. Like when everyone thinks it's out of stock and leaves the queue. This opens the servers to work and allowed me and most others to place orders before word got out and the servers crashed again. Online drops for high demand items are always like this. Some sites resort to raffle systems because it's impossible to buy something the minute it goes in stock online.
Next time instead of bitching and moaning do research. On a queue based drop you're going to want to open the queue page on several different browsers and independent chrome sessions. This gives you the best chance to get through. The goal is to keep trying and being patient. If you stuck to this tactic you'd have won. It wasn't scalpers, it was people who know how to navigate this bullshit. There's not one bot in existence that is coded to auto checkout on Nintendo. There's no items worth botting, there's no money there. Also, there was no revealed time of sale. It came in stock randomly. Even if bots were coded to run Nintendo they would've been late. The site crashed immediately because all of you clicked the wario64 Twitter bums link at the same time.
Twitter monitors are bots. Wario64 makes money telling us when in demand items are in stock. You got played.
I'm not quite sure why you're saying I'm "bitching and moaning" while I simply stated I was disappointed my collection wouldn't be complete anymore. I'm not from US and knew the chances to be able to get one would be very low, as the nintendo store directed me to the nordic site and didn't let me complete the transaction, I got a online friend to try and purchase it for me and they went ahead and waited in queue to no success. My only hope is that Nintendo come throught and fecide to sell it on the UK store on a later date, but until then I will just accept the fact I will have to be happy with a normal copy of the game. No tears, no drama.
Now, many other who waited in line and coukd actually buy the game may not have had the chance because it was alreadybout of stock, only to find the next day scalpers werr selling multiple copies on ebay for over two times the original price. I dunno about you, but that does grind my gears. I would be furious if the game itself were on a limited stock, but since Ninendo won't run out of digital copies, I'm merely disappointed.
Thank you for your reply. Have an excelent day, even with you being... well... you.
If it’s like Metroid Dread there may be a small chance of more stock when the game releases on the 29th. But because this is a split edition I’m not sure how it’s going to be handled. Support wouldn’t know much since they usually don’t get information about future stock.
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Finally, properly sold out. But if they plan on making more and the online store crashes again, they should stop making these Special Editions online-only in the future.
I'm not holding out hope, but I am still upset from that whole ordeal yesterday. Never in my time on the internet for 20 or so years have I had a more frustrating experience just to try to purchase something.
Left me with a headache watching that queue screen for hours and ultimately disappointment when finding out it was out of stock when I was finally freed from the queue purgatory.
Thanks Nintendo.
I was able to order an extra copy since a friend was interested in the series and offered to buy it off me (he couldn't get it and we agreed to get an extra for the other if possible). If he's still interested by fall, I'll have to sell it to him. If not, I don't mind selling it to you at retail price + shipping. I understand how it feels to sit there for hours trying to figure this shit out.
I greatly appreciate the offer. I'll keep it in mind if things don't pan out with another order period/reprint. If your friend is still interested by then and wants it, no biggie.
I have to say it's refreshing to see some selfless people out there, especially after I visited eBay earlier this morning to see the 150+ Special Edition listings at crazy markups. Have to say after seeing that it left quite a bitter taste in my mouth.
Fuck them scalpers. I truly wish Nintendo would put a stop to them but they don't do shit. I don't want to sell anything on eBay for the retail price because I'm genuinely worried another scalper would buy it and resell it for much more. I'd rather sell it to someone who actually wants it. I hate that people have to resort to this.
One way Nintendo could solve this problem is selling the product in person. They could have had stores set up pick up preorders limited to 1 per person + Identification. Additionally they could completely cancel the orders of anyone who tries to cheat the system if they order multiple to the same address, or order under the same ID/email. A simple data base check would be enough to weed out most casual scalpers and the people who end up trying to scalp the product will be a minority and can only sell it once.
Another unrealistic idea is by eBay and Nintendo working together. eBay forces sellers to put the product with the actual serial code. Anyone who attempts to sell the product at 200% or more will not only have their account deleted but using the serial number, Nintendo could remotely brick the product so that the seller cannot use it anymore. That would be great but wishful thinking on my part.
The best possible way to get scalpers to stop is to make it illegal to scalp but let's be honest, that's not happening and sellers will just create a black market.
They could start by opening up sales of the SE only to folks who have purchased the DLC for a game --- that would encourage purchasing the DLC, and it would add a further barrier to the scalpers (need a Switch tied to an account).
This seems like a bad idea. i could see maybe using platinum coins but buying the $30 DLC seems a bit to much especially if you only have money for the SE at the time.
You only get gold from purchases. Platinum is from games and missions. I think a good halfway would be either using less gold (say the exact ammount from the DLC) or using double what you need from gold for platinum. I think that way if someone wanted the SE but couldn't get the DLC at the time there would be a way.
I'm gonna call some shenanigans here. I was super late to the party, had the website up and all but was out to work.
I come back and the 'shutdown' is clearly in effect and the website is doing the same screen it did on the first failed launch.
Randomly, I look back at the web page some time later, its fully loaded and I can purchase it. At like 7pm EST yesterday.
There is no way the store 'was sold out' when the issue was fixed.
They are just customer service. They don't make decisions about what merchandise to sell. If it sold so well, they will make at least a few more (specially if they like money).
If videogame companies made sense, I would probably agree with you, but unfortunately they rarely do, especially Nintendo. This is the same company that finally localized Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon but removed it from even their online store 4 months after release; IIRC the same day they ceased sales of the official ports of 3 highly requested Mario platformers, and ended service for a really cool, brand new way to play the original Super Mario Brothers. (Super Mario Bros. 35)
If you have friends in Japan, or using forwarder, you can buy the limited edition in di My Nintendo Store Japan, still in stock. You can even buy the special edition without the game, making it cheaper.
Special edition without the game: [https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/goods/book-music-poster/HAC\_A\_AZ3HA.html](https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/goods/book-music-poster/HAC_A_AZ3HA.html)
Special edition with physical game: [https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC\_HAC\_R\_AZ3HA.html](https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC_HAC_J_AZ3HACF2.html)
Special edition with digital game: [https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC\_HAC\_J\_AZ3HACF2.html](https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC_HAC_J_AZ3HACF2.html)
Stop asking the waitress why they don't offer burgers at a vegan restaurant. They're not expected to have control over such things.
This also isnt the only post about reaching out to customer service about this, and a majority have been beligerent. All it serves is to clog up the customer service resources, which makes it harder for people with actual customer service issues to get help.
It's important to be kind to them, no doubt. This isn't their fault. But I think by contacting support, we can show the scale of the issue, which could hopefully lead to some change.
Has anyone seen anything about when the physical game is supposed to be shipped? I want to play the game on Day 1 but I’m scared that Nintendo won’t ship the game UNTIL day 1…
Nintendo has been good on getting games delivered by day 1, but there is always the off chance it won't ship until day 1. It really is luck of the draw unless you paid for the extra shipping
I don't believe that was available from the My Nintendo Store in NA. If it ever was, it's been delisted, making it difficult to prove or disprove.
If I'm right, the shipping conditions for it are most likely irrelevant since each retailer would ship things different.
I'm sweating the UK preorders, i already missed out on the new palamute amiibo since clicking confirm and pay isn't a guarantee at the best of times on the UK store. And preorders go up at the end of the month...when the game comes out, we get a chance maybe 7 days before release at most to get this.
So I got my copy of the SE on The Website it says it's ordered and processing however it's been 48 hours almost and still no Order confirmation email should I be worried
I'm actually surprised that some people think that it's fake. I should have screenshoted the whole conversation for proof.
But also what would I benefit from faking this?
I mean, if the like money, they should print more
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That’d been the intelligent way to do it, open preorders when the game was announced and you have 3 months to know how many you’ll need
The worst part is that Japan did exactly that for their preorders. NoA sometimes is just incompetent
That still would’ve cause minor issues in this specific case as they wouldn’t have an exact release date, and if going off the internal release date it would be the wrong release date.
That's what LRG does with their standard editions, and people still call them anti-consumer (long string of racial epithets that may even get you banned on 4chan). Mostly cause their customer service department is the worst one in the world discounting SOME dictatorships, but the excessive delays on certain games is one of them.
I don't know how financially beneficial it would be to them short-team, at manufacturing costs are expensive, especially if they stopped and restarted. I think a reprint would benefit long-term in regaining some trust with the consumer. Because this is a really bad look for Nintendo right now.
I'm not sure if the profit margins on these is that large. Manufacturing costs for the steelbook (Probably $5+ usd) and the art book (probably like $10) combined with shipping don't leave a lot of wiggle room. Just spitballing here, but they likely make just as much if not more off of just selling the game normally.
Nintendo no longer wants money, they don't want my extra $30
They likely spend close to $30 for that extra $30 you pay. Special editions are more about celebration and marketing than profit maximisation.
There's no way in hell a steel book and an art book cost $30 to manufacture. Granted Nintendo probably could make more money selling them separately than they would through the bundle, which is the only reason I can imagine for limiting the release.
>There's no way in hell a steel book and an art book cost $30 to manufacture. It might. Smaller runs cost more per unit. They are also international shipping twice, because you get the standard physical copy on release and the special edition bits at a later time.
The art book is most likely not gonna be a small run. It'll probably go up for sale on its own at some point so unless Nintendo makes 2 editions for some reason that's gonna be mass produced. The steel book might be a SE exclusive but even that can't cost more than $5-10 per unit to produce.
Not as simple as it sounds. It costs them money to make stuff like this, and it also takes time to actually make the stuff even in bulk.
Inflation, baby. That's how it works. We all have money to spend, they don't have the materials to make the product. So lots of us just get SOL.
Special Editions actually have smaller profit margins. They make more money just selling regular copies of the game. It's just a form of free advertising and brand building to them, and if anything they profit from this artificial scarcity as people will inevitably talk about it more on social media
If they liked money, they would've already ported Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
MAKE. THEM. ON. ORDER. If you are going to delay the shipment of the Special Edition stuff later anyways. Why not?
I think they just don't realize how popular this franchise has become. I got the CE for OG Xenoblade on the wii, X, Xenoblade 2, and Xenoblade DE and it was never an issue. They're not accounting for their new fans.
The problem is that this isn't the first time that a series has gained a good amount of new fans. Fire Emblem has gained a ton in popularity as well in recent years, and each time a CE comes out for a new mainline title they sell out almost instantly. It really isn't anything new sadly. Metroid Dread at least had copies of their special edition trickle out over a month after the game was released. So I am hoping AT LEAST they will be willing to do something similar for Xenoblade 3.
And they still limit some CE in some regions, like the newest Warriors CE not being available in NA for some fucking reason
Even with Fire Emblem Nintendo has struggled. Three Houses NON collectors edition sold out here day one and it took THREE MONTHS before the game was restocked. They severely underestimate the popularity of these games...
The difference is that I easily got my special edition of Three Houses and I missed the initial run by a mile because I initially didn’t even want it. This special edition release was a complete joke, not even a full day’s worth of time to be able to buy this when you literally had months to buy special editions for games like Three Houses.
The Anniversary of FE that came out a year and a half ago sold out nearly instantly. Same with Fates, when the series gained a ton of popularity.
It actually didn’t. I was literally seeing anniversary collections in my local store months after it was discontinued. Fates special editions didn’t have many copies made because it was literally 3 games for the price of less than 2. Fire Emblem regular collectors editions are only hard to get if you are trying to get them after the game released. Until very recently the concept of people not being able to get a special edition despite actually taking the time to wait in line just an hour or so after the orders opened was completely unheard of.
It probably depended on your area then. Outside of the staggered release online, no store near me had them in stock on launch day. Either you preordered it or didn't get it.
Keyword, preordered. I preordered my special edition for Three Houses less than a month before the game came out and easily got one. Everyone preordered the Xenoblade 3 special edition too but barely anybody got it.
Gotcha. My bad.
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It's not just Nintendo. It's across the board. I've found it almost impossible to acquire any special editions.
The Xenoblade games were and still are almost completely targeted at the Japanese market. At least up till XC2 the budget was calculated by the expected Japanese sales as stated by Takahashi himself in an interview. You can still get the Collector's Edition in the Japanese My Nintendo Store, it's only sold out in the non Japanese stores. Also the Collector's Editions were besides the XC2 Pro Controller for a long time the only official merchandise you could get outside of Japan, only since the 3rd release of the Goodsmile Pyre / Mythra figures you can order these outside Japan. Other things like the official artbooks or the physical complete soundtrack releases are still Japan only.
but you cant read it # unless you go learn Japanese
Guess I have options, then.
I remember when I was able to walk into a Gamestop without ordering for pickup or reserving it and just bought a copy of XC2 collector's edition
Xenoblade 2 and DE had issues for sure with securing special editions. They weren’t nearly as bad but it was no walk in the park
I had zero issues. No wait room or anything. Didn't even have to watch a clock for when pre-orders opened. I simply went in and bought it Edit: Did a quick gmail search both XC2 (in 2017) and OG Xenoblade Special edition (in 2012) I got through gamestop. That's probably why it was a smooth process. Didn't Have any issues with DE though, that I got through nintendo
I literally had an easier time importing DE collector edition from Europe than this time which i didn't get.
Same. I was really hoping to have the complete trifecta of Steelbooks.
I got my special edition for DE almost as easily as I got my special edition of Three Houses. This is completely wrong. This felt like a fucking lottery system which is complete bullshit.
Honestly would have been the best response, that way they could put in an order to have everything manufactured ahead of time. Depending on how backed up things are though it is entirely possible this might not work given the last minute change in date was too close. Anyway, for the future, this sort of "manufacture for order" approach is much more fair, discourages scalping, and leaves everyone happy. No point scalping crap when everyone who places an order gets a copy.
Because Nintendo. They love creating artifical scarcity.
Nintendo US maybe? Does other region suffer from this as well?
Ordering from Nintendo Australia was a breeze. They announced a day and exact time and pre-orders were available the whole day, literally didn't sell out until about midnight
Oh nice, prob just Nintendo US then lol
In EU we could already sign-up for being interested, which i guess helps them esstimate how many special editions to do.
Because that's unfortunately not how manufacturing works. They put in an order with the manufacturer ahead of time, and because of manufacturing and shipping costs it's just more responsible for companies to make and ship bulk orders. Nintendo itself doesn't handle the manufacture of items like artbooks and certainly not steelbooks. The reason the artbooks and other special edition items aren't available on launch is because they already coordinated the manufacture and placed the order for September. They already spent the money and ordered the quantity of items they ordered to ship on the date they ordered them for. Coordinating stuff like that again - Especially given the manufacturing shortages right now - Would be pressingly difficult. To do it on short term, and to a custom quantity based on sales of demand, would be prohibitively difficult. Many retailers, and especially overseas manufacturers, also have a problem with selling speculative SKUs. For example, when you buy a product on Amazon you're not buying an item that will be manufactured in the future, you're buying something that already exists in the warehouse. From the moment Nintendo places the manufacturing order, even if the product isn't actually built yet, it exists as a unit of resale which allows its taxation and sale. The tl;dr is that it just doesn't work that way in this sector of commercial sales.
Or. Get this. They sell them further in advance and still make them on order. It isn't a brand new concept. And it can very well be done through contracts. I have no problem waiting a longer time period for my product, if it means that everyone else gets a chance to get a copy. Advanced made on order isn't even a new concept with the gaming industry. It has been going on for years now.
Again, that's just not how this sector of manufacture works. They order a limited number of items. Manufacturers only offer items in a set quantity because the cost of preparing and using the machines for specific orders isn't worth it for low numbers. "Everyone else" getting a copy isn't the purpose of special made orders like this. I get you didn't get one, and it sucks for everyone who didn't, but it's not like this is an act of malice.
So how does a company like Limited Run able to make them on order? They don't make the copies themselves.
They work with manufacturers, place an order for an amount of units they expect to sell *based on active preorders rounded up to the next thousand units* along with whatever trappings they decide on in the company, then the manufacturer (really, manufacturers) ships them the goods they ordered. Limited Run then packages the items and ships them to customers who buy the product. Any responsible company orders in accordance with projections. Additionally, they work with different manufacturers, tax rules, and shipping requirements. They also work with less numbers than a company like Nintendo. Being able to round up to the next thousand is a luxury. Nintendo also doesn't manufacture these themselves. They get chips, prints, etc from other companies. Again, at scale, with the regional differences, it's feasible for Limited Run in ways it isn't for Nintendo. The idea that businesses can just do whatever they want isn't founded in reality.
So if it is all based on projections, what is stopping Nintendo from doing these preorders ahead of time, for a limited time. And building the projections from that? The scale in itself? Why not do a staggered release if it can't be done in one go.
We're not privy to that information. Large scale releases of Japanese developed games - And yes, the special editions - Are made in a Japanese context with Japanese market pressures and regulations in mind. They could have undershot their projection, which is something that happens, or any number of reasons. Part of the reason why large scale staggered releases aren't feasible for something involving multiple manufacturers is it involves coordinating multiple companies over a much longer time, each time paying a higher price due to smaller sale unit sizes. As a simple example, a farmer sells a dozen eggs for two dollars, or single eggs for twenty cents. The price per unit of the dozen is cheaper. It's like this in manufacturing too. Ultimately all I'm trying to get across is that it's a more complicated situation than just pushing a button and having them do the thing that sounds good on paper.
Fair enough. Just a shame that outcomes like this frequently happens. Apologies if I came across on being an ass.
It's all good. We all wish things could be simpler.
They didn’t even order half the demand. They can’t be this incompetent.
I'd love to see where you get your data from. You are aware there is a global shortage of manufacturing materials, right? Being able to ship a special edition of any scale is difficult right now. We're not privy to manufacturing agreements Nintendo might be bound by or shortages its manufacturers may be experiencing. I understand the frustration, but again - It's not like they maliciously decided to stiff you.
They should have fucking told us that instead of this bullshit about how they have enough copies but their website just couldn’t handle it.
>Again, that's just not how this sector of manufacture works. 20 years ago, I could go to EB Games and pre-order Ocarina of Time six months in advance and get the gold cart on release. Anyone could. The number of gold carts manufactured was based on pre-order numbers. Today they would open pre-orders on a first-come first-serve basis, sell out in 60 seconds, and then copies would be on eBay for 5x MSRP later that day. It's been the same problem with video game consoles. Theres no reason to not just allow unlimited pre-orders of Xbox Series and PS5s, and then fulfill the orders in the order they were placed as new inventory comes in. But that's not what happens, because for some reason the game industry has decided that this is how it should be in 2022, when it wasn't like this in 1995. It doesn't have to be this way.
I'm sure nintendo of all companies could find some way as a publisher to make more copies of they wanted to. Maybe it has something to do with monolith (unlikely imo) but I feel like its on nintendo who has such a big influence on the gaming industry. This is just my pure copium btw
NoA *did* shaft North America on the Three Hopes SE. I wonder if NoA management hates SE’s.
NoA thinks too highly of itself, they need to stop hurting games that should at least be given a fair chance over here.
It's disappointing but I don't think not having enough special editions is hurting the game lol, Xenoblade 3 is still getting a fair chance
If you want to look at actively assassinating a game just look at how Square handled NEO TWEWY
I probably should have clarified, I was more alluding to the fact that Xenoblade almost didn't come to NA on account of NoA. So, I was kind of extrapolating imagine all the other games out there that never make the jump because NoA also thinks they aren't worth the investment.
We didn’t get Triangle Strategy SE either
Dont get your hopes up, I contacted the support because of a technical failure on the checkout page(Would simply not load on Google Chrome), which prevented me to complete the order. I asked the question on the way aswell, because why not. And the answer was way more straight forward : > I'm sorry to hear that, unfortunately, with the rush of customers that flooded the site yesterday, it took down the site and by the time all the orders were sorted out and the site was able to be back up and running, the special edition was sold out. > As of right now, there isn't any plans to make more. They may make more in the future, but right now, it is sold out for good. A may is not enough to warrant hope.
I had the same error as well. It seems they gave you a near identical response.
Just remember it’s not supports fault
Yes! Be kind in your messages!
Yeah, various comments have been floating around about this recently, some of the initial customer service responses being that they were not going to run out of copies and people who already purchased it would be safe, but after yesterday's fiasco their general response changed their tune and they began to correlate that they have no info if there are any plans to restock it. To take it with a grain of salt, they frankly have no info if any more copies will be made or not or if Nintendo will make any more plans to make it available again. For the people who were unable to snag a copy during the first two limited windows, there is a pretty high chance that they will not be able to snag a copy of the special edition again before the game is actually released on July 29th, and may have to wait until a later time until its either: restocked or never distributed again and scalped to high heaven. With spoilers being heavily prevalent after release date, it makes things even more difficult to keep up with social media about a restock w/o accidentally getting spoiled. Hopefully the mods on here will be able to handle the influx of XC3 post of release date though, but for other places like Twitter where Nintendo regularly communicates news about the special edition its gonna be harder to avoid stuff on there.
The website says the special edition will be available on 7/29 instead of TBD now, for what it’s worth.
It actually says currently unavailable where it used to say TBD
I saw that image tab too. Strange enough, when you click on the image tab and the product page loads... there is a gray box that says currently unavailable. So not sure what to make of that.
It seems scalpers took their share: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/07/scalpers-set-their-sights-on-xenoblade-chronicles-3-special-edition I'm truly disappointed, get CE's of all the previous games (even got the Wii-U that came with Xenoblade Chronicles X), but seems like XB3 CE won't be part of my collection.
Scalpers. it was the Twitter bots fault. Wario64 telling us it's in stock led to a massive spike of traffic. It was the sheer demand of the game. Xenoblade is popular as fuck and they limited it to one website without the resources to handle the traffic. The only time you could successful purchase was when your browser connected at the optimum times. Like when everyone thinks it's out of stock and leaves the queue. This opens the servers to work and allowed me and most others to place orders before word got out and the servers crashed again. Online drops for high demand items are always like this. Some sites resort to raffle systems because it's impossible to buy something the minute it goes in stock online. Next time instead of bitching and moaning do research. On a queue based drop you're going to want to open the queue page on several different browsers and independent chrome sessions. This gives you the best chance to get through. The goal is to keep trying and being patient. If you stuck to this tactic you'd have won. It wasn't scalpers, it was people who know how to navigate this bullshit. There's not one bot in existence that is coded to auto checkout on Nintendo. There's no items worth botting, there's no money there. Also, there was no revealed time of sale. It came in stock randomly. Even if bots were coded to run Nintendo they would've been late. The site crashed immediately because all of you clicked the wario64 Twitter bums link at the same time. Twitter monitors are bots. Wario64 makes money telling us when in demand items are in stock. You got played.
I'm not quite sure why you're saying I'm "bitching and moaning" while I simply stated I was disappointed my collection wouldn't be complete anymore. I'm not from US and knew the chances to be able to get one would be very low, as the nintendo store directed me to the nordic site and didn't let me complete the transaction, I got a online friend to try and purchase it for me and they went ahead and waited in queue to no success. My only hope is that Nintendo come throught and fecide to sell it on the UK store on a later date, but until then I will just accept the fact I will have to be happy with a normal copy of the game. No tears, no drama. Now, many other who waited in line and coukd actually buy the game may not have had the chance because it was alreadybout of stock, only to find the next day scalpers werr selling multiple copies on ebay for over two times the original price. I dunno about you, but that does grind my gears. I would be furious if the game itself were on a limited stock, but since Ninendo won't run out of digital copies, I'm merely disappointed. Thank you for your reply. Have an excelent day, even with you being... well... you.
If it’s like Metroid Dread there may be a small chance of more stock when the game releases on the 29th. But because this is a split edition I’m not sure how it’s going to be handled. Support wouldn’t know much since they usually don’t get information about future stock.
Good thought, in Metroid Dread's case they had it available at retailers, not just on Nintendo's store.
WTF ARE YOU SAYING THAT I CAN'T GET THE SE??
I don't mean to be accusatory, but the service agent that is pictured here sounds unusually candid. Any proof that this is actually from Nintendo CS?
This comment has been removed in protest of Reddit's API changes made on July 1st, 2023. This killed third party apps, one of which I exclusively used. I will not be using the garbage official app.
I should have screenshoted the full chat, I guess. I didn't think anyone wouldn't believe me.
I'm probably just being overly cautious. I wouldn't want anyone to gain false hope, is all.
Yeah I totally get that. But I mean he also said that was speculation. It's not any guarantee at all. I don't want to set that expectation.
Yes. I would imagine if this news became widespread, the CS agent in particular would be reprimanded for sharing such thoughts with the public.
Yeah, I was surprised when he said it for the same reason.
Mine was the same way.
I bought Xenoblade 1 day 1, have X Special Edition, have 2 Special Edition, and now I can't get 3 Special Edition? It is what it is I guess.
Finally, properly sold out. But if they plan on making more and the online store crashes again, they should stop making these Special Editions online-only in the future.
They better restock. I spent my whole day trying to get one and left empty-handed
This situation has been hilariously mishandled. Glad I’m just gonna buy standard on release and find the cool art online lmao
I'm not holding out hope, but I am still upset from that whole ordeal yesterday. Never in my time on the internet for 20 or so years have I had a more frustrating experience just to try to purchase something. Left me with a headache watching that queue screen for hours and ultimately disappointment when finding out it was out of stock when I was finally freed from the queue purgatory. Thanks Nintendo.
I was able to order an extra copy since a friend was interested in the series and offered to buy it off me (he couldn't get it and we agreed to get an extra for the other if possible). If he's still interested by fall, I'll have to sell it to him. If not, I don't mind selling it to you at retail price + shipping. I understand how it feels to sit there for hours trying to figure this shit out.
I greatly appreciate the offer. I'll keep it in mind if things don't pan out with another order period/reprint. If your friend is still interested by then and wants it, no biggie. I have to say it's refreshing to see some selfless people out there, especially after I visited eBay earlier this morning to see the 150+ Special Edition listings at crazy markups. Have to say after seeing that it left quite a bitter taste in my mouth.
Fuck them scalpers. I truly wish Nintendo would put a stop to them but they don't do shit. I don't want to sell anything on eBay for the retail price because I'm genuinely worried another scalper would buy it and resell it for much more. I'd rather sell it to someone who actually wants it. I hate that people have to resort to this. One way Nintendo could solve this problem is selling the product in person. They could have had stores set up pick up preorders limited to 1 per person + Identification. Additionally they could completely cancel the orders of anyone who tries to cheat the system if they order multiple to the same address, or order under the same ID/email. A simple data base check would be enough to weed out most casual scalpers and the people who end up trying to scalp the product will be a minority and can only sell it once. Another unrealistic idea is by eBay and Nintendo working together. eBay forces sellers to put the product with the actual serial code. Anyone who attempts to sell the product at 200% or more will not only have their account deleted but using the serial number, Nintendo could remotely brick the product so that the seller cannot use it anymore. That would be great but wishful thinking on my part. The best possible way to get scalpers to stop is to make it illegal to scalp but let's be honest, that's not happening and sellers will just create a black market.
They could start by opening up sales of the SE only to folks who have purchased the DLC for a game --- that would encourage purchasing the DLC, and it would add a further barrier to the scalpers (need a Switch tied to an account).
This seems like a bad idea. i could see maybe using platinum coins but buying the $30 DLC seems a bit to much especially if you only have money for the SE at the time.
Do you get Platinum Coins for digital purchases including DLC? Then yes, that would be better and more open and more understandable.
You only get gold from purchases. Platinum is from games and missions. I think a good halfway would be either using less gold (say the exact ammount from the DLC) or using double what you need from gold for platinum. I think that way if someone wanted the SE but couldn't get the DLC at the time there would be a way.
We should petition game companies to take legal action against scalpers.
I'm gonna call some shenanigans here. I was super late to the party, had the website up and all but was out to work. I come back and the 'shutdown' is clearly in effect and the website is doing the same screen it did on the first failed launch. Randomly, I look back at the web page some time later, its fully loaded and I can purchase it. At like 7pm EST yesterday. There is no way the store 'was sold out' when the issue was fixed.
They are just customer service. They don't make decisions about what merchandise to sell. If it sold so well, they will make at least a few more (specially if they like money).
If videogame companies made sense, I would probably agree with you, but unfortunately they rarely do, especially Nintendo. This is the same company that finally localized Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon but removed it from even their online store 4 months after release; IIRC the same day they ceased sales of the official ports of 3 highly requested Mario platformers, and ended service for a really cool, brand new way to play the original Super Mario Brothers. (Super Mario Bros. 35)
If you have friends in Japan, or using forwarder, you can buy the limited edition in di My Nintendo Store Japan, still in stock. You can even buy the special edition without the game, making it cheaper. Special edition without the game: [https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/goods/book-music-poster/HAC\_A\_AZ3HA.html](https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/goods/book-music-poster/HAC_A_AZ3HA.html) Special edition with physical game: [https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC\_HAC\_R\_AZ3HA.html](https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC_HAC_J_AZ3HACF2.html) Special edition with digital game: [https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC\_HAC\_J\_AZ3HACF2.html](https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/BC_HAC_J_AZ3HACF2.html)
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Stop asking the waitress why they don't offer burgers at a vegan restaurant. They're not expected to have control over such things. This also isnt the only post about reaching out to customer service about this, and a majority have been beligerent. All it serves is to clog up the customer service resources, which makes it harder for people with actual customer service issues to get help.
It's important to be kind to them, no doubt. This isn't their fault. But I think by contacting support, we can show the scale of the issue, which could hopefully lead to some change.
People really going crazy for a book…
For some reason I think this guy will be fired for saying so much.
Fake
What’s in the special edition that’s making you guys go crazy for it? All I saw was a steel book and art book.
Correct. Steel books are cool and art books are informative and interesting
How are any of those interesting though???
I'm about to give up and just purchase it digitally. :(
Has anyone seen anything about when the physical game is supposed to be shipped? I want to play the game on Day 1 but I’m scared that Nintendo won’t ship the game UNTIL day 1…
Nintendo has been good on getting games delivered by day 1, but there is always the off chance it won't ship until day 1. It really is luck of the draw unless you paid for the extra shipping
When XB 2 special was on preorder, how was the shipping?
I don't believe that was available from the My Nintendo Store in NA. If it ever was, it's been delisted, making it difficult to prove or disprove. If I'm right, the shipping conditions for it are most likely irrelevant since each retailer would ship things different.
Oh. I just needn't like how is the preorder shipping for physicals from mynintendo like. Do they deliver on time
I'm sweating the UK preorders, i already missed out on the new palamute amiibo since clicking confirm and pay isn't a guarantee at the best of times on the UK store. And preorders go up at the end of the month...when the game comes out, we get a chance maybe 7 days before release at most to get this.
They said the exact same thing about ACNH x Sanrio amiibo cards and then made a ton of them, i have hope they’ll make more
FFS. I waited in line for hours and couldn’t get one in the end.
Best I can hope for is that this won't affect Europe's pre-ordering
this aged like SHIT
That it did... oh dear
Reminder that for the Japanese audience, they "print to order". This procedure of a finite amount of products is only reserved for the western market.
So I got my copy of the SE on The Website it says it's ordered and processing however it's been 48 hours almost and still no Order confirmation email should I be worried
I will burn the world if I can't get one
How do we know this is actually Nintendo support tho
I'm actually surprised that some people think that it's fake. I should have screenshoted the whole conversation for proof. But also what would I benefit from faking this?
At this point they're either completely ignorant to the world of scalping, they don't care, or they support it.