It’s a toy. How is this making any buzz, headlines, etc. Go to any store, go to the toy aisle, and 99% of the toys are not AI generated, etc. Lazy clickbait from everyone.
Yea, it isn't a statement or anything it's just Nintendo just making a good product and you can see the industrial design that it is the selling point. Apple used to have people complaining their AI solutions are sub par but, now since they control the App Store where many AI apps live they are the only ones making money.
If this was a hackaday project that was open & extensible it would be a cool post on HN, but as a commercial product it feels like a paid endorsement on the Today Show would be a better fit.
The article says it starts to repeat after a few days but with flash memory prices being what they are couldn’t they have loaded something like a hundred thousand little voice clips on a $15 32GB micro sd card?
Might require AI to generate them all but the device would still be offline
One of the things I love about Nintendo is their (estimated) 1.5 trillion yen cash reserve allows them to just... do whatever they want. It frees them up to take risks and ignore market trends. More times than not, their zany ideas have worked out for them.
The "zany" idea of selling their IP for every possible product (I just saw Mario Galaxy sparkling water in the grocery store yesterday) and jacking the price of their back catalogue (some titles now cost more than what I paid for them years ago) sounds more like Disney than mad scientists ignoring trends. The make some very distinctive & cool products, but this toy doesn't seem super innovative and Nintendo is still a giant corporation run by accountants.
Sensationalising “a simple $35 desk toy” selling out in a week is disingenuous and (in at least one sense of the word) sloppy journalism if we consider that said toy is merch for a product that once won Guinness World Record as the best-selling video game of all time and which has such cult status that a second-hand unopened copy recently got sold for multiple millions of dollars.
Respectfully, and not to detract from Nintendo’s chops in any way, but I suspect almost any genuine product that is Super Mario Bros. themed is guaranteed to sell very well; the bar is very low when a franchise is this well-recognized.
Here's my take, this is more of a symptom instead of a statement.
Nintendo is a brand that's loved by millions, and they've been making toys for more than 100 years - and this is just another toy.
It doesn't need to be a missed opportunity to fulfill it's role while it's a safe toy 6+ years old.
As for the price, if you want to have healthy margins, $35 for a custom product isn't anything out of this world if it the COGS is 5$-8$, and distributors buy it with a 40%-50% discount over MSRP, so with marketing costs Nintendo makes like 10$-15$ per flower sold?
Like what do these people expect? Nintendo to make 2$-3$ per product sold?
For it being sold out, it's just a sign of the times - people want to be the first to have something, to show for, to collect (which is insane), to scalp, you name it. It's a consumption disease where people are parting their money for the wrong reasons, and that has an impact on the market.
This is a kids product, and you have grown people hoarding this stuff, and complaining - like these reviews...it's insane.
If Nintendo was like Lego, they would sell this for 65$ and I bet you it would be sold out in a week as well.
Maybe the problem starts with these reviews and to have grown ups leaving room for kids and parents to figure out this stuff.
You can be a Nintendo fan, and enjoy their products, without investing so much into a kids toy.
I think this product is spot on in terms of design, functionality and price for 6 years and older.
It's just that too much people are ruining this experience.
It’s a toy. How is this making any buzz, headlines, etc. Go to any store, go to the toy aisle, and 99% of the toys are not AI generated, etc. Lazy clickbait from everyone.
Yea, it isn't a statement or anything it's just Nintendo just making a good product and you can see the industrial design that it is the selling point. Apple used to have people complaining their AI solutions are sub par but, now since they control the App Store where many AI apps live they are the only ones making money.
If this was a hackaday project that was open & extensible it would be a cool post on HN, but as a commercial product it feels like a paid endorsement on the Today Show would be a better fit.
The article says it starts to repeat after a few days but with flash memory prices being what they are couldn’t they have loaded something like a hundred thousand little voice clips on a $15 32GB micro sd card?
Might require AI to generate them all but the device would still be offline
One of the things I love about Nintendo is their (estimated) 1.5 trillion yen cash reserve allows them to just... do whatever they want. It frees them up to take risks and ignore market trends. More times than not, their zany ideas have worked out for them.
The "zany" idea of selling their IP for every possible product (I just saw Mario Galaxy sparkling water in the grocery store yesterday) and jacking the price of their back catalogue (some titles now cost more than what I paid for them years ago) sounds more like Disney than mad scientists ignoring trends. The make some very distinctive & cool products, but this toy doesn't seem super innovative and Nintendo is still a giant corporation run by accountants.
Meanwhile Casio in Japan be like https://www.casio.com/us/moflin/
Sensationalising “a simple $35 desk toy” selling out in a week is disingenuous and (in at least one sense of the word) sloppy journalism if we consider that said toy is merch for a product that once won Guinness World Record as the best-selling video game of all time and which has such cult status that a second-hand unopened copy recently got sold for multiple millions of dollars.
Respectfully, and not to detract from Nintendo’s chops in any way, but I suspect almost any genuine product that is Super Mario Bros. themed is guaranteed to sell very well; the bar is very low when a franchise is this well-recognized.
[0] Possibly in more than one way…
Posted on a website designed by Claude, ironically
Here's my take, this is more of a symptom instead of a statement.
Nintendo is a brand that's loved by millions, and they've been making toys for more than 100 years - and this is just another toy.
It doesn't need to be a missed opportunity to fulfill it's role while it's a safe toy 6+ years old.
As for the price, if you want to have healthy margins, $35 for a custom product isn't anything out of this world if it the COGS is 5$-8$, and distributors buy it with a 40%-50% discount over MSRP, so with marketing costs Nintendo makes like 10$-15$ per flower sold?
Like what do these people expect? Nintendo to make 2$-3$ per product sold?
For it being sold out, it's just a sign of the times - people want to be the first to have something, to show for, to collect (which is insane), to scalp, you name it. It's a consumption disease where people are parting their money for the wrong reasons, and that has an impact on the market.
This is a kids product, and you have grown people hoarding this stuff, and complaining - like these reviews...it's insane.
If Nintendo was like Lego, they would sell this for 65$ and I bet you it would be sold out in a week as well.
Maybe the problem starts with these reviews and to have grown ups leaving room for kids and parents to figure out this stuff.
You can be a Nintendo fan, and enjoy their products, without investing so much into a kids toy.
I think this product is spot on in terms of design, functionality and price for 6 years and older.
It's just that too much people are ruining this experience.