Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked 3DS $39.99 and Eligible for B1G1 50%

[quote name='Dranakin']You guys are the worst. All this urgency about running out of stock made me order this with Cave Story 3D. My wallet now weeps.[/QUOTE]

T.T

lol
 
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']If I had to guess, I'd say that Atlus is trickling out each shipment to create artificial demand.[/QUOTE]

People thought this crap with the wii. It's simply not true.

Would Atlus rather you buy a $39.99 copy from them now or $60 from an ebay reseller? And then release some more later?

As long as it make sense to print/reprint, companies make as much as they can. Consumers are fickle, there's no point in meting out inventory little by little to create artificial demand. Especially when it's just a game. We're not talking diamonds here.
 
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[quote name='confoosious']People thought this crap with the wii. It's simply not true.

Would Atlus rather you buy a $39.99 copy from them now or $60 from an ebay reseller? And then release some more later?

As long as it make sense to print/reprint, companies make as much as they can. Consumers are fickle, there's no point in meting out inventory little by little to create artificial demand. Especially when it's just a game. We're not talking diamonds here.[/QUOTE]

Kirin Lemon and I are of the same mindset: Atlus' uses questionable marketing techniques.

There's a difference between Nintendo and Atlus. Nintendo isn't know for having frequent supply scarcities. Atlus has long had a reputation for having games that become rare/hard to find, which is simply no longer true, but people still believe it. Just think about it, how often does Atlus send out "OMG! It's gonna be rare! Better pre order 10 copies now!!" emails/statements and how often do their games sell out, stay OOS for a while, and then come back in stock (regardless of whether its limited re-stock or a large re-stock)?

By creating a false sense of rarity, they can not only sell to the people who actually take an interest in these titles, but also to the large and growing segment of flippers and collectors. Yeah, they'll lose some money in the secondary market but they're also making more money by attracting re-sellers and collectors along with those who are actually interested in it.

Sure, they still have a few rare titles out there but the past 4-5 years, they've done more than their share of reprinting. I'm saying this as a long time Atlus fan too: I love that they take risks but I hate their marketing.

Besides, I'm betting that they will double dip with Devil Survivor 2 and release it as an updated version on the 3DS. And at that time, they'll probably reprint the original DS Overclocked because there will be pre-release hype for the series.

This might not have been a reprint but what's stopping them from trickling supply? If they sell out, they can slowly trickle out more and sell them at full price (because it would look really bad if decided to jack up the prices to eBay levels) because people will think the game is rare and buy all the copies. If they release the entire stock but don't sell out, nobody will think the game's going to rare, it'll sit on the shelves and then they'll have to discount the game.


Sorry, just my rant on this topic.:)
 
Atlus is a niche publisher of niche titles. They can't or don't want to overproduce titles and have to deal with excess stock, which likely costs them more than they lose on the secondary market. So they gauge interest as best they can, produce that, and see what happens. Sometimes they are wrong and they see value in reprinting. But it's not nefarious.
 
There is no way they are creating artificial scarcity. They, like most manufacturers, and especially small companies, try to keep inventory low. They probably do not have a dedicated warehouse since closing their direct to consumer store. They are guessing how many games they will sell, and there is a huge tradeoff between reprinting 20,000 or reprinting 50,000 and then sitting on extra stock. They are a very small company, serving an incredibly fickle market in the middle of a terribly deep economic downturn.
If they knew exactly how many games would sell beforehand, they would print that many games. This is a game that has gotten ok reviews, is on a struggling platform, and is an improved (but not hugely so) version of a game that is still readily available for $10 less msrp.
And if this was the strategy to stir up demand, why not use it right now for persona 2, strange journey or any of the other equally low print games?
 
[quote name='darksurtur']Atlus is a niche publisher of niche titles. They can't or don't want to overproduce titles and have to deal with excess stock, which likely costs them more than they lose on the secondary market. So they gauge interest as best they can, produce that, and see what happens. Sometimes they are wrong and they see value in reprinting. But it's not nefarious.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='vherub']There is no way they are creating artificial scarcity. They, like most manufacturers, and especially small companies, try to keep inventory low. They probably do not have a dedicated warehouse since closing their direct to consumer store. They are guessing how many games they will sell, and there is a huge tradeoff between reprinting 20,000 or reprinting 50,000 and then sitting on extra stock. They are a very small company, serving an incredibly fickle market in the middle of a terribly deep economic downturn.
If they knew exactly how many games would sell beforehand, they would print that many games. This is a game that has gotten ok reviews, is on a struggling platform, and is an improved (but not hugely so) version of a game that is still readily available for $10 less msrp.
And if this was the strategy to stir up demand, why not use it right now for persona 2, strange journey or any of the other equally low print games?[/QUOTE]

Not to sound like a scholar (because, I'm not) but I'm talking about marketing and the two of you are talking about supply and demand economics. While I get that they will get guess the exact number of copies they need to product right, as that's impossible, but I don't think it's unfair to say that their games seem to disappear and re-appear all too frequently. All I'm saying is that there is such thing as trickling supply, which helps spread the word and is basically a free form of marketing.

Combine that with the number of times they like to advertise the rarity of their games, bonuses or special editions (Catherine DE, Devil Summoner 2 DE, Izuna 2, Steel Princess, many of the "pre-order only" OST/artbook offers, etc.).

You guys say it doesn't make sense but it sure seems to for Atlus since they're posting great sales numbers for all these niche games (compared to those from NISA and Aksys). You can't tell me that all the BS they spewed about Catherine DE being ultra rare didn't help them build some hype for the game which helped move as many copies as they did. Same with Devil Survivor 2 DE.

And in regards to why they don't reprint some of their PS1 rarities, simple: they probably can't sell it at a price that would be profitable (unless they can get a partner to slip the cost like GQD). But at look at they've done instead, they ported those games to the PSP where they can sell them at MSRP.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Not to sound like a scholar (because, I'm not) but I'm talking about marketing and the two of you are talking about supply and demand economics. While I get that they will get guess the exact number of copies they need to product right, as that's impossible, but I don't think it's unfair to say that their games seem to disappear and re-appear all too frequently. All I'm saying is that there is such thing as trickling supply, which helps spread the word and is basically a free form of marketing.

Combine that with the number of times they like to advertise the rarity of their games, bonuses or special editions (Catherine DE, Devil Summoner 2 DE, Izuna 2, Steel Princess, many of the "pre-order only" OST/artbook offers, etc.).

You guys say it doesn't make sense but it sure seems to for Atlus since they're posting great sales numbers for all these niche games (compared to those from NISA and Aksys). You can't tell me that all the BS they spewed about Catherine DE being ultra rare didn't help them build some hype for the game which helped move as many copies as they did. Same with Devil Survivor 2 DE.

And in regards to why they don't reprint some of their PS1 rarities, simple: they probably can't sell it at a price that would be profitable (unless they can get a partner to slip the cost like GQD). But at look at they've done instead, they ported those games to the PSP where they can sell them at MSRP.[/QUOTE]

There's a big difference between hyping up the limited/scarcity of a title and keeping inventory out of retailers hands to create scarcity. One is intended to drives up sales. The latter only keeps you from selling.
 
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']I said this last time the game came back in stock at Amazon, and I'll say it again - Atlus is going to keep this in print for a while. It hasn't been out for long, and it would be a foolish waste of their money and resources for it to suddenly disappear from the market with so few copies out there.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I'm going to wait longer and hope I can eventually pick it up for $20
 
Grabbed this and Cave Story, since I've heard great things about both. THANK YOU SO MUCH OP! Seriously, I've been waiting on a great deal for this game!
 
I just ordered a couple on top of the one I ordered yesterday. Checking stock online shows me this is not being reprinted at the moment and seems amazon must have gotten a pretty large shipment someway or another. Once again how do you guys see how many are left in stock?
 
[quote name='ps2emotions']I just ordered a couple on top of the one I ordered yesterday. Checking stock online shows me this is not being reprinted at the moment and seems amazon must have gotten a pretty large shipment someway or another. Once again how do you guys see how many are left in stock?[/QUOTE]
Add the game to your cart, then go into your cart and change the amount from 1 to something insane like 999. It'll then tell you how many there actually are, just as long as there aren't more than 999.
 
[quote name='Dr. Venkman']Grabbed this and Cave Story, since I've heard great things about both. THANK YOU SO MUCH OP! Seriously, I've been waiting on a great deal for this game![/QUOTE]

Same as me!

I ordered two yesterday because I didn't have time to pick another and was worried about them selling out, but cancelled with the new stock to get 1 and Cave Story.
 
[quote name='Deathmore10']Add the game to your cart, then go into your cart and change the amount from 1 to something insane like 999. It'll then tell you how many there actually are, just as long as there aren't more than 999.[/QUOTE]

Ok cool thanks. I just checked and 369 in stock.
 
Stock never went below 200 and then popped back up to 400 or so. Are we sure this isn't a reprint? Amazon has probably gotten around 7-800 copies in the past two days.
 
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']Feels good to say, "I told you so." :D[/QUOTE]

I'm glad. Unless its a collectors edition there's no need for games to be OOP if the demand is there.
 
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']Feels good to say, "I told you so." :D[/QUOTE]

How exactly do you figure you're right? You said Atlus was trickling out each shipment to create artificial demand.

So 500+ is trickling to you?

Oh noes, there's 497 copies left, I better hurry up and order!!
 
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How do we know it's Atlus and not Amazon? Only Amazon is offering these, maybe Amazon knows these niche games sell faster when people think they're limited. I know I don't buy a limited edition when I put 999 in and it doesn't alert me that there's less than that many copies available. I'll just wait until it drops in price.
 
[quote name='confoosious']How exactly do you figure you're right? You said Atlus was trickling out each shipment to create artificial demand.

So 500+ is trickling to you?

Oh noes, there's 497 copies left, I better hurry up and order!![/QUOTE]

I also said that Atlus was going to keep this in print and available. As for them trickling supply from the day it launched until now to create a greater demand for it, I still stand by that. And it worked!
 
You guys can say what you want about the rarity of this game but I've never seen it in any stores and do a google shopping search for it and see how many big retailers have it and it's pretty foolish to argue that it's not rare even if amazon gets 10,000 copies still that won't come close to supplying the demand for this awesome game. By the way, got the last copy of pokemon rumble blast at kmart this evening on sale for $24.99 and selling like hotcakes even in my sleepy town of hicks.
 
There will be an opportunity to get them for less than retail, but if you wait out and think it'll become dirt cheap you may make a big mistake.

I was pissed that Etrian Odyssey 3 and Persona PSP both dropped in price after I picked them up. Also, EO3 still came with the artbook after the price drop. However, check out prices for those games now. The prices I got them for are better than the prices they go for now. Same with Radiant Historia.

$30 for this game is a good price, especially if you've never played it before. Very high quality game and the 3DS version is the definitive version. more demons, more skills, extra 8th day scenario's, voice acting, higher quality character portraits, and 3 save slots. It's worth buying over the DS version if you have the option to choose between the 2.

I'm personally waiting for $20 since I played it on the DS, it'll probably get down to that price eventually.
 
[quote name='kevgret']Yup.. Looks like this is become less and less rare..

97 still in stock.[/QUOTE]

How do you check how many are left in stock?
 
[quote name='rockfnbttm']How do you check how many are left in stock?[/QUOTE]

Add it to your cart then in the quantity section put it up to like 999 and it will show how many there is. Someone else on here was helpful other day and told me how to do this as well.
 
Where are you guys getting your numbers? It has been showing as over 1,000 for me for the past two days, so I figured speculators were screwed or would have to wait a few months to make a small profit. But people keep posting these much smaller numbers, so I'm not sure.
 
[quote name='ArthurDayne']Where are you guys getting your numbers? It has been showing as over 1,000 for me for the past two days, so I figured speculators were screwed or would have to wait a few months to make a small profit. But people keep posting these much smaller numbers, so I'm not sure.[/QUOTE]

Amazon must have replenished stock once again, over 1000 are available now.
 
[quote name='ps2emotions']Add it to your cart then in the quantity section put it up to like 999 and it will show how many there is. Someone else on here was helpful other day and told me how to do this as well.[/QUOTE]

Thank you kindly!!
 
so, i'm guessing the B1G1 half off is over? i don't see anything about it on amazon and two copies don't discount themselves anymore. Oh well, didn't need to spend the money.
 
[quote name='jer7583']so, i'm guessing the B1G1 half off is over? i don't see anything about it on amazon and two copies don't discount themselves anymore. Oh well, didn't need to spend the money.[/QUOTE]

I think the B1G1 half off deal ended yesterday unfortunately.
 
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