Best Buy 2005 ad needed to help solve Gamecube Metroid/Zelda combo mystery

[Buyatari]

Looking for the Best Buy 2005 Black Friday ad to shed some light on the rarest Gamecube game for the Metorid/Zelda combo. The combo has been rumored only to have been sold in system bundles at Best Buy during for a Black Friday sale but it has not been confirmed.

I've looked over the net and been unable to find the ad online if you have the ad or know of a scan online please post it here.

[wiggyx]

It was NOT only sold during the holiday rush of '05. It was released in summer 2005 (possibly a bit earlier, I can't recall exactly) most likely with the intention of boosting sales in what is traditionally a slow season for the game industry. There were no competing console price drops that year, so that couldn't have been the deciding factor. I don't recall it being an exclusive, but it may have been. It is quite rare though (again, slow season = low volume and low sales).



On a side note, LULZ @ this listing.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

No case or instructions, fail. The games weren't specially labeled, just repackaged normal, retail copies. Any asshat could just list both games in this manner. Hopefully nobody will fall for that load of crap.

[Buyatari]

It was NOT only sold during the holiday rush of '05. It was released in summer 2005 (possibly a bit earlier, I can't recall exactly) most likely with the intention of boosting sales in what is traditionally a slow season for the game industry. There were no competing console price drops that year, so that couldn't have been the deciding factor. I don't recall it being an exclusive, but it may have been. It is quite rare though (again, slow season = low volume and low sales).



On a side note, LULZ @ this listing.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

No case or instructions, fail. The games weren't specially labeled, just repackaged normal, retail copies. Any asshat could just list both games in this manner. Hopefully nobody will fall for that load of crap.

Well there are many reports. I'm looking for something on paper to back it up. If you have any old flyers showing this unit for sale in the summer that would be great. Even an old forum post of someone discussing buying the system is better than a 7 year old memory at this point. All I know for sure is that I have the reciept for mine which was on 8/30/05 but that is all I have to go on. It is certainly possible it was for sale all summer long but man if that is the case you would think there would be more of them out there.

[goatdan]

Well there are many reports. I'm looking for something on paper to back it up. If you have any old flyers showing this unit for sale in the summer that would be great. Even an old forum post of someone discussing buying the system is better than a 7 year old memory at this point. All I know for sure is that I have the reciept for mine which was on 8/30/05 but that is all I have to go on.

I find stuff like this interesting and...

Just out of curiosity, if you have a receipt that says you bought yours on 8/30, isn't that proof that it came out before black Friday?

[Buyatari]

I find stuff like this interesting and...

Just out of curiosity, if you have a receipt that says you bought yours on 8/30, isn't that proof that it came out before black Friday?

Did you ever have one of these?

Let me see. Here is the reciept yeah Aug 30th 2005. It is still possible it was put on sale for the Black Friday ad I suppose. I'd like to see an ad just to see if it was advertised as a Best buy exclusive.





I did some looking around and found this which states it was a 2005 holiday bundle.

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/The_L..._Metroid_Prime

---edit----

Just found this on the Walmart website. Does this rule it out as a Best Buy exclusive?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Metroid-Pr...eCube/13008012

2 Gamecube Classic titles bundled together!
This special double-game package was made available in a system bundle released for Thanksgiving 2005 in the United States. Limited in quantity produced, this 2-disc set was only ever sold in this bundle, and includes: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Metroid Prime .

[wiggyx]

^^^ Was just gonna post that.

[goatdan]

Did you ever have one of these?

Can't say that I have. The GOAT Store hard stops after the Dreamcast, so the GameCube is too new for us. I personally have a bunch of random GameCube stuff and probably would have bought that double disc if I had saw it (I have some of the other random combos just because I thought they looked cool).

Let me see. Here is the reciept yeah Aug 30th 2005. It is still possible it was put on sale for the Black Friday ad I suppose. I'd like to see an ad just to see if it was advertised as a Best buy exclusive.

Well, it means that it was at least out in stores earlier than Black Friday, as you got one then. I'd assume that the person who suggested they introduced it as a bundle to try to give them an edge during a slow time was probably right.

Just found this on the Walmart website. Does this rule it out as a Best Buy exclusive?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Metroid-Pr...eCube/13008012

2 Gamecube Classic titles bundled together!
This special double-game package was made available in a system bundle released for Thanksgiving 2005 in the United States. Limited in quantity produced, this 2-disc set was only ever sold in this bundle, and includes: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Metroid Prime .

I would guess -- and this is a TOTAL guess here -- that this wasn't a regular holiday bundle and probably was more of a Best Buy or VERY limited exclusive. My reasoning is that every other holiday bundle for just about every console is a heck of a lot easier to find than this one. They have started to make them more limited the last few years, but it's pretty much definite that if a game gets bundled for the holiday, you'll find a ton of them afterward.

Here's my *guess* (pure speculation) as to what happened -- Nintendo decided to give themselves a leg up by releasing a new bundle that included these games. Because GameCube sales by this point were already pretty laggy, the new package didn't convince many retailers to buy them. I know that my GameCube package, which I got a year or two earlier, was a GameCube with Mario Kart Double Dash and two controllers, and then Target threw in an extra memory card too. The price I believe was similar to the price of this package, and Target sat on those forever. I eventually bought a Metroid Prime package too on clearance at Target for like $69 when they still had regular consoles without games for $100 new.

So again, pure speculation -- they make the package, stores opt not to buy them because they were sitting on tons of GameCube stock already that wasn't moving. Besides that, the two included games were a title that already had a sequel out (Metroid) and another that everyone was eagerly anticipating it's sequel already (Zelda). Nintendo decided it would be better to go in a different direction, and cut a deal with Best Buy (the only company who had, at this point, opted to purchase any of the consoles) to purchase the entire inventory as a special reduced rate to make it a Black Friday deal. So they did, and the rest is history.

Again, that's all pure speculation, but the fact is if this was a 2005 release, it was more than two years after Wind Waker was released. Why Nintendo thought that pushing games that they hadn't advertised in at least a year was a great way to move consoles is beyond me, but I'm guessing that is what happened. It was a poor bundle choice, so Nintendo cut it's losses and blew them out for Black Friday.

Isn't it amazing though how much even recent history is nearly impossible to figure out? You'd think people would know this sort of stuff, but it's so hard to be able to nail things down for sure...

Oh, and that Walmart item link is for a pre-owned game. I don't think that it proves that is wasn't a Best Buy exclusive, but it doesn't prove that it was, either.