Super Mario 3D All-Stars Price Skyrockets After Removal
Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a compilation title composed of high-definition ports of some of the best 3D Super Mario titles ever released. This includes 1996’s Super Mario 64, as well as 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine, and 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo first released digital and physical copies of the bundle on September 18, 2020, promising a limited-time availability. Despite the compilation selling more than 8 million units throughout its short lifetime, Nintendo pushed through with their initial promise. On April 1, 2021, Super Mario 3D All-Stars was no longer available for sale via official channels. As expected, scalpers have taken advantage of this scarcity. Instead of selling Super Mario 3D All-Stars for its usual going rate, scalpers are now selling physical copies of the game for many times more. In fact, this particular listing on eBay is looking to sell one copy for £1,500 or roughly around $2,000. What makes this situation even weirder is that Nintendo didn’t really reveal any reason why they decided to delist the Super Mario 3D All-Stars, other than staying true to their word (which we guess was made to push up demand?). If it’s any consolation, there are rumors popping up that Nintendo will make each individual game for sale. However, Nintendo has yet to confirm if this is true. So, we suggest that you take this bit of information with a grain of salt. However, it’s not all bad news. Because scalpers are most likely trying to take advantage of the fact that everyone prefers to shop online these days, it’s highly possible that there are still physical copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars available at their regular retail prices if you look hard enough. Just make sure that you don’t take too long. Otherwise, pending a surprise decision from Nintendo to re-list the bundle, the current Super Mario 3D All-Stars price is only going to go up.
Will Nintendo Bring Back Super Mario 3D All-Stars?
While it is indeed sad that scalpers are trying to take advantage of the situation, it’s not exactly unprecedented. Nintendo has, many times in the past, played a role in inadvertently helping scalpers to make a living off of selling physical copies of their older games. The only difference with Super Mario 3D All-Stars is that it feels like this was done on purpose to help drive up sales for the compilation. Lest we forget, selling 8 million units in a little over 3 months is no easy feat, even for a Mario title. This is especially since Super Mario 3D All-Stars is just an HD port of three older Mario games. It didn’t even have additional content unlike HD ports and remakes of other older titles released in recent years. Unfortunately, this short-sighted decision to include removing Super Mario 3D All-Stars from Nintendo’s digital storefront is undoubtedly going to backfire on them. The worst part here is that Nintendo is not going to see a cent from the money made by scalpers selling copies of the game for exorbitant prices online.
