Smash shortage threatens Japan

by Candace Savino { Jan 24th 2008 at 8:00PM }

In what must be the biggest threat to Japan since Godzilla, reports are coming in that retailers might not be able to meet demand for Super Smash Bros. Brawl come January 31st. According to Canned Dogs, Lepton (a games retailer in Japan) bemoans that the store is only getting 154 copies of the game from Nintendo. That's not even close to meeting the 800 preorders that the retailer has received, let alone walk-ins. Lepton is even paying over retail price to get Brawl from other sources (meaning they'll lose money by selling the game), so that the store can honor more of its preorders. Because the entire country seems to be facing shortages, though, Lepton has only been able to come by 100 extra units, even at inflated prices.

The initial Brawl shipment for Japan is reputed to be only 300,000-400,000 copies, which is not much for a popular title in a country with 5 million Wii gamers. Import retailer NCSX is also reporting a small supply, and has stopped taking preorders as a result.

Does this mean we'll see riots in Japan on the eve of February, incited by frustrated gamers longing to get their hands on the Wii's most anticipated game to date? And, is it possible that North American gamers will face similar shortages when Brawl releases here in March? We can only hope the answer to both of these questions is, "no."

[Via Japanator]

Tags: brawl, japan, lepton, ncsx, shortage, smash-bros-brawl, ssbb

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jay @ Jan 24th 2008 8:31PM

Maybe that's why our delay was longer....so they have time to get enough discs made.

I think Nintendo is a lot more afriad of Americans rioting than Japanese

Anticrawl @ Jan 24th 2008 9:41PM

Yeah considering culturally the Japanese people are very reserved and concern themselves with status and their public appearance.

Americans though not so much, we'll gladly move to the streets while shouting, screaming, drinking, flipping cars, looting and setting shit on fire. Hell we've done it for lesser things.

Big Ed @ Jan 25th 2008 8:57AM

@Anticrawl

It's called my morning workout.

vidGuy @ Jan 24th 2008 8:41PM

I just noticed that Mario has five fingers! Usually cartoon characters are drawn with four because it's much harder to make five look right, and I always figured that Mario followed that tradition. Even though he's modeled, not drawn, I'm still surprised to see 10 digits.

Nate @ Jan 25th 2008 11:45AM

At least he doesn't have a pentagon for a hand

Evangelist Pinto @ Jan 24th 2008 9:01PM

of course. It is super smash after all...

ProudWiiOwner @ Jan 24th 2008 9:03PM

off subject but....

does any one know when the everyone's nintendo channel is coming in the us. they've had like 3 months since its been released in japan. i feel like boycotting my wii!!! lols

if that metriod wasnt so addictive.

Colin @ Jan 24th 2008 9:21PM

Oh boo freakin hoo. That's what they get for only pushing the release date back a week, as opposed to the couple months we got kicked back in America. I mean, even if there is a shortage, they'll still have a good month and a half to get it before anyone in America is playing it, aside from imports, if any can even be found.

All I know is, I'm getting my copy. Day one. At any cost. If Nintendo pushes it back AGAIN......I don't even know...

ramuji @ Jan 24th 2008 10:02PM

Hmm ... maybe I should've pre-ordered.

Sonic_13 @ Jan 24th 2008 10:44PM

The store manager at my local EBgames told me that they had already placed over 600 pre-orders for the game...and that was about two weeks before Christmas.

My EBgames is located in a town outside Boston.

VENOM @ Jan 24th 2008 11:16PM

Wasn't it delayed here again BECAUSE of the fear of a shortage?

Sonic_13 @ Jan 25th 2008 1:10AM

If Nintendo delayed products until there was enough supply for everyone then we'd still be waiting for Wii to come out!

hvnlysoldr @ Jan 25th 2008 12:03AM

I never knew this was how Geno planned to destroy Japan if he wasn't in Brawl. I guess if they delay to put him in they could make enough discs so they don't riot.

rawdawg @ Jan 25th 2008 12:06AM

im glade , i preorder mine , when i got a wii two weeks ago , shesh , and im also glade i live in a college town , where most people spend money on beer and not games .

xeleion @ Jan 25th 2008 12:28AM

I preordered mine as well, but the day after I did they delayed it to March. I've considered modding and importing, and I would not care about kicking a couple of Japanese kids in order to get my copy. :(

Chyld989 @ Jan 25th 2008 12:48AM

Stupid comment system...deleted my comment.

I've heard rumor that the import version will have a mandatory system update that will brick US Wiis. I'm not 100% sure on that, but ya' might want to find out one way or the other before spending money on a chip & the game.

xeleion @ Jan 25th 2008 12:52AM

Where did you hear that from?! @.@

Chyld989 @ Jan 25th 2008 9:03AM

I don't recall off the top of my head. Remember that it could just be another rumor.

Chyld989 @ Jan 25th 2008 9:10AM

Actually, looks like a quick Google search for "Wii Brick Blocker" will solve that problem, so no worries.

iMeh @ Jan 25th 2008 1:37AM

Mine was pre-ordered months ago! Silly me, however, I cancelled it. Then pre-ordered it again because GameStop wasn't offering any incentives. So, I cancelled again two days ago. I'm going to CircuitCity.com now to pre-order AND get $10 gift card for another game! This time I won't cancel.

RupeeClock @ Jan 25th 2008 2:44AM

Oh phooey, I hope this doesn't effect my brawl pre-order from play-asia in any way.

Mr Khan @ Jan 25th 2008 9:17AM

They'll probably just push the game back another week in Japan. But this certainly validates my theories on the extra month NA delay

Shad0wguy @ Jan 25th 2008 11:05AM

I had mine reserved at Gamestop back in August, when it was a December release. When they pushed it back I canceled. I pre-ordered again about a month ago at Gamestop. If they don't have enough for their pre-orders I will throw a full scale riot outside the store.

CJLopez @ Jan 25th 2008 11:23AM

Damn, gotta secure my copy now, jajajajaja

On another topic of Brawl, I found on another videogames blog, a supposedly screen of Brawl's full players list, i think is fake, cuz there a re a lot of character whose names were never mentioned in this years of Brawls development, here is the link to the blog

http://www.botonturbo.com/todos-los-personajes-de-super-smash-bros-brawl/

It's in spanish, but still, it's said that one picture is worth thousands of words.
I may say only bcuz there are this characters on the picture:

- Wind Waker Link
- Krystal
- Captain Falcon (but still, hoping he is still in!!!!!)
- Midna
- Ganondorf
- And many more

gevenstaines @ Jan 25th 2008 2:21PM

the video was featured at gametrailers.com

but i have no idea if someone was fooling with them, or if they were fooling with their audience.

MUST ... PLAY ... CAPTAIN FALCON VS BLACK SHADOW! ... or link vs midna! finally i can shut up that chatterbox.