Hey everyone. I've got a story to tell you about Amiibo Wave 4, my local GameStop, and why Nintendo needs to do a much better job serving their EXTREMELY loyal customers. Curious about my experience? Read on. 

I received a soul crushing blow yesterday. Ness is going to be a GameStop exclusive... Now, I've got no beef with GameStop. I like my local store and I buy many of my games from there. The Wave 3 store exclusive Amiibo set a disappointing precedent though. I failed to obtain a Meta Knight Amiibo when the wave launched and I've never seen one in a Best Buy. I've had no luck with Rosalina either. These Amiibo have become unobtainable at their MSRP. I can, of course, import them or pay obscene scalper rates but why should I do that when the product is officially available to me?

So... I set out today with solid goal in mind. Pre-order Wave 4 before it is too late. My retailer of choice, GameStop, was to open Wave 4 Amiibo pre-sales (not pre-orders, I'll explain shortly) at 3 PM in my time-zone. I arrived shortly before 2 PM to confirm that the pre-sales would be possible. I returned to my vehicle and proceeded to wait until 2:45 to begin my final wait and payment process. This is where things get dicey.

At 3 PM sharp, the clerks began to process the pre-sales, They are pre-sales because they must be paid in full at that moment, not the usual $5 down and see you later. Orders began to process and... well... that didn't happen. The website wouldn't load. Another essential detail, these pre-sales occurred through the GameStop website from within the GameStop system. This was necessary because of the limited nature of the products. This was explained to me by the employees as such: store based pre-sales cannot be cut off. Essentially, this method is used to prevent GameStop from receiving more pre-orders than they have product available. This has happened at other retailers with Amiibo in the past and I can understand the precaution. That precaution, however, backfired really hard. I was in GameStop waiting for my pre-sale to happen for just over an hour. As you might imagine, this was likely the result of a server overload that GameStop wasn't expecting.

Now, I give a round of applause for the GameStop employees. They handled this mess with grace. A slowly waning mob of very loyal Nintendo fans stood in line patiently as regular customers were served and went on with their day. The gears eventually began to turn and (being second in line) I too was on my way. $130 worth of Amiibo (I got the Splatoon set too) are to be delivered to my doorstep at some point in May. I don't blame the store employees. I don't really blame GameStop (this particular sin is very common). I will blame Nintendo though. I don't speak for myself here (I'm an outlier and a bit eccentric). I'm saying this for the other six or seven people standing in line with me. I say it for the girl who just wanted Ness. I say it for the loyal girlfriend (I assume) who was there for someone else. These products are not available to your fans. I'm a slacker and I've got time to peruse game stores at odd hours. Your other fans don't have the luxury of scouting countless stores and smashing F5 to refresh over-trafficked sites . I don't understand the minutiae of toy manufacturing and I won't spout off like I do. People want these things and you (Nintendo of America) are letting them down. The message is crystal clear. Bill Trenin said this about the Marth Amiibo during the Nintendo Direct yesterday: "Don't miss your second chance". Amiibo should be built and priced accordingly if they are a limited run luxury line of merchandise. They aren't though. They are $13 statues with piss-colored stands... I love Nintendo but this is painful to watch.