Best Buy Ripoff Alert & Monster Hunter Tri's Game-Play Hours

Coffee Beans:

     As for the "Best Buy Ripoff Alert" in the title, I stopped by Best Buy on my way home today(Monday), and I thought it was interesting to see what they had the Monster Hunter Tri - Classic Controller Pro Bundle listed for.  Take a look:

     When Capcom announced the Monster Hunter Tri bundle was back at retail, this is what they said in the announcement, "So for $49.99(and if you look around, a few retailers are being even more aggressive than that), you can get your hands on one of the best/most addicting games for Wii and the perfect controller for it and any other pad appropriate games."

     That's right, Best Buy isn't living up to its name!  So, if you or somebody you know is looking to pick up the Monster Hunter Tri bundle, you may want to make sure you(or them) price-match if you go to Best Buy, and get the Monster Hunter Tri bundle for $49.99.

     Anyway, it has been a while since we looked at Monster Hunter Tri's game-play data in back-to-back weeks, so to see how it appears to be performing on a weekly basis again, we are taking another look at it this week.

     If you don't know, Monster Hunter Tri became the Wii's most played game according to the Nintendo Channel data, in the "per person" category, a few weeks back.

     How many hours have Wii owners monster hunted in the last week?  Let's take a look!

Click image to enlarge

Approx. Number of Players Reporting Data:

     Monster Hunter Tri now has 44,086 players reporting game-play data, through the Wii's Nintendo Channel.

Player Increase Since Last Week:

     Monster Hunter 3 has seen an increase of 795 more monster hunters reporting their play-time data, since last week.

Average Hours & Total Game-Play Hours Reported:

     Monster Hunter Tri now has 3,633,528 Total Hours reported, an increase of 107,116 monster hunting hours since last week.

     Monster Hunter Tri's average play-time per person has increased by 57 minutes, now sitting at 82 Hours 26 Minutes per person.

     The average Monster Hunter Tri play session is still just over 3 hours 37 minutes, like last week.

Sales Rank & Advertised Prices:

     Monster Hunter Tri's, the software only, Amazon.com sale rank is #827, and the current selling price is $39.96.

     Monster Hunter Tri - Classic Controller Pro Bundle's Amazon.com sale rank is #1,065, and the current sale price is $49.96.

Thoughts:

     I think the increase, of over 100,000 game-play hours since last week, is extremely well for Monster Hunter Tri.  The game is seeing game-play hours being reported on a weekly basis, that many third party games won't see reported during the Wii's life cycle.

     I haven't monster hunted any in the last week, as we had family in visiting; but that did result in me drinking lots of coffee!

     Here's a video from another monster hunt I went on with Apoc, Maxi, and Seph.  You may remember from last week, Maxi and Seph run their own gaming site, NinTemple.com.  Here's the hunt:

Questions:

     Do any of you think Best Buy is ripping consumers off with the list price on the Monster Hunter Tri bundle being at $59.99, when Capcom specifically mentioned its new price was going to be $49.99?  As for monster hunting specifically, have any of you been monster hunting since last week?

     I think it's Best Buy being Best Buy, but hopefully consumers and Wii owners will be made aware of the price they can get the MH Tri bundle for other places.

If you are interested in Monster Hunter Tri, you can see both versions on Amazon.com linked below: