UK retailer cancels all Super Mario 3D All-Stars pre-orders, blames Nintendo's "woefully short" allocation
Pipe dream.
A UK retailer has cancelled all Super Mario 3D All-Stars pre-orders, blaming Nintendo for a "woefully short" allocation.
Yesterday Base.com, which is popular among gamers for its cheap prices compared to the likes of Amazon and GAME, sent an email to customers who had pre-ordered the upcoming Nintendo Switch exclusive notifying them of the cancellation.
The email, initially reported by ResetEra user Geobros and verified by Eurogamer, has some choice words for Nintendo:
"We have just been notified of our allocation of Super Mario 3D All-stars (Nintendo Switch) and it is woefully short. This is very disappointing and it is with great regret that we have to inform you that we will be unable to fulfil you [sic] order on the day of release.
"Further, as Nintendo and their UK distributers [sic] are unable to give us any reassurance that more stock will become available after release, we have taken the regrettable decision to cancel all orders."
While Base.com has cancelled all pre-orders and seemingly pulled the game from its website a week before release, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is still available to pre-order on Amazon and GAME. It is, however, marked as sold out on ShopTo.
One affected customer who had secured a Super Mario 3D All-Stars pre-order at £44.85 from Base.com, told Eurogamer they were now forced to pre-order at Amazon at £49.99: "Base is my go-to for pre-ordering Nintendo games because they're usually a bit cheaper," they said, "but given how scarce the game seems to be, I figured paying the extra was better than not getting hold of a copy."
Nintendo was criticised for generating artificial scarcity after it announced Super Mario 3D All-Stars will be available both physically and digitally as a limited run until March 2021. The Switch exclusive contains Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy (sorry, no Mario Galaxy 2). The games haven't been fully remastered but simply optimised for the new console with higher resolutions, new screen ratios and added Joy-Con support.