UK store cancels Super Mario 3D All-Stars pre-orders due to lack of stock

Base.com has sent an angry email to customers, blaming Nintendo for shortages of 3D All-Stars, as ShopTo also lists the game as sold out.

Online store Base.com has told customers that it is cancelling all pre-orders for this week’s Super Mario 3D All-Stars, blaming Nintendo for not guaranteeing enough stock to fill orders.

‘We have just been notified of our allocation of Super Mario 3D All-Stars and it is woefully short. This is very disappointing and it is with great regret that we have to inform you that we will be unable to fulfil [your] order on the day of release’, reads an email confirmed by Eurogamer to be accurate.

‘Further, as Nintendo and their UK distributers [sic] are unable to give us any reassurance that more stock will become available after release, we have taken the regrettable decision to cancel all orders.’

Clearly Base.com aren’t very happy about the situation but without better guarantees from Nintendo there’s nothing they can do.

Since it’s already happened on one store there seems a good chance it will happen with others, especially as ShopTo is already describing the game as sold out – four days before it’s released.

Larger stores such as Amazon and GAME.net are still taking pre-orders but how much stock they’ll have after the game is released remains to be seen.

The scarcity is entirely of Nintendo’s making and no doubt related to the fact that, for no apparent reason, the game will be removed from sale, both physically and on the eShop, after March next year.

It’s hard to understand who, other than eBay scalpers, benefits from any of this, but it seems to be an attempt to emulate the Disney Vault, where classic titles are made available only for a limited time.

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