It's unfortunate that Nintendo loves Gamestop so much.

Vahne, why does it matter? GameStop is fine, most of the stores are really good. You will find problems with any retailers, so I don't think it matters if they use GameStop.

I wonder how much of this was "GameStop was the only major retailer that showed interest." vs "Man, let's give GameStop the hookup!"

I agree with you Vahne.  From dealing with GameStop and Skylanders, they're about the last retailer I'd want to deal with on this.  They get very little stock, they plaster giant, ugly stickers on the cardboard, they completely botched the last promo they ran, advertising one thing and sending a different direction to the stores (then many stores went a third, completely different direction...)

Oh, and there's the whole thing with them pulling the rare chase variants out at the warehouses and selling them online in insane $500+ bundles.

With how much money stores make from the Skylanders franchise, and Pokemon is vastly more popular, do you really think stores like Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us wouldn't want in on this too?

Pokemon is far too popular for Nintendo to want to hedge their bet a little. GameStop had to have made an offer. Target or Wal*Mart might've been better partners.

So if these are blind drops (as was rumored), whose bloody idea was it?

Disagree.  This property has numerous things against it as is.

1) It's on Wii U.
2) It's digital download only (which most of the mega retailers haven't really embraced yet).
3) It's Pokemon, yeah, but it's Pokemon spin-off.  The original was WiiWare, and as such, probably sold about seven copies.  The second was a 3DS game that had... lackluster sales (I got mine on clearance from Best Buy for $10! Whoo!).
4) It's coming out at a time when the third Skylanders game and Disney's big toy-based line is launching.  Stores only have so much shelf space.  Use it for a proven toy-based game or toys from a game that they can't even sell?  On a system that isn't selling?

Good point. I forgot the game was download only. That makes this move make a lot more sense then. Nintendo seems to like going to GameSpot with this sort of thing.

Yeah, GS and BestBuy are the only two major retailers that sell individual game download codes.

I'd say GS expressed an interest in carrying it, but really got on board with the idea of offering it as an exclusive product.  But that's just my guess.

I thought Target did individual game downloads too?