Why Super Mario 3D All Stars is Limited Edition
Channel: Video Game Story Time
Date: 2020-09-15

Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a combination of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy (but not Super Mario Galaxy 2) is about to hit stores. Then, after a brief window, it's about to leave stores, never to be available in the same form again.

Nintendo has a special love of limited run or limited edition games or products. The company has time and again released special edition items that they have no interest in supporting long-term.

This is infuriating for customers, as if you don't buy a NES Classic or a particular Amiibo, there's no way of knowing when - or even if - you'll have the chance to get one again.

So is this a matter of Nintendo being bratty, deliberately mistreating consumers to create a Fear of Missing Out that drives further sales?

Not really. If anything, it's a requirement of running such a large, multifaceted company that Nintendo has to make shrewd decisions about how to allocate resources, what games to sell, and when to retire products.

Plus, on the occasion that Nintendo gets things wrong and doesn't produce enough of a particular item, the company is sometimes forbidden by Japanese law from making any more of them.

For this reason, when Super Mario 3D All-Stars disappears from store shelves in March 2021, there won't be any other way to play these classic Nintendo games on the Switch.

At least, not at first. The company still seems to have big plans in mind for the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service...

Lots of love,
BretonStripes (http://twitter.com/bretonstriped) and Kotor (http://twitter.com/kotorcomics)

Sources:
https://time.com/4759594/nes-classic-millions-sales/
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/120628qa/02.html
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/events/150508/03.html