RUMOR - Nintendo punishes Japanes retailers that cut price of Super Mario Galaxy

Watching the sales of Super Mario Galaxy in Japan has been quiet an entertaining event. When the game first hit, it was met with pretty lackluster sales. It was somewhere around 300,000 for the first week if I remember correctly. Soon thereafter, the game took a big nosedive, and just wasn’t selling well. It laid low for a little bit until Wii Fit dropped. Once that game bum-rushed the top of the charts, it brought Super Mario Galaxy along for the ride. Now Galaxy has been hanging in the top ten, so much so that the initial shipments have sold out. That would explain the title’s drop to 11th place as of yesterday.

With many retailers considering Galaxy a failure, they started to drop the price just a few weeks after the game’s launch. Little did they know that Wii Fit and positive word of mouth would rejuvenate sales. Now these retailers are sold out of Wii Fit, Galaxy, and many other Nintendo titles.

Rumor has it that Nintendo is hitting out at those retailers that dropped the price. They are doing so by restricting hardware/software shipments to those locations. In a top 30 list dominated by Nintendo titles and hardware, a move like this can really hurt the retailer.

Do you think Nintendo really would put the squeeze on retailers like this? If so, do you believe the retailers deserve it?

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