You know I never thought I’d see the day. I’d like to take this moment to bow my head and mourn the passing of the Darkshine who wasn’t down with THE MAN!

Actually, I won’t. Because this isn’t about nasty capitalisation and consumerism and THE MAN. Who the fuck is he anyway? Bill Gates? Richard Branson? George Bush?

Following on from Colette Bennett’s Nintendo is Not Pleased… post I have to say I agree with Nintendo to a degree – “We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want.” Yes! Viva la revolution. As a retail monkey, I have to admit I was skeptical about pre-bundled Wiis, but over time I’ve come to realize people will buy anything with “Super Deluxe Premium Edition Super Shiny Smile Time” written on it – point in fact, people are still buying the Xbox 360 Premium over the Arcade for little Timmy who will never go anywhere near Xbox Live as he is only five. Yes, really.
Since we’ve dropped the pre-bundled consoles and reverted back to swimming in Nintendo Wii(s), we’ve actually had people turn down the console because we don’t have the pre-bundled version. Yes. It goes something like this:

“Hello young person in a game store, I see have the Nintendo W-I-I box in stock, do you have the Nintendo W-I-I box Deluxe Super Happy Smile Time version?”

“Rather than being bewildered at the fact you don’t know what you’re buying, Sir, we have the Nintendo Wii and some great in-store bundles….”

“Oh no, I want the Super Happy Smile Time Bundle! Its extortionately good!”

*Bemused* “But we have the system today, with Wii Sports for £180 of your good notes. And you can get Super Mario Galaxy, Mario and Sonic Olympics and Warioware for the same price as the pre-bundled version, and its exactly the same, for £10 cheaper.”

“No Thank You, young person, I wish to purchase the Nintendo W-I-I box Deluxe Super Happy Smile Time version because I haven’t done my research and Little Timmy requires the best.”

Yes, this is really happening up and down the United Kingdom as we’re (metaphorically) speaking. Put ‘Deluxe’ on a package and it ceases to be a bundle, its something desirable, because people think they’re getting something better despite the fact that we actually break down the cost of what they’re buying in-store and tell them what they’re getting and still they fail to realize what they’re buying. Now, when people are this damn stupid, shouldn’t we exploit that?

No. In fact, bundles aren’t about exploiting stupid people at Christmas, that’s what the rip-off merchants on eBay are for, and believe me, I’ve seen enough people near to tears in store because they’ve bought a Japanese Wii with pirate games and the seller isn’t getting back to them because they’re in Barbados sailing on a yacht with Hitler.
In other words, if you want evil exploitation, buy an electrical product from eBay without checking the returns policy and feedback in detail.
Retailers are governed by trading standards, but that doesn’t stop second hand “retailers” hoiking up the price of the console alone to £300, often with Wii Sports removed, you can get that for another £20. Because they can, because its “second hand”.
When there are people so desperate for a Wii for Little Timmy on the 3rd of December because they don’t think to buy it back in October when we have plenty, then there will always be some retailers who suddenly realize they can capitalize on hysteria.
Then you’ve got the supermarkets and non-specialist retailers bundling your beloved console for £250 with Ninjabread Man, Rayman Raving Rabbids (the first one. The one that’s £20) and Anubis II. Yes, its happening, and people think “Oh, we’re getting three £40 games! Yay!” and fork out their hard-earned notes like Amy Winehouse at a cut price drug sale without even considering stepping into a specialist retailer and checking out what they have for £250. Yes, there is a lot of stupidity at Christmas. It arrives in bundles from eBay, no doubt.

So, back to Nintendo. I’m definitely not going to knock them because despite what everyone thinks, the stock situation isn’t deliberate. Also, they are providing an excellent and affordable console that gets the whole family up and playing – my parents want one, for Christ’s sakes, Nintendo have succeeded where I have failed countless times.

That said, the fact is, bundling isn’t evil. I think there is such an extreme reaction because Nintendo have pre-packed the console with Wii Sports and most people think that’s enough. I certainly think £180 is enough for Little Timmy this festive season, but – and it’s a big, Rosanne Barr sized but – we, as specialist retailers need to make our money. And with your local supermarket offering games at a loss with your bananas, we need to take what opportunities we can get. Currently, we make little to no profit on a stand-alone console, and offering you a bundle is our compromise. You get some decent titles (yes, really!) and we get some money in the tills. Not because we’re using it to extract the DNA from homeless orphans, because we’re a business and with that, we need to make money to continue to purchase stock and bring you decent service. If people stopped letting themselves get ripped off, we wouldn’t have to pre-bundle Nintendo Wiis to the same price as a stand-alone 360 Elite.
Do we think it’s ethical? Well, customers do have the choice – to buy to not to buy. At the end of it all, its not a life or death situation if you don’t get a Wii for Christmas. I think that parents are putting too much pressure on themselves to make Christmas perfect, and in all honesty, Little Timmy will have other gifts and can wait for a Nintendo Wii until all the psychotic rush dies down; and do you know what? Give it three months and he won’t even want one anymore. It’s the same every year- there’s always one thing that all the kids want and they’ve forgotten it by the summer. I expect by next year, we’ll be up to our necks in preowned Wiis because the causal gamers have got bored with it.
That aside, bundles should be a given, Wii sports or no Wii Sports. There’s no other console on the market you’d purchase without any games or extras and it shouldn’t be taken for granted that you’re going to spend £180 and £180 alone. What about the second remote (ha!) and nunchuck? That’s another £51 there. Yes, Nintendo are the most reliable, affordable and frankly top quality console maker & publisher there is, and no, the Christmas period shouldn’t detract from their affordable advantage, but all in all, Christmas belongs to Nintendo this year, bundles or no bundles. If putting together £250 worth of merchandise in a box is what it takes to make some money over your local Asda/Wall mart, then that’s what we must do, especially with the preowned market slowed down to a halt by gift purchasers.

All I can say to the buyer is: beware – parents, check what you’re buying and if it means price checking all those bundle games then do it. A decent specialist retailer would never overcharge you for a system plus games. Would you rather have a Wii from eBay/Asda/dodgy second hand outlet for £200 or a system plus three decent games for the sum total RRP of £250? Its all relative; the only person getting ripped off is the person who is stupid enough to fork out £300 and line to pockets of the real rip-off merchants. As long as people are supporting non-specialist retailers this will keep happening. Yes, you might get cheap as chips games throughout the year, but by the time crazy season rolls around, you’ll be paying through the nose because specialist retailers - big businesses and indies - are losing stock to the local supermarket and second-hand stores, who then in turn can hike up the prices like there’s no tomorrow. We’re living in a society where we want cheap, cheap, cheap, but we’re not calculating the cost to our industry. And that is the saddest thing of all.