Update [Fri 5th Jul, 2024 10:30 BST]:
Nintendo has provided the official translation for the question regarding Switch successor production:
"We believe that the most important countermeasure against reselling is to produce enough units to meet demand. This thinking has not changed since last year. In addition, we are taking into account circumstances in each region and considering what measures can be taken within the limits permitted by law.
"Last year and the year before, we were unable to produce Nintendo Switch hardware in sufficient quantities due to the semiconductor shortage. That situation has now been resolved. As for the successor to Nintendo Switch, at present we do not think shortages of components will significantly affect production."
During Nintendo's recent shareholder meeting, president Shuntaro Furukawa touched on a subject that will no doubt be playing on the minds of gamers worldwide as we move ever closer to the reveal of the Switch successor: scalpers.
Last year, Nintendo already expressed its interest in reducing the number of scalping incidents relating to new hardware by simply ensuring that the company "produce and ship in numbers that can meet customer demand". At June's shareholder meeting this year, Furukawa reiterated this desire but crucially indicated that the component shortage issue plaguing the gaming industry over the last few years is seemingly no longer affecting Nintendo.
In a translation via IGN, Furukawa stated the following:
“Although we were unable to produce sufficient quantities of Nintendo Switch hardware last year and the year before due to a shortage of semiconductor components, this situation has now been resolved. At this time, we do not believe that the shortage of components will have a significant impact on the production of the successor model.”
This is certainly good news, then, for those hoping to pick up the console on day one (whenever that is). If there's one thing that defined the launch of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X in 2020, it's that nobody could get their hands on the darn things for months at a time, with fresh restocks being swiped by customers (and scalpers) in as little as a few minutes.
If Nintendo can produce enough units of the Switch successor to meet demand and supplement this with a strong launch lineup of games, then we suspect the company will be off to a good start.
What are your thoughts on Nintendo's method of combating scalpers? Do you think more needs to be done? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.
[source ign.com]
Comments 53
I will still be placing my order as soon as pre orders go live, I think there will be a massive demand and still be sold out for the first few months. I'm also hoping there's more day one colour schemes this time.
Cool, they need to make a lot to fit the demand.
As long as the preorders aren't going to immediately sell out within hours, that'll do me. I would be quite annoyed to miss out on one at launch.
how many next gen systems does Nintendo plan to manufacture for its initial launch? anything under 5 million won't be enough
Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. It may not be like 2020, but any new system launch will have extremely high demand in the first few months.
After Switch launched in March, I couldn’t get my own until June with my sister and Dad’s help. Thankfully, I’m in no dying rush at all for Switch 2, especially if it’s just a boring upgrade, so it wouldn’t kill me to wait just as long if I must.
Count me in the preorder for the new handheld. Scalpers are definitely going to try, hoping their appetites got soured after trying to buy up all those portable PCs (including the Steam Deck).
I have a feeling I will be pre-ordering just incase. But if they can meet the demand, perhaps one of the reasons for the delay, that would be great. Killer software+available hardware would rock
Happy to hear that's the case, looking forward to the Switch 2 announcement whenever it happens within this fiscal year and then getting one myself as soon as I can - fingers crossed my usual retailer will have it available for preorder as that would mean me getting it day one and potentially even slightly discounted!
""produce and ship in numbers that can meet customer demand"
Best way to meet customer demand w/ a limited item destined for eBay is too charge a lot of money for it at retail so the scalpers feel like it's too big of a risk and there is less customer demand.
Switch $299 at launch, still $299 7 years later
Switch Lite $199 at launch, still $199
Switch OLED $349
Switch 2 will be $399 at least, which may cut down on demand for parents looking to buy 1 for a kid to toss it into their backpack to take it to school. Still cheaper than PS5 and Xbox Series X but unless Nintendo changes the form factor it's still a tablet.
Who knows, maybe Nintendo makes it $499 to really cut down on the scalping. 🤑
Honestly probably the easiest and simplest way to cut down on scalping is to launch it in March when parents aren't looking to buy a big expensive gift. If Nintendo waits until November to launch it then everyone will be looking to buy. That's how holiday retail shopping frenzies work.
@rjejr PS5 was over £500 and that didn't stop scalpers, in fact scalpers were charging up to £1000 on ebay for the first 6 months.
The moment preprders open this I will be getting mine! but good to know they are already working to avoid a supply/demand issue.
I hope scalpers don't make no profit from this. I don't like scalpers and the people who buy from them.
I mean currently I'm no eager beaver for the next console, I've got plenty to do to keep me busy. If the software line up is insane I may preorder but I'm fairly certain I'll just be grabbing it after that fact.
The only reason I’ve been “okay” with the wait til next year for the successor is that the rumors of the release plan is to make sure there are plenty of systems available. Hearing this is the case right from the most reliable source around has made me feel at ease.
till we get actual info on switch 2 lets wait see how this plays out.
I like my Oled Switch so I’ll hold out depending on the quality and compatibility of the launch library
My only concern (other than when they are going to show it) is that if you stock up to early on components, you might end up with something that is relatively dated when it's released.
Kit (from Kit and Krysta) was saying they could make sure their most committed fans avoid scalpers by selling a certain number of units directly through Nintendo.com to NSO members with a quantity limit per account, like how the wireless N64 controllers were.
If you're making a WiiU again you also won't have component shortages xD
I will likely sit this launch out (too many switch games to play) while I wait on a Zelda edition but it’s good to know Nintendo is trying to be prepared for demand.
I am trying to only buy one Nintendo system next gen. Love Nintendo but I gotta stop buying multiple consoles.
Good. I’ve never gotten a console day one and I was worried about that for this console
Not interested until backward compatibility is confirmed.
Just give me confirmation that it's not digital only (and it can run original switch carts) and I will be happy
Three members of my family got a PS5.
The first of us got lucky: a friend of a friend bought one to scalp a few months after launch, but my friend shamed them into selling it to me for effectively MSRP.
We got the next one a year later, via Sony's direct to PSN member ordering system.
The next was another year after that.
It helped that there was nothing of particular note (well, Deathloop) for a long time, and that it could do crossplay with the PS4.
I doubt that will be the case with the Switch 2 (opposite Sony, Nintendo is typically strong out the gate with a weaker tailend). Which means I hope very much they do something to put the consoles into the hands of the consumers. Specifically me
The word usage is interesting there, 'successor model'. Unless its a translation issue, to me that seems like an acknowledgement of a 'Switch 2', not an entirely new console/concept i.e. a new model as a replacement of the old
Do away with pre-orders. Make people either go to the store to buy them or buy them through a store front at or after the release date.
@ozwally Well they would be foolish not to keep the hybrid model.
I still enjoy my current Switch so I probably won't be able to pick up the Switch 2 until its second year that is unless there's a great launch title by Nintendo or Sega that absolutely persuade to buy one during the launch year.
Wow there is usually so much that can and always will go wrong with supply and demand of consoles that I'm very surprised they made a public statement expressing their confidence in meeting the demand. I guess we shall see if this is true.
Despite my excitement for the new console, I'll probably wait and buy until year 2.
@BenAV I don't know if there's been many consoles that haven't sold out very quickly. I think it's kind of inevitable.
Nobody wants to risk making a 2600 Pac-Man of consoles.
I’ll hold out on Preordering for about 10 seconds if I’m on the toilet or something. It’s been about 5 years since the rumours were first started about a successor by a bunch of complete morons. I’m ready for it 👍🏻
Hopefully there is enough in stock for most of the pre-orders. But I still have to ask. Why do pre-orders sell out at all? Why can't I pre-order the new Switch and get it whenever it's available, even if that's months later, after they make another batch? Must be a retail thing.
One of the reasons scalpers succeed is people miss out on pre-orders and can't find the item in stores. Then FOMO and panic kicks in and people spend 2x the retail cost. If there were open pre-orders all the time, and you're guaranteed a new Switch at some point, why wouldn't you just do that?
@Crono1973 it really is a great concept, I think they’d struggle where to go next, which I mean as a compliment to the design they have
I'm expecting cross-gen releases for the first few years, so I'm planning to stay on the OLED a bit longer. But, of course, killer Switch 2-exclusive content - say, an open-world Mario, or an expanded version of TOTK - will have me change my mind in a second.
@Thomystic That would be an excellent idea.
@KingMike I'll definitely be preordering it as soon as it's available. Just don't want them to wake up in the morning to find that preorders have already come and gone before I got the chance.
Easy, let everyone with a nintendo account 3+ months old or whatever make a preorder for the new console on the nintendo site. Done ☑️
@UltimateOtaku91 I wonder how many people who overpaid scalpers have already sold theirs, or at the very least have regret?
Switch 2 will sell as many as they make regardless of the price, which Nintendo knows, so I don't think it will be a cheap console.
If they can't produce enough to avoid scalpers (death to every single one of them), I'll just wait and enjoy discounted game when I eventually buy one, just like I did with the PS5.
@rjejr How does your comment in any way address what @UltimateOtaku91 said? If anything, what you wrote implies you agree no matter how high the price is, it will sell. So by your own logic, your original idea that increasing the price will stop scalpers is flawed.
Scalpers deserve to get malware because I loathe the very existence of them. Increasing stock is a good idea, just limit the purchase to one per customer when it's in-store, online find a way to have a bot-blocker of some sort if that's a real thing.
@AmyTheBrawler-64 This will define e-commerce for the next decade. How will retailers innovate on combating digital scalping by scummy individuals utilizing bots and AI to instant-click huge sums of orders, either spoofed by a VPN, using multiple accounts, or otherwise?
@Taguon "How does your comment in any way address what @UltimateOtaku91 said?"
I already addressed what they said in my previous comment, the part that they ignored, so why should I address them not addressing me a second time?
I previously said:
"Switch 2 will be $399 at least, which may cut down on demand for parents looking to buy 1 for a kid to toss it into their backpack to take it to school."
They then replied with:
"PS5 was over £500 and that didn't stop scalpers, in fact scalpers were charging up to £1000 on ebay for the first 6 months."
So unless you know of a lot of parents who bought their kids PS5s to toss in their backpack to take to school...🤷♂️
My idea is not flawed, it is called nuance. Yes the Switch 2 will sell, and likely sell out, for it's first few months. But, and here's the nuance part FYI, there is a big difference between selling out where people can walk into a store, see one on a shelf, and buy it, or look online at Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop etc for a few days and find one, and selling out to the point where all preorders are sold out in a matter of seconds and store employees are making sure they get sold to friends, family, etc, before even putting them on the shelves.
So yes, they will all sell out for a few months, but if you can find 1 in a week or so by looking at different places that's different than having to wait 6 months and get lucky in a lottery like I did for my PS5.
So there's "sold out" where you have no shot, and "sold out" where if you take some time to look you can find one NOT on eBay. But yes, eventually they will all sell out for about the first 3 years if you plan on buying 1 by randomly walking into a physical store once a month.
@rjejr Tbf my original comment to you was in reply to the first part of your comment.
Best way to meet customer demand w/ a limited item destined for eBay is too charge a lot of money for it at retail so the scalpers feel like it's too big of a risk and there is less customer demand.
So I was just pointing out that the PS5 was expensive and Scalpers still didn't see it as a risk.
@rjejr Sorry to dig into this more but you are connecting points seemingly at random to try and make a cohesive argument. Your point about parents buying an expensive electronic device has absolutely no bearing on a console being unavailable to purchase (besides, plenty of parents buy their kids smartphones which can easily run more than $500 these days). Then there is a lengthy discussion about the semantics of "sold out" which came totally out of left field since the discussion was about how increasing the price of a "thing" would stop scalping. You then proceed to explain how your original point doesn't make any sense by explaining that the more expensive PS5 was not available for months (and, while you didn't mention this, was a hot eBay item for a long time).
The crux of your original post was to offer a suggestion that increasing the price will slow down scalping. UltimateOtaku91 said having an expensive console like the PS5 did not slow down scalping. You have not offered up any reasonable data to showcase why a more expensive Switch will slow down scalping. Obviously, if they charge like $1000 it will slow it down, but that will also simply slow down sales all around. Whatever the price of the Switch is, assuming Nintendo doesn't go off the deep end and charge more than $500, won't slow down scalping. Period. Unless there are measures in place to make it impossible for people to get ahold of a bunch of them OR Nintendo truly has enough systems in the market, scalping will be a problem.
@Taguon At least the funniest ebay scalper I can remember is one that asked like $8000 or whatever for a Wii U on launch, along with a box of Twinkees.
That was because the Wii U launch coincided with the bankruptcy of the original Hostess company, so this little enterprising individual tried to capitalize on two markets at once. Gaming and Americans afraid they might go a few months without a dead snack before someone else inevitably bought it and brought it back on the market.
@KingMike Hahaha, I had not heard about that before - love it! We are wired to be afraid of scarcity and sometimes will do silly things... like buying thousand dollar Twinkies 🤣
Lol no matter how many consoles they bring on day one, this machine will me sold out in seconds 😂😂
@Qwiff I'm expecting a deluxe edition of TotK as a launch title with extra story content, my personal wish would be the actual rebuilding of Hyrule but I don't think Nintendo cares much for that kind of concept
Strangely, I've never pre-ordered a new system. While I did boycott the Wii and WU era, I just walked into a regular chain store on release day and bought a Switch, GC and N64, respectively. Same with games: I just go in and buy them. For Switch 2, I probably won't risk it, and pre-order.
@Taguon "You have not offered up any reasonable data to showcase why a more expensive Switch will slow down scalping."
Accept for the 2nd thing I said in my very first post, wat back up at #9, which you just continue to ignore, and then act like I don't know what I'm saying.
"which may cut down on demand for parents looking to buy 1 for a kid to toss it into their backpack to take it to school."
Parents buy their kids $500 smartphones b/c they want their kids to be able to call and text them "Good bye, I love you" just before getting shot to death at school. A phone is a NECESSITY in modern America, and $500 is what a CHEAP iPhone costs these days. (Just dawned on me maybe you aren't in America so may have missed that point, I keep forgetting how international this place is with everyone speaking English, that's on me.)
So anyway, $500 for a handheld videogame console may be too much for a parent to spend on a kid's toy when $500 for a "peace of mind" iPhone is not. For the record I have 2 kids and neither has ever had more than a $200 phone on sale for $100 but I'm a cheap Android guy not Apple. Also, $500 may not seem like too much for a big ole PS5 but I'm guessing those are mostly purchased by the gamer, not the parent, so the scalping is different as well. Therefore, big PS5 at $500 may be the same as Switch at $300 but not Switch 2 at $500. If Nintendo wants to cut down on scalping $500 should do it, no need to go to $1,000.
I think it will be $400 at launch, the scalping will be bad, and this guy was basically blowing smoke cooperate style. Their best hope is making 10 million before launch and releasing it in like February while everyone i spaying off holiday bills, announce it end of January.
Maybe that's how they'll actually cut down on scalping, don't announce it until like days before launch, no preorders. 🤷♂️
@UltimateOtaku91 I didn't have any problem w/ what you said, if I did I would have addressed it in my reply to you, I was just replying to the other person about what I said to you.
@rjejr All's good mate. Thanks for responding. I guess we can agree to disagree! By all accounts you agree that $500 isn't that much since it's a cheap smartphone. I totally agree that parents aren't buying a $500 console so their kids can throw it into their backpacks (I'm just going to overlook this altogether since I wager any parent that doesn't care about $300 probably won't mind spending $500 for that console).
At the end of the day, all of your points logically suggest that even at $500, scalping will still be a problem. It will not slow it down at all. Will that price point stop a devil-may-care child/parent relationship? Maybe. Sure. But, my friend, how many real sales do you think that actually accounts for? A few percent at most? There are plenty of parents who bought a Switch for their kid and that kid uses a case and takes care of it.
At the end of the day, I'm not even arguing with your ideas. That's your take and that's super cool. I have no idea why I responded to your comment in the first place, haha. I've been a lurker on this site for 10 years or something but made an account to chime in... shrug
All I'm trying to get across is that a price increase of $200 will not impact the scalping market at all. And, yeah! I hope they really do something awesome like make millions at the start. Shortages at console launches suck.
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