Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Will Xenoblade Be Reprinted?

Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii has been steadily increasing in price and now sells for almost $100 in used condition.


Right now the game is selling for almost double the retail price. I am a huge fan of the game and think it is one of the best games I've played in a long time, but I'm very tempted to sell my copy for $100.

The big question is: will Nintendo reprint the game in light of these high prices?

The high resale prices for Super Mario All-Stars for Wii were enough to get Nintendo to reprint the game. But Mario All-Stars originally sold hundreds of thousands of copies so a reprinting might be able to sell a similar number.

Xenoblade might have only sold tens of thousands of copies. Maybe reprinting isn't worth the investment (Note: I do not know the number of units sold for Xenoblade but I'm confident it sold less than Mario All-Stars).

What do you think? Will Nintendo eventually reprint Xenoblade? Or will the game continue to increase in price and become the Earthbound of the Wii?

8 comments :

Anonymous said...

I just picked up a new copy last month at gamestop because I figured they were not going to reprint them and drop the price. Hopefully they don't or I will wish I had waited to pick this game up. My guess is that it will not be worth it to reprint, the Last Story was reprinted though it is not outside of the realm of possibility

Anonymous said...

The Earthbound of the Wii. It's possible. I wonder what the equivalent of that game is for other consoles...

Anonymous said...

This game had all the signs of being a valuable, sought after game; highly acclaimed RPG, limited release, released toward the end of console's life, little exposure. I saw fire before the prices began to shoot up and bought two copies, one to play and one to keep sealed as a future investment. I do believe this game will be the Wii's Earthbound in the most appropriate sense, in 10 to 15-years from now. To answer your question, it is highly unlikely this game will receive a reprint given it was released on a console that Nintendo is now trying to phase out in favor of their new horse, the Wii U. I would genuinely be shocked if they did do a reprint this late in the game. If it makes you feel any better, once the Wii U gains some momentum and more people start getting rid of their Wii consoles and games, the prices for a used copy might drop to around or below their $50 retail price. Of course, there's no way of knowing for sure, but this has happened with other highly sought after games in similar circumstances.

Anonymous said...

With the WiiU backwards compatibility and the development of a new RPG from Monolith for the WiiU, I would not be surprised to see a Xenoblade reissue just before the release of the new Monolith RPG for the WiiU

JJ Hendricks said...

Great comments everyone. I can see both sides of the reprint argument. I have to lean towards the reprint though with the new Monolith RPG and backward compatibility, it would be easy money to release the game again.

Atlus reprinted games that were not on an active console when they reprinted Persona 2 for PS1. The game could be played on the PS2, but resale prices got so high that Atlus figured there was some pent up demand for the game.

To save on distribution costs they only sold the reprint through Amazon. I'm almost positive Nintendo would do the same thing with Amazon or Gamestop if Xenoblade is reprinted.

Jimmy Briggs said...

With the game being held hostage with an exclusive distribution for gamestop I think a reprint won't be likely at all.

The kicker is that gamestop will have to also agree that there is profit and if you have been in one lately their wii section is about 3-4 shelves total. That said they could sell it online only, however it's hard to drive online sales for physical media.

simply put there are two many parties involved for a reprint to be negotiated among them all with or without backward compatibility. Maybe a non u.s. reprint could happen.

Anonymous said...

im certainly glad i picked up two

Anonymous said...

It's already being reprinted. Gamestop is selling them as "pre-owned", but they're actually new reprints.

If the inside case has 'Nintendo' instead of 'Wii' engraved on it, then it's a reprint.

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