Nintendo South Africa Depression

Redjarro

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I believe it was 2005 when the first Nintendo depression hit South Africa. My aunt who worked for Makro told me that Nintendo products would no longer be stocked and imported into South Africa. I remember the shelves being bare where Nintendo used to be from Makro to CNA to Toysrus. Premium games were hitting the R199 mark and console prices were plummeting. I picked up a good few deals, but later started to worry if I would ever be able to get my hands on the next Mario or Pokemon game... By 2006, with the launch of the Wii, Nintendo products started popping up all over again. I could finally get new games.

However, this past weekend I went to my local shopping mall to see if any stores accidentally placed the new Pokemon X for the Nintendo 3DS before it's release date (12/10) on their shelves. I know it was a long shot, but hearing how it happened in Europe and North America, I thought it could be a possibility...

Sadly what I saw was a truly shocking sight, Btgames and Musica were the ONLY stores that stocked Nintendo products. Incredible Connection had NO Nintendo products besides a Nintendo DS stand with two demo models to play. CNA only had the consoles, the DS and 3DS versions, that were all marked down R500. The original 3DS was R1499, the 3DSXL models marked down to R1999 and the DS models to R799. Incredible and CNA had NO GAMES! Not even for the Wii and Wii U! NOT A SINGLE GAME!

Reading on how badly the Wii U is doing in South Africa and seeing how Kalahari.com is displaying "VERY Limited Stock Available", not even "Limited stock" just VERY limited stock - it seems all to familiar... We are in for another Nintendo South Africa Depression!

Let me know if you are also experiencing Nintendo product drought in your area and what your thoughts are. Is the demand out pacing the supply? OR Are stores throwing their Nintendo stock overboard to keep their ships afloat?
 
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I wanted a case for my 3ds and there is nowhere in stock not even online so this is nothing new.

I had to buy my 3ds xl case when I bought mine since there was nothing available at the time :p.

I haven't seen any shortage of DS games seems to be stocked in every shop I go into in KZN with lots of stock and never noticed a problem in 2005 when I bought a couple of games, maybe it wasn't country wide or they had lots of stock left over.
 
Depends on where you buy from. Sadly all the Nintendo stuff is handled by Core Group and not Nintendo themselves and its difficult finding a Wii U in my area. My local GAME does stock a few 3DS consoles and a decent selection of games though. I think the thing to do really is to buy all your stuff online, walk-in stores don't always offer everything you would want these days.
 
Depends on where you buy from. Sadly all the Nintendo stuff is handled by Core Group and not Nintendo themselves and its difficult finding a Wii U in my area. My local GAME does stock a few 3DS consoles and a decent selection of games though. I think the thing to do really is to buy all your stuff online, walk-in stores don't always offer everything you would want these days.

Our game has 4 mario games that's its. Lucky reggies stock a larger selection but limited. I want crono trigger but can't find that game anywhere.
 
Yes I agree, the games are also too expensive for even older Wii games are selling at their original prices! I found a site that specialises in getting older games called Wiinkel, haven't used them yet though.
 
Yes I agree, the games are also too expensive for even older Wii games are selling at their original prices! I found a site that specialises in getting older games called Wiinkel, haven't used them yet though.

Many Wii games where released in Asia only then after popular demand, they where localised into english. Sadly many games became avalible only through pre-order and back orders where never offerd.

Tower of Pandora and Xenoblade chronicles are prime examples. They are about $50 to $100 new or used on Amazon.
 
Many Wii games where released in Asia only then after popular demand, they where localised into english. Sadly many games became avalible only through pre-order and back orders where never offerd.

Tower of Pandora and Xenoblade chronicles are prime examples. They are about $50 to $100 new or used on Amazon.

I had to hunt ebay for that along with Monster Hunter tri and last story as i couldnt find that anywhere locally

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Yes I agree, the games are also too expensive for even older Wii games are selling at their original prices! I found a site that specialises in getting older games called Wiinkel, haven't used them yet though.

go to cash crusaders they are dirt cheap with wii games
 
I had to hunt ebay for that along with Monster Hunter tri and last story as i couldnt find that anywhere locally

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go to cash crusaders they are dirt cheap with wii games

I pop in every now and then, but they usually only have those crap wii games that are super budget.

I want stuff like Mario, Zelda, etc.
 
It's even hard finding them online and the official e-shop or whatever remains overpriced.
Cash Crusaders are basically gamble, your lucky to find any games there, but of you do it's a score. The racks are filled up with just about every Xbo360 and PS3 game though. Wii games are so rare (the few good ones) that they fly out of the store.

The Wii U games price don't want to come down anymore either on takealot and kalahari, there was like one awesome sale that lasted a week or two and that was the last of it.
 
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