Anacybele Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 lol, i think you misunderstand how supply and demand works. Initially, FE did not sell very well outside Japan. It was niche, so Nintendo produced only a small number of product because they would lose money otherwise. FE13 showed that theres still a demand for FE across the pond. However, stuff like Pokemon, Zelda, and Mario outsells FE by the truckload. They anticipate high sales of amiibo like Mario and Pikachu, so they produce more of them. Marth comes from a franchise that always sells considerably less compared to the bigger IPs. So they made less Marths for they anticipated less sales. They still dont produce as many FE things because despite the fact theres a demand for them, its not as large as the demand for Pikachu or Link. This is why you should preorder any future amiibo that you even remotely think would be tricky to find. No, I know how supply and demand works. I took economics in high school (even if I didn't do well in it). I'm saying that FE would be in more demand if it was marketed better. I doubt FE7 got anywhere near the marketing Awakening had gotten. Nintendo marketed Awakening to death and look what that led to: a high demand for the game and not enough copies of it to go around. The same thing is happening with the Marth amiibos. If FE just got this kind of marketing consistently, I bet it would gradually get more and more sales. Awakening started this off. IS just needs to keep it going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentacotus Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 If I'm reading correctly... the reason Marth's are so hard to find is because they produce less Marth amiibos? Makes sense. I was thinking backwards. I thought Marth was sold out because he was way too popular, but boy was I so wrong xD. I think its a little bit of both. Nintendo logically produced less of them since its one of their smaller franchises and Marth is a popular character at least in smash bros so likely a bunch of people wanted his amiibo. Either way I hope it creates more demand for FE stuff and show Nintendo that it is a franchise worthy of being invested into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrightBow Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) I'm surprised to hear that Marth is hard to come by. Were I'm from, almost any shop that I was visiting on the release day had him in stock. I think the Wii-Fit Trainer might have been the only one that would have been hard to get. Of course it's natural that NoA and NoE might have a different opinion on how much they need to produce. I kinda wish I wouldn't have taken the first Marth that I could find, though. If there are any, maybe I could have gotten one without a Bending Blade. Edited December 2, 2014 by BrightBow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jave Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 No, I know how supply and demand works. I took economics in high school (even if I didn't do well in it). I'm saying that FE would be in more demand if it was marketed better. I doubt FE7 got anywhere near the marketing Awakening had gotten. Nintendo marketed Awakening to death and look what that led to: a high demand for the game and not enough copies of it to go around. The same thing is happening with the Marth amiibos. If FE just got this kind of marketing consistently, I bet it would gradually get more and more sales. Awakening started this off. IS just needs to keep it going. FE13 and the Marth amiibo are nowhere near the same situation as the supply for FE13 was infinite (due to digital sales). Amiibo don't have that option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 That's beside the point. There was still a high demand for physical copies of the game, just as there's a high demand for the Marth Amiibo. FE stuff would get more sales if it was more available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jave Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 That's beside the point. There was still a high demand for physical copies of the game, just as there's a high demand for the Marth Amiibo. FE stuff would get more sales if it was more available. That's not really true, and it's nowhere near as simple as you describe. The Marth amiibo can still be found at some stores, just as physical copies of FE13 were still found shortly after release and are still found today. Nintendo adding more copies of the game is not going to increase sales. This is only a situational problem people are encountering with specific stores with an specific item, but buying a Marth amiibo is far from impossible, and even if all your stores near you are sold out, it's only a matter of time before Nintendo restocks. The Marth (and Villager and Wii Fit Trainer) amiibo were produced in less quantity because they aren't as popular as the other characters, so it FEELS like the demand for them is higher because stores carry less of them, but in reality Nintendo is supplying more of the characters that are more popular and sell better. This is all circumstantial evidence, but just as I've seen people saying they can't find Marth, I've seen people claiming there's plenty of Marth in their nearby store, yet other characters like Kirby and Peach are sold out. To give an example close to my home, I bought the last Marth at my store, but Mario, Link, Kirby, Yoshi, Peach and Pikachu were sold out long before Marth. (The store clerk told me Link in particular sold super fast). If you want a better scenario, try Xenoblade in the US. That one had a very limited release, it had no digital option, it was retailer exclusive, and now it's out of print. So unless you are willing to put a hundred bucks on eBay or you get insanely lucky when hunting on bargain bins, you'll never have a copy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) Well yeah, just producing more copies won't do anything. That's why I brought up marketing. You market it well, you get yourself a lot of buyers and as a result, more demand. Awakening increasing FE's popularity has probably increased demand for Marth, and will most assuredly create plenty of demand for Robin and Lucina Amiibos, maybe even Ike too. Edited December 2, 2014 by Anacybele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DodgeDusk Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 In the three stores I know that sell Amiibos, Marth was only out of stock in one; the other stores both had one Marth left. Annoyingly, the one Amiibo I really want--the Villager--has been out of stock in those three stores. Also, one of those stores had a single WFT. Glad I picked up Marth when I did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jave Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Well yeah, just producing more copies won't do anything. That's why I brought up marketing. You market it well, you get yourself a lot of buyers and as a result, more demand. Awakening increasing FE's popularity has probably increased demand for Marth, and will most assuredly create plenty of demand for Robin and Lucina Amiibos, maybe even Ike too. Sure, but the way you put it is incredibly broad. You market it better, sure, but how do you do so? Do you do market research? Which demographics buy FE products and which buy amiibo? How much do these demographics overlap? Do you have the money and manpower to pull it off? Is it worth it? Economics are a lot more than "marketing it better". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I know, but even just getting it out there for people to see can help. Because simply put, if people don't know about it, they can't consider buying it. But yes, you do need a little more than that as well. The marketing has to convince people to buy the game. And whatever Nintendo/IS did to market Awakening worked pretty nicely. So they have to replicate this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jave Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I know, but even just getting it out there for people to see can help. Because simply put, if people don't know about it, they can't consider buying it. But yes, you do need a little more than that as well. The marketing has to convince people to buy the game. And whatever Nintendo/IS did to market Awakening worked pretty nicely. So they have to replicate this. But they're not the same type of product. You can't just copy/paste one strategy from one product to another. That's not how it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentacotus Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I don't think there is any denying that the Marth amiibo is in short supply right now but don't you think maybe the fact that this is a FE forum for FE fans that it might be natural for us to be running into the same problems and we have magnified it because of our mutual interest in a undersupplied product? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jave Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I don't think there is any denying that the Marth amiibo is in short supply right now but don't you think maybe the fact that this is a FE forum for FE fans that it might be natural for us to be running into the same problems and we have magnified it because of our mutual interest in a undersupplied product? That definitely has a part on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I really hope I'll be able to find a Marth amiibo when I pick up Zelda! The GameStop cashier told me that she didn't know when the next batch of amiibos would be coming in, but I think it's safe to assume that they'll be getting more Wave 1 amiibos when Wave 2 is released on Friday. I was really hoping to pick up both Zelda and Marth on Friday, but it looks like I won't be able to. My mom's schedule is so weird, in that she only comes home every other week. And boy was THAT extremely terrible timing. November 21 (Smash U + Wave 1 Amiibo release), she wasn't here. Two weeks later, December 5 (Wave 2 Amiibo release), she isn't here again. I might just end up going on Sunday again, and then not have any time to train both Zelda and Marth. I wish my dad could take me, but I don't think he's too fond of me buying figures of video game characters... The Marth (and Villager and Wii Fit Trainer) amiibo were produced in less quantity because they aren't as popular as the other characters, so it FEELS like the demand for them is higher because stores carry less of them, but in reality Nintendo is supplying more of the characters that are more popular and sell better. This is all circumstantial evidence, but just as I've seen people saying they can't find Marth, I've seen people claiming there's plenty of Marth in their nearby store, yet other characters like Kirby and Peach are sold out. To give an example close to my home, I bought the last Marth at my store, but Mario, Link, Kirby, Yoshi, Peach and Pikachu were sold out long before Marth. (The store clerk told me Link in particular sold super fast). The only time I've ever seen Mario sold out was at Toys R Us, in my journey to find a Marth amiibo. They had no Mario, Villager, Marth, or Wii Fit Trainer. Still had plenty of Peach, Pikachu, Link, Yoshi, and others. But I was still really surprised. I thought Mario would never run out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Red Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Yeahhh this is why I pre-ordered all the amiibos. And pre-order things in general. Never trust retailers to just have stock, lol. Not only will amiibos like Marth, who are from lesser-known series that Nintendo thinks no one will be interested in buying figures of, come in limited quantities, but some people will actually like, come in really early and snag all of them just to sell them at a higher price or collect them all or whatever *facepalm* sigh, the world.................... it's not even like, illegal or anything, it's just abusing supply/demand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingddd Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) Yeahhh this is why I pre-ordered all the amiibos. As much as I like the pre-ordering a lot of things, the quality control of the amiibos is very inconsistent. I've seen scratch marks, bad paint jobs and blemishes and marth having a really huge squished up forehead compared to the one that I have. I personally do not want to preorder something knowing that I'm getting a 50/50 chance of a good looking amiibo or a bad looking one. If they have been more consistent, then I would definitely go for it. But as of now, I don't see that happening for me. Due note that I'm a collector of figures and statues so my perspectives can be a bit extreme at times. Edited December 2, 2014 by kingddd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Yeahhh this is why I pre-ordered all the amiibos. And pre-order things in general. Never trust retailers to just have stock, lol. Not only will amiibos like Marth, who are from lesser-known series that Nintendo thinks no one will be interested in buying figures of, come in limited quantities, but some people will actually like, come in really early and snag all of them just to sell them at a higher price or collect them all or whatever. I would pre-order amiibos, but I'm just scared of it not being the "right" amiibo that I'd actually want. I'd pre-order other things, like a GameCube adapter, or anything else really. But the fact that all these amiibos are different in some way has myself traveling to GameStop to cherry pick the amiibo I want. While at GameStop during Black Friday, I noticed that some Link amiibos were actually standing more up-right than others. Some were literally facing the ground, but some were closer to the prototype version. And some had brighter colors. They're all different, I just find it hard to order them without knowing what it looks like first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Red Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 actually that's really understandable, thanks for explaining your view-points and reasoning. that is also quite unfortunate since you can't really "cherry pick" once you get there if you've already pre-ordered, which means you might just get straight-up left in the dust -_-. Personally I walked out of the GameStop at midnight with a whole box and didn't even really get to look at them until I got home, so eh... but on the bright hand, I haven't really been disappointed with the quality of any of them yet, so somehow it worked out alright, haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingddd Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 https://twitter.com/VideoGamesPlus_/status/541266788441665536 A retailer has claimed that Wii Fit Trainer, Villager and Marth are discontinued. No official wordings from Nintendo yet though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 What? They can't be discontinued already! That's ridiculous, they JUST came out. I'm not interested in any of the three, but still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Laufeyson Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 That is likely a hoax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carter Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I sure hope it's not true! But if it is, my GameStop / Best Buy has been showing that sign since the day the amiibos were released! No Marth, Villager, or Wii Fit Trainer amiibo since November 23 (couldn't go on launch day). I'll see for myself when I go to pick up a Marth amiibo tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentacotus Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I doubt that its discountinued especially the way they've been selling especially since they were realeased as a wave. It wouldn't suprise me if the Shulk one runs into that problem because its a gamestop limited exclusive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ema Skye Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I buy a lot of games from that retailer so I'm inclined to, unfortunately, believe them. It might have to do with Nintendo overestimating the interest people would have in these three and Nintendo just didn't make enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euklyd Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 https://twitter.com/VideoGamesPlus_/status/541266788441665536 A retailer has claimed that Wii Fit Trainer, Villager and Marth are discontinued. No official wordings from Nintendo yet though. I remember a few days ago /r/smashbros complaining about EB Games / Gamestop supposedly lying about the GC adapters getting discontinued. Makes me wonder if this might not be a similar sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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