Nintendo Wants to Avoid the Decade’s Most Disappointing Console Trend
Nintendo doesn't want you driving a town over to find a Switch 2...
It should be a lot easier to find a Switch 2 than it was to find a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. At least, according to Nintendo’s top executives.
During a general meeting and Q&A session with company shareholders last month, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that the company plans to significantly increase its manufacturing efforts for the elusive Switch successor to ward off scalpers.
“As a countermeasure against resale, we believe that the most important thing is to produce a solid number of products that can meet customer demand,” Furukawa said, according to a translation of the Q&A.
Shuntaro Furukawa says the Switch successor won’t suffer the same pitfalls as the last three major console launches in gaming.
Nintendo won’t just rely on its ability to make enough units in time for launch. It will also try to cut out resellers at the source through more extraneous means.
“We are considering whether we can take some measures within the scope permitted by laws and regulations, based on the circumstances of each region,” the president elaborated.
This is a reassuring statement from Nintendo’s top boss. The launch of gaming hardware going back to the original Switch in 2017 has been plagued by opportunistic resellers purchasing swathes of console inventory from stores to make a profit. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X were notoriously difficult to find after their November 2020 launches. Online retailers faired no better, as scalpers used bots to help finalize transactions faster than a human could.
Nintendo could be the first to crack down on scalpers in a serious way. Both Sony and Microsoft failed to subvert scalpers at the launch of their respective consoles.
The shortage during those first couple of years is one of the reasons why the current video game consoles on the market have been selling slower than their predecessors. Whether it's because of record high inflation or more gamers switching to PC, by the time PS5s and Xboxes were readily available, many gamers decided that upgrading wasn’t worth the asking price.
Additionally, component shortages exacerbated in the 2020 years slowed console manufacturing to a crawl. Even the Switch was affected by the shortage during the two years stretch. Furukawa said that the shortage “has been resolved,” and shouldn’t impact their current production plans to meet the demand for the Switch successor.
Even two years after its November 2020 release, PlayStation 5 units were hard to come by.
If Nintendo can crack down on rampant resellers ruining the launch of their new console, they could set an example for competitors to follow. Xbox and PlayStation tested methods of subverting scalpers, like allowing players to apply for a chance to purchase a console through its official website. However, these methods proved to be more cumbersome than intuitive.
As someone who had to drive to a different part of the state to secure a Switch and a copy of The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild at launch, I say it’s about time companies begin taking this issue seriously. It’s bad enough that scalpers have ruined the concert ticket market. At the very least, console manufacturers don’t have to interface with an industry-ruling do-nothing entity like Ticketmaster. It’s to the benefit of companies like Nintendo to figure out how to deliver a console to everyone willing to pay for one. Here’s to hoping for their success.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that its next console will be announced sometime this fiscal year, which ends March 2025.
