On its social media pages, EB Games has announced it is sold out of the Nintendo Classic Mini NES.
As you might expect, people are pretty frustrated.
“Thank you for your patience,” read the post. “The Nintendo Classic Mini NES Console has now sold out.”
The reaction has been overwhelmingly negative, mostly focused on how EB handled its small stock allocation.
And from Twitter…
@EBGamesAus WTF!!!! I had it in my cart 50 times and your server screwed up every time!!!
— Luke Chable // Lokii (@lukechable) November 15, 2016
@ebgamesaus Regarding the last 2 rewardless days, where countless people wasted hours of time for nothing, only frustration and grief… pic.twitter.com/jPbgQne14d
— ParaGamer (@Evasius) November 15, 2016
@EBGamesAus Not happy 90 min 4 times get to conformation screen and i miss out that is not the way to treat your customers
— paul liddy (@plids) November 15, 2016
@EBGamesAus Well there’s 87min of my life, I’ll never get back. Endless jerkaround. Your IT providers should be at Centrelink tomorrow.
— Doctor Chode (@DoctorChode) November 15, 2016
It’s a tough day to be a Social Media Manager for EB Games, that’s for sure.
If you’re still looking to pick up a Nintendo Classic Mini NES via other means, you might want to head here.
Comments
59 responses to “The Nintendo Classic Mini NES Is Officially Sold Out At EB Games”
I’m more annoyed that half the 3DS cover plates I ordered the other day got cancelled after they couldn’t find stock to fulfil it.
I’ve had this happen a fair bit lately because they don’t get out on the floor quick enough to fulfil the online order
Seems it’s more that they just weren’t worth the effort of shipping out from all these stores. Even though I’ve gotten five separate packages already 😛
I always imagine someone buying +1000 of these from EB Games, and then selling them on Ebay for $300 each.
I imagined just buying one from EB Games and playing it and enjoying it….but their website dashed those day dreams.
I mentioned this in another article, but if Nintendo AU actually used its eBay store, then a lot of this could be avoided.
I’m wondering what other stores are planning now? Your Big Ws, Targets, etc – they must all look at this and before they start devising ‘how’ they are going to manage this, they better ask Nintendo for as much stock as possible.
EB clearly gets the lion’s share, and they get tripped up with something like this. If you were JB, Gametraders, you’d be spewing.
JB sold out of all their second shipment without any over-hyping and fanfare yesterday in a matter of minutes.
EB brought this mess on themselves for trying to create a social media storm for what will turn out to be 2000-odd units.
Target have confirmed via their website that they will do their next shipment as “online only” but no dates except December.
I know a few people in Big W that have indicated they plan to take the same approach but are being very mum till stock levels and dates are confirmed.
The issue with the four major outlets (Big W, Target, JB, EB) all resorting to “online only” is they either don’t understand or don’t know about the sites like Kotaku or social media which signal boosts.
It also shows they can’t properly trust their store managers to ensure stock is for customers and not pilfering staff 😀
I disagree. you’ll find both companies take staff allocating stock to themselves very seriously. What becomes an issue with stores having very limited stock of these items, is crowds building at doors from 5am and when doors open customers pushing through knocking other customers, stock and staff over. There is a very real safety issue. If you’ve ever seen a video of Black Friday sales in America it gives a good idea of what madness can ensue.
I reckon they didn’t sell out but rather they just got sick of dealing with the IT issues and couldn’t be bothered to fix them lol.
Yeah, they charged my account 5 times, and apparently still didn’t place an order. Thanks EB, GG WP
Charged your account? As in your credit card was charged?
yeah, 5 separate charges from EB
Same, Im the guy up there with $300 worth of authorisations, they should release it soonish though hopefully.
The most surprising thing is that there’s so many people that want this thing.
And in other news Neo Kaiser is clueless as to why people buy things.
The most surprising thing it the amount of people i’ve seen posting on these articles saying they are surprised people want to buy this. Or saying they can buy a retropie or use an emulator as if people on a gaming website don’t already know this but still want the nes classic
Every single time. Then again its a pretty normal gamer nerd response to pretty much anything new. Just look at any article related to an online multiplayer game (WoW, Destiny, The Division etc) and almost every time the first response is “People still play this?” or “People still pay for expansions for this?”
Sad
Yup, I’ve already got a raspberry pi and an old PC setup for emulation, yet I still bought a NES Mini
me too i have a retropie, i also have a retro twin for original nes carts but im still buying this
My daughter and I got one each just by turning up to Target 10 minutes before opening. 2 player games are the most enjoyable(double dragon 2 and super C) so a second controller is a must. We play the old original format(inc. glitches) and can’t get enough. Unbelievable value at $99
Just saw the Facebook post about all the authorised payments to his account.
Just checked mine now to be sure none of my attempts got billed.
Yeah that was\is me, payments taken out as I was spamming the confirm link but no confirm email and no record in my eb account.
Might be a good Idea to check you account, but they were only authorisations, they will be returned pretty quick I would guess.
No response from EB though via any means, phone included.
I did; no deductions nor footprints (as I nickname them) so I got lucky.
Wish you all the best though; this is just another insult to your injury.
This is exactly what Nintendo wants, people losing their minds over a hunk of plastic and nostalgic memories. The less there is, the more people want it and whip themselves into a frenzy when it does become available.
If your in NZ, EB Games has stock for mid December delivery.
Today I had a Mini NES in my cart. They’ve since taken it out. That’s literally the equivalent of me walking into an EB, picking up a boxed Mini NES and then one of the staff taking it off me when I get to the counter and selling it to the dude next to me.
Thanks, jerks.
it’s more like you went into an EB with 30000 other people, you all grabbed the display boxes at once and tried to shove money into the staff members face
and the 50 people who walked away with units managed so by a combination of biting, kicking, elbowing and dumb luck.
Do online store carts ever secure you your goods from being bought out from under you? Honest question. I generally just ‘proceed to checkout’ straight away so have never encountered this problem.
You would have to look at the fine print, but from my experience, not in the least.
Happens with tickets all the time, you spend too long on registration, payment details, seat location etc and you miss out.
From a technical standpoint, the sale is not final until the receipt, where the stock is adjusted.
Couple high traffic with crappy servers and it’s a mess of information, hence people being charged even though they missed out.
Oh, people being charged and missing out sucks. That is actually something to complain about.
No and being charged and missing out happens sometimes too. We’ve had it happen a few times when my girlfriends been buying clothes/bags whatever that are on limited stock releases. You’ll get billed and confirmation emails so you don’t buy anywhere else then 3 days later they email saying sorry oversold and everyone is out of stock by that point. It sucks but what can you do.
Aw, it’s not quite like that…
HOWEVER, I feel your frustration and can certainly agree that it would invoke similar feelings from me.
Having bought many concert tickets over the years, the pain is very real when something so close and certain is ripped away by technical crap.
These reports of people being charged and awaiting refunds is just as crappy.
I genuinely hope your luck improves and your playing before too long.
And then the inevitable scalping that follows!! Damn you concert and nerd toy scalpers!!
Vultures, all of em!!
One instance of scalping that really annoyed me recently is the Jerry Seinfeld tickets. Tickemaster are letting people sell the tickets for $1000+ on their own resale website. They’re actually providing an avenue on their website for scalpers to rip off fans. If you’re gonna let people resell tickets on your website, at least cap them at the price they bought it for… it’s madness.
Wow, this disgusting.
Well, it’s not, because you did not walk into an EB, you connected to a relatively small online server with tens of thousands of other people doing the same thing, and unsurprisingly the server buckled. If you prefer a physical comparison, it’s like 30,000 people jammed themselves into the doorway and a lucky few managed to squeeze through.
Apparently people had luck at Target / JB by physically going to said stores at open and purchasing the unit. Can’t really say a digital pre-order is a guarantee that the item is physically yours, and that’s assuming the server can even process your order under all that duress.
I went to Target and BigW at a shopping centre 20 minutes before opening last Thursday and apparently they were giving out tickets since 7am (people had been queuing up way before that) and the tickets were instantly snapped up. Tried my luck with online purchasing from those stores immediately after and failed too.
I wasnt trying to order one…. I sorta would like one tho.
Disgusting that, honest, hard working people have to put up with this time and time again on orders…. you would have thought they would have work out initial supply stock…. they are big companies after all …. seems like bad practice
it’s nintendo. they do this with a lot of releases and they don’t let stores know the exact numbers they will receive or if they are going to get more in the future.
cant meet supply with the hype?
its a missed chance
After much time spent entering details and trying to get the pages to load I clicked confirm order and was immediately confronted by an intimidating looking bunny who stared me down for nearly 3 hours. After this exhilarating staring contest and battle with the refresh button I was suddenly logged out of my account, I then logged back in only to find that my cart was empty and the NES mini was no where in sight.
I hope the people who genuinely wanted the mini for their own nostalgia or to add to their collection were able to come through these desperate times triumphant, because I’d like to see someone appreciate what they got as opposed to some greedy jerk who’s looking to make a quick buck by selling it on ebay.
Just wait and see what happens when the Nintendo Classic Mini SNES gets announced.
It would be CHAOS.
Meanwhile…someone at Sega is saying in their Monday morning meeting….
“Guys, I know how we can get back in the hardware game….”
Sega’s had their own out for ages. Comes with 80 games and accepts original mega drive cartridges.
No, AtGames has had a replica MegaDrive out for ages with stacks of shovelware and a few decent titles running on old emulation software. Sega has little to do with it and as such the product is not popular nor is it any good.
It’s officially licensed by Sega, that’s about as into it as they can get without getting back into the hardware game.
I’m not denying it’s shit, mind. But it’s pretty much the same thing as the NES classic but poorly produced.
It’s a shame that EB games have such a monopoly on retail games and consoles. Their prices are outrageous, service is annoying, and they do underhand shit like this situation.
If I want a physical copy of a game these days I’ll buy it from a trusted eBay retailer in Europe. Cheaper and fast shipping.
Australian game retail is a black hole of turds.
Just a thought to everyone.
Isn’t it really interesting that EB Games of all companies need two tries to sell out a popular console?
…..there were two attempts because the first one went so poorly that they canned the whole thing.
If their website was up to snuff, it would have been one attempt.
and if they’d known the allocation for the second shipment back when they first listed pre orders they’d have sold out of this second shipment months ago too.
Day two. Tried to sleep it off but awoke just as angry.
This is why I pre-ordered from Gametraders in July.
I feel like EB Games FB page is just littered with bottom of the barrel shoppers. I cringe reading some of their comments. Some of those people need to grow up.
Oh my god I love kotaku.
“PSA DONT PREORDER ANYTHING, ITS THE DEVIL!”
Nek minnit
“EB GAMES DIDNT STOCK ENOUGH, HOW DARE THEY!?”
Oh… wait… Serrels… Right.
Admittedly this isn’t the first time EBs website couldn’t handle the load and I can almost guarantee it won’t be the last. Am I the only one that specifically shops there for the price match and return policy? Make friends with the staff and they wont question you unless they’re cunts and then its a quick call to customer service lol
In Mark’s defence, we know how the site works, it gathers articles from a broad church of views, voices, and cultures.
I hate the sanctimonious talk about pre-ordering too, but that’s almost always a US-centric view, from people who literally live and breath games. Here we have to pre-order out of necessity most of the time, but that’s an unwritten, unsaid understanding.
am i missing something?
How is this different from using an emulator and controller?
* and yeah, the people who pre-order are apart of the problem.