After delaying Chibi Robo: Park Patrol by a week so that it has to go head to head with Zelda (they must really not want it to sell), Nintendo has now revealed that the game will only be sold at Wal-Mart.  Considering only die-hard Nintendo fans and nippophiles have any interest in this series, this odd move more or less gurantees that the game will be an utter failure and any future installments in the series won't be coming here.  Thanks, Nintendo.  Brilliant move.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/08/chi … l#comments

That does suck. I loved the Gamecube title.

Yeah, the Cube one was definitely one of my favorite games of last generation.  I wonder what made them make this decision for the DS one.  Oh well, at least it's not just plain cancelled like the rumors were indicating.

Lack of interest by other retailers?  Low order numbers across the board?  Low expectations thusly?

Actually, doesn't the availability of a game at Wal-Mart greatly enhance its sales numbers or something?

I remember during the whole GTA: San Andreas episode when Wal-Mart threatened (or maybe did) to pull the game from their shelves until the non-hot-coffeeable version was released, and Rockstar (or whomever) said that that hurt their sales or... something...

I'm feeling kinda disjointed communicatively, so please someone who understands what I'm talking about could explain this more, if you can?

I mean, Wal-Mart is HUGE at least in the USA.  It's like saying "oh noes we will only show this sporting event on CBS, but not on ESPN.  How will we get exposure?"

Almost everyone has a Wal-Mart in their town, and if not, you can order online from walmart.com - When I first moved to Stillwater, OK, there was not a single EB/Gamestop in the whole town, so I was pretty much limited to buying my video games at Wal-Mart or online.  Most of the stuff I wanted, I could find there, with the exception of Atlus RPGs, which I even see trickling onto Wal-Mart's shelves now.

Or... is this relating to those silly people who refuse to patronize Wal-Mart for personal reasons?

I don't understand.

I think it's more of an exposure thing, Amber.  Sure it'll be easy for anyone who wants the game to find a Walmart in which to purchase it, but I think there are a lot of casual game buyers out there who might simply not notice the game if it's only at one retailer (regardless of how enormous that retailer is).  I imagine that kind of thing accounts for more game sales than we might normally imagine - those of us who scour the internet for news about games are in the minority.

Probably.  The first one was a giant flop over here.  It went from $50 to $15 pretty fast.  That said, if you're going to make a game like Chibi Robo exclusive, it outta be exclusive to a hardcore game store, not Wal-Mart.  The average Wal-Mart shopper has no idea what a Chibi Robo is.  They probably can't even pronounce "Chibi."  It would be better if Nintendo made this an online exclusive to all retailers like it did with Electroplankton.

NCSX will be carrying the game as well, but their shipping charges are astronomical.  So, there is an alternative, if not a great one.

I finally popped this one in the DS tonight.  After the lackluster reviews, my expectations were pretty low, but it's actually pretty fun and as charming as ever.  The story's a lot less interesting than in the first game, and it seems more repetitive, but I'm having a pretty good time so far.  My biggest complaint is that the boombox is a pain in the ass.  There's really no on-screen guidance for how you're supposed to play each song, and you will waste a lot of Watts on trial and error here.