Japan: R4 pricing and sales increase dramatically after legal threat

What happens when the supply of much sought-out item is known to be threatened? That’s right, people will flock to buy themselves one out of fear that it will be no longer be available soon, and retailers will no doubt take advantage of the situation and increase the price of that particular item to sky-high levels. That’s pretty much what happened with the R4 in Japan. More details in the full article.

Shortly after Nintendo and 54 other software companies formally filed a lawsuit in an attempt to curb the distribution of the R4 flashcard, the demand and pricing of the R4 had significantly jacked up in the Japanese market.

It’s no surprise, really, given the consumer panic that the recent R4-related developments in Japan had caused. In this case, many retailers in Japan (Akihabara in particular) took advantage of the situation and greatly increased prices in as little as two days; the price of an R4 in one retail store had increased from 2,980 yen (US$ 28) to 4,980 yen (US$ 55) overnight.

Is this what Nintendo wanted to happen when they sued Japanese R4 retailers? The legal attempt to eradicate the flashcard has quite predictably caused an increased demand and higher sales numbers for the much sought-out R4. Or does the Big N has something else in mind? Stay tuned for more updates.

• Nintendo, 54 companies slap lawsuit on Japanese R4 distributors
• Retailers and independent game developers in UK call for R4 ban

Via Akiba Blog