Reggie talks 3DS XL colors, special system variations
In North America, there aren’t a whole lot of 3DS XL colors to choose from. Heck, the white variation still hasn’t made its way to the states. There certainly aren’t many options available, especially compared to Japan.
But Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime provided a logical explanation as to why more variation can be seen in Japan, and why fewer colors are put out on store shelves:
“It really comes down to the nuts and bolts of how we manage our SKUs at retail, and how we do it in a way that’s effective for us and effective for our business partners. You’ve visited retail in Japan. One of the key differences in Japan is that the hardware is that it’s behind the counter. It’s not out and about. So in that type of construct, you can have a lot of inventory behind the counter. It’s a lot easier to support multiple colors. In our [North American] market, it’s all out there on the shelf. When you visit our retail, if I had to try to have 25 different SKUs out there, Wal-Mart would kill me. So what that means is that we have to be more selective and more knowledgeable in how we handle different SKUs.”
One way in which Nintendo of America has started to mimic the Japanese market is with the limited release of the special system variations. Fire Emblem, Pikachu, and Animal Crossing handhelds have all come out this year.
“We are taking a page out of the Japanese playbook with these very limited-edition unique hardware options. We started with Fire Emblem. We did Pikachu. Now, obviously, Animal Crossing. What we’re seeing is that if we do this right, we can have a more limited quantity, have it sell through in a fairly short period of time, and use that as a way to satisfy the consumer’s desires to have a range of different SKUs and some special hardware.”
