10 Times Video Game Publishers Insulted Their Fans

9. The Stock Shortage Of NES Minis

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Nintendo

Whether the intention was artificial scarcity, Nintendo's lack of foresight or just plain old miscommunication, it doesn't matter. Whichever way you spin it, Ninty dropped the ball with its pint-sized NES replica, causing a wave of controversy stemming from short supply and the subsequent emergence of scalpers.

As it turned out, the Big N had never intended for the novelty item to be an ongoing product and had decommissioned its production as a means of prepping for the imminent arrival of its SNES successor.

Nintendo of America's CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé later said of the shortage, that the company "just didn't anticipate how incredible the response would be."

Uh huh. An officially licensed replica of an iconic console pre-loaded with a back catalogue of legally available classics from the industry's younger years? You're right, Reggie, nobody could have foreseen the demand for such a product.

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Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.