Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave arrived this week, and the internet responded exactly how you’d expect. A social media account named Wario64 posted a trick for getting around a broken discount code: add a banana to your cart. Now Walmart is out of online bananas, at least temporarily.
Wario64’s Banana Trick
Wario64 is a social media account that tracks deals in gaming and related fields. It posts up-to-date news and links to discounts, and that is how the account makes money. Last night, the account pointed readers toward a Walmart promotion giving $10 off online pickup or delivery orders for purchases of $70 or more.
The catch is that the code doesn’t always work. So Wario64 offered a workaround. “If code doesn’t work, try switching to pickup. If that doesn’t work, add a banana (weirdly this worked for me with FAST30),” he wrote. He also shared the link to Walmart’s online store listing for single bananas.
“If code doesn’t work, try switching to pickup. If that doesn’t work, add a banana (weirdly this worked for me with FAST30).”
The trick worked for him.
Players Followed Through
Players did exactly what Wario64 suggested. Some shared pictures of the games they bought alongside the accompanying bananas. It is impossible to say how many people followed through with the trick, but the evidence is visible on the screen.
If you visit Walmart’s banana page right now, it says the item is currently out of stock, at least for online shipping. The account that posted the trick, Wario64, made the workaround easy to follow by sharing a direct link to the store’s single banana listing.
Physical Copies Are Low Too
The banana shortage is not the only thing running low. Walmart is also running low on physical copies of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. The game costs $80 for boxed copies, and lots of players have reportedly opted to pay that higher price rather than buy the cheaper digital version.
The physical version is listed as “Low Stock” on Walmart’s website. It has also been out of stock at various points on Amazon between launch day and now.
The Pokopia Comparison
There is a pattern here. When a game is hard to get, people pay extra for it. We saw something similar happen with Pokémon Pokopia, which was tough to get a physical version of the month it came out.
The question remains: is the shortage due to strong demand or limited production? Either way, the result is the same: the game is moving.
What This Says About Physical Games
This story shows that when a discount code breaks, people find a way to pay full price anyway. The banana trick worked because it was a simple, shareable fix. The fact that Walmart ran out of bananas online is proof enough that people were trying it.
The physical shortage is harder to explain. The game costs $80 for a box, which is more than the digital version. Players are paying that premium anyway. Whether that proves physical game buying is still thriving is open to debate, but one thing is clear: where there is a Wario64, there is a way.
The Verdict on the Banana Cheats
The story is a small one, but it carries a larger point about how deals spread online. A post with a workaround can move a product fast. For now, the memory of Walmart’s online banana page being empty lives on.
For now, the lesson is simple. If a discount code breaks, try adding a banana. Just be ready to pay full price when the code stops working.
Source material: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Fans Cause Online Banana Shortage At Walmart,” Kotaku.
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