Gametraders Vs Nintendo And The Retail Stalemate (Australia)

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/gametraders-vs-nintendo-and-the-retail-stalemate/comment-page-2/#comments

Quote :

Mark Langford sounds a little tired, and you can’t blame him.

As Managing Director of Gametraders, Langford’s company is at the forefront of another street date drama. After Gametraders grey imported copies of Super Mario 3D Land — selling ahead of Australia’s official release date — both EB and JB Hifi are reportedly selling official Australian copies ahead of Thursday. But according to Mark Langford, his company is just defending itself.

Nintendo Responds
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/nintendo-respond-to-gametraders-on-skyward-swordsuper-mario-3d-land-situation/

Quote :

Super Mario 3D Land is now fully available in most specialist retailers in Australia, ahead of its official release date this Thursday — a direct result of Gametraders’ decision to grey import European copies of the game. Yesterday Mark Langford, the Managing Director of Gametraders claimed that decision was made after stores were unable to purchase Limited Editions of the upcoming Nintendo title The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Today, Nintendo sent us a response to those claims.

So wait, what wrong is Nintendo doing to Gametraders?

Gametraders were breaking street dates of Nintendo games (Zelda 3DS, Mario 3DS) by grey importanting european copies and selling them days/weeks early to get the jump on of bigger retailers. Nintendo pretty much cut off Gametraders from getting the Zelda limited edition.

Yes they are making money but it is a big No No from Nintendo and other retailers even though there isn't any Australian laws barring parallel importing regarding games. Breaking the contract for street dates can lead into all kinds of problems such has developers and publishers losing trust in Australian retail.

Gametraders feel like they are not getting equal fairness compare to EBgames/Gamestop, GAME, Target, JB Hi-Fi etc because Nintendo can choose who they want to directly deal with, while Gametraders will have to deal with a 3rd party supplier which will cost them more to get stock so they grey import european games instead and break street dates when their customer base demands it. I guess they call it "Sticking it to the man". Another factor that Gametraders can't buy huge amounts of stock since their retailer chain is much smaller.