Up until yesterday, Nintendo and Amazon were in an unspoken and unannounced feud. For months, the online superstore has not stocked or sold Nintendo hardware directly, but today the cold war appears to have ended. Amazon is now offering the Nintendo 3DS XL, a previously unavailable item, directly from their warehouses.
Previously, it was possible to purchase both the 3DS and 3DS XL, along with other pieces of Nintendo hardware and have the order fulfilled by Amazon, but this is the first time in months that it seems the megastore has received a new shipment of Nintendo's consoles.
It's not clear what started or ended the dispute between the two companies, nor if this means that the Wii U will be stocked alongside Nintendo's current handheld offerings. At this time, there is no pre-order program for the system in either the Basic or Deluxe packages.
We will be reaching out to Nintendo for comment and keeping an eye on Amazon to see if the Wii U goes up for pre-order in the coming weeks.
I'm legitimately shocked. We just talked about this while recording PixlTalk, and I told Nick I didn't see Amazon and Nintendo ending this feud soon, considering it lasted through the 3DS XL launch and had been going on so long. We don't know any of the details about it, but I really believed there was some serious falling out.
So, I suppose that's good news for all those people who have extra Amazon credit and such lying around, or who prefer this retailer to other online (or even offline) retailers.
I think both parties just reached a compromise. Which is the best turnaround, I think.
Hope this gives me another chance to consider a Wii U pre-order.
OK, now let's get some Wii U pre-orders out there.
Fun fact: Looks like they're already sold out of the inventory of 3DS XLs they received. That was quick.
They just bought one from Gamestop and sold it for damage control.