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« on: March 20, 2004, 02:30:15 PM »
Hi guys.
I'm surprised nobody has picked up on this yet. The reason for the receipt AND the game barcode is simple.
Firstly, Nintendo is obliged to send back our receipts. They're effectively our property and serve as the only proof of ownership of that game, or any product. If we need support with that item at a later date, we may need and will then have recognition that the game was purchased at a certain price, new and from a particular retailer. That's standard store principles.
Secondly, the reason Nintendo is doing this is obviously to try and improve software sales (and hardware sales with the disc bundle). However, because it is their responsibility to send back our receipt, it is then very easy for us to take back a game using any store’s return policy. Let’s say we only needed the receipt; we might be able to take the game back and exchange it for cash or for store credit, in which case we might effectively end up swapping it for a Playstation 2 or Xbox game. So while the sales tracking for that game might initially be increased by one, at the end of the day, the sales data for the game will be decreased by one, due to a return. So they are back where they started, with 0 sales for your game. On top of that, the store and possibly Nintendo themselves now have a ‘return’ figure next to that game you returned, which is a negative impact on their market penetration. Now, if everyone that is buying that game only for the disc does that, it could mean many thousand returns for these games. It’s not going to look good for Nintendo when, some hypothetical Electronics Boutique does a financial review at the end of the month, saying that of the 40 copies of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour we sold, 32 of those were returned. And let’s face it – doing that for two games, sending in receipts, collecting your game and taking the games back to the store means you get the disc for free. And everybody wants that. Nintendo can’t let that happen. Not only is it costing them to produce the disc, you would also be hurting them with game return data.
The PIN system Nintendo of America used was, granted, much more acceptable, as it didn’t require us to cut into our game boxes. But it was the same deal as far as sales tracking goes. Many stores that sold those games with PIN codes refused to return opened games for fear of a ‘used’ code. And who is going to buy a used game that says on the front cover “PIN code inactive”, even if you don’t know what it means.
My feeling is that a PIN system in Australia would require a lot of time and effort for Nintendo Australia, and that’s something they probably couldn’t be bothered with, especially since some of it would have to take place online – something they seem largely to be scared of.
So before you start complaining that Nintendo made an incredibly dumb decision, it’s in fact quite smart. Nintendo would plain be the laughing stock of the industry if 80% of these selected games were returned, and they ended up dishing out 300,000 of these Zelda bonus discs, of which only 2,000 were legitimately earned.
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