Amazon: PS3 being outsold by...Super Nintendo?!

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-02-18 04:53am

Gizmodo wrote:Amidst the usual video game champions on Amazon's Best Sellers List: Video Games, you might find something out of the ordinary. If you head south to around number 17, you'll see what I mean.

It appears that everyone's old video game flame known as the SNES is outselling Sony's Playstation 3 on Amazon.com. Wonder why? Here's my take:

* People aren't that interested in PS3s.
* Virtual Console games are giving people major cases of nostalgia.
* People are so frantic for the Wii that they'll get their hands on the closest thing.
* Someone is throwing a Mario Kart tourney and ordered a metric ton of units.
* Hell has frozen over.

In all seriousness though, this probably has more to do with the fact that there are ten times as many used, yellow-tinted SNES consoles floating around, but still an interesting sight nevertheless. – Alexander Yoon

Note: The list has been updated, and the PS3 has dropped to number 20, now behind Guitar Hero II and Oblivion.

Note pt. deux: The SNES/FC Twin monster is on its way to cracking the top ten and is hot on the tails of the Xbox 360. If it gets up there, then we officially live in Upside-Down Land.

Note pt. three: Welcome to Upside-Down Land.

As of the time I post this, it's gotten worse: Sony's brand-new über-console is stuck on #54, merrily being outsold by both the long-retired N64 (#32) and geriatric SNES (#13), behind the X360 (a respectable #12) and Wii (#2).

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2007-02-18 07:10am

Well, it's not like anyone would buy the PS3 from those $750+ merchants when other major retailers such as EBGames, Circuit City or Walmart has it in stock.

I still have my old SNES. It's a bit conky nowadays but after a few resets and replacing the cartridge a couple times, it still works. Even found a SNES Portable someone threw in the trash and that one still works too. Good times.

Edit: Spelling error fixed.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2007-02-18 02:38pm

Soontir C'boath wrote:Even found a SNES Portable someone threw in the trash and that one still works too. Good times.

What the heck is a SNES Portable?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-02-18 02:50pm

Praxis wrote:
Soontir C'boath wrote:Even found a SNES Portable someone threw in the trash and that one still works too. Good times.
What the heck is a SNES Portable?

I think he's either talking about a Super Game Boy or a Game Gear.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-02-18 02:52pm

More likely he's referring to some kind of bootlegged portable SNES/SFC clone.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2007-02-18 02:57pm

He may be referring to this:

More pics can be found here.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-02-18 03:04pm

JT, I don't think anybody would throw away a homebrew portable like that which has to be custom built.

By bet is still with it being a bootleg clone.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2007-02-18 03:20pm

JLTucker wrote:He may be referring to this:
-snip-
More pics can be found here.

Only one exists. Very unlikely he found it in the trash.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2007-02-18 04:35pm

Soontir C'boath wrote:Well, it's not like anyone would buy the PS3 from those $750+ merchants when other major retailoes such as EBGames, Circuit City or Walmart has it in stock.

I think that has a whole lot to do with it. Amazon and other online retailers are not going to be a big player when conventional retailers have got the system in stock and at comparable prices. The reason you get people buying books, movies, and what not online is largely because of discounts and/or a hard to find status. The latter certainly applies more to older systems more than one currently in stores; there is actually a fairly large collectors market for the older systems.

Magus · Post by **Magus** » 2007-02-18 04:47pm

Praxis wrote:
JLTucker wrote:He may be referring to this:
-snip-
More pics can be found here.
Only one exists. Very unlikely he found it in the trash.

My friend built one too, so there's more than one. Unlikely for one to be in the trash, though.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-02-18 04:52pm

Ben Heckendorn wrote a book on how to convert such consoles into portables (I own a copy), so there are definitely similar custom jobs floating around, but to suggest that's what Soontir has is absurd.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2007-02-18 06:12pm

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to confuse anyone. I couldn't think of any other word for it at the time and it reminded me of the PS One. The one in question is this.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-02-18 06:20pm

Oh, that's just the SNES 2, which was released in 1997.

Which incidentally is the model you want when you're hacking a SNES to make it into a portable, because its board is smaller and easier to work with...