Every year on March 10th, Nintendo creatively plays with the date to rework the day into Mar10 Day. This year, the company promised sales on 5 of its biggest Mario titles on Switch. That went very wrong quickly.

Super Mario Party, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Tennis Aces, and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe were the titles set to go on sale. Two are ports of Wii U titles, but great games nonetheless. Many were happy with the lineup, especially considering these games rarely go on sale. At $39.99 for digital copies, no other sale throughout the year is known to set first-party Nintendo titles this low, at least in the digital form.

Right out the gate, I had a major concern: distribution. On the eShop, Nintendo just lets you purchase a game from them, give you the game immediately, and then you wait for the download and play. It makes sense that the Mar10 Day sale would take place on the eShop, right? Right, but that’s not what happened.

Nintendo partnered with Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.com to release digital copies of these games on their websites. Already, the retailers were at a disadvantage because, in theory, they have limited copies of each digital game. Nintendo, as the publisher, can just keep cranking out randomized codes, but these retailers basically have access to a finite number of games. You can see where this is going. By the end of March 10th, the first day of what was supposed to be a 7-day sale, all three participating retailers were reporting they had sold out of their copies. Day one, things are already falling apart.

I understand that partnering with these retailers is important to Nintendo. Now that they have gotten back on track with their marketing, it makes sense to push sales to stores that carry tons of Nintendo merchandise, games, and systems. Not to mention, Nintendo for the duration of Mar10 week is offering a digital copy of those same five games with the purchase of select Nintendo Switch™ systems for $329.98. That’s not a bad deal to push consoles, but the failure regarding the digital game deal for current Switch owners was a huge mess.

It wasn’t as bad as Nintendo Switch Online, but still, pretty rough.

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