The Nintendo Switch is Scarce As Holidays Approach

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monkeymagick

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Nintendo fans will have to work extra hard this coming holiday season. It seems that the video game maker is facing supply issues with its latest hardware due to the limited availability of components for the system. The company is no stranger to having inventory issues with its popular gaming systems. There have been past accusations of the company building "artificial" shortages to create demand for the items.

...Nintendo says it is working hard to ramp up production, with a target of 10 million units this fiscal year, but the Journal reports there are shortages of flash memory and batteries, and that the console's detachable wireless controllers have proven tough to make.
 
The shortage repelled me from buying one. I have exactly zero desire for one even if I find one.

If the local store had any in stock I might have been tempted, but it's far too late now.
 
glutto said:
The shortage repelled me from buying one. I have exactly zero desire for one even if I find one.

If the local store had any in stock I might have been tempted, but it's far too late now.
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This is exactly why I no longer purchase Nintendo products myself. If I can't even buy the console without paying a scalper exorbitant prices due to Nintendo's shortage of supply then I do not need the product.
 
I've wondered in Game Stop having about 10 of them at one point.

I probably should've bought them all and sold them on ebay a small profit. I'd want one when/if a mobile actual pokemon game comes out for it.
 
NeoNemesis said:
Starting to wonder if it's a marketing technique or merely gross incompetence.
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I've come to the conclusion that Nintendo is the only large corporation in the world that actually dislikes money.

no_money-2buqcue.png
 
westrock2000 said:
I've come to the conclusion that Nintendo is the only large corporation in the world that actually dislikes money.

no_money-2buqcue.png
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I might have to agree. Went into Gamestop the other day while waiting for my haircut (it's right next door). Saw they had Nintendo Switches behind the counter. Asked to purchase one and the guy said that they have reached an agreement with Nintendo that the only way they can sell a Switch is if you buy it with 3 accessories and/or games. So 2 games, 1 accessory or any combination of. I said I don't want any of that stuff. He said don't you want any games? I said no because I only want to buy digital. Then I asked what their cheapest accessories were? And he said screen protectors for $15 each (which you can probably get on Amazon or eBay for like $5 or less). I was like, "What? How can Nintendo dictate to me how I spend my money, or what I do with what I buy?" The guy said that this is done to prevent scalping.

Needless to say I left Gamestop without a Switch because that's complete bullshit. Why does Nintendo give a fuck if people scalp? Nintendo gets the money for the sale either way. Are they just jealous they're not making more? It's bullshit. The way to prevent this is to only allow one Switch sale per household and problem solved (not for houses with multiple kids).
 
That being said, we managed to snag the one Switch (the rainbow one even) that a local Best Buy had a couple months ago and so far I really like it. Limited content, limited online capability. But it has some really cool features and it's very responsive.
 
zamardii12 said:
I might have to agree. Went into Gamestop the other day while waiting for my haircut (it's right next door). Saw they had Nintendo Switches behind the counter. Asked to purchase one and the guy said that they have reached an agreement with Nintendo that the only way they can sell a Switch is if you buy it with 3 accessories and/or games.
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That's interesting, I saw a sign on a Gamestop saying the same thing, though it didn't allude to any agreement. I thought it was just the store itself.

But ya, the NES mini, SNES mini, Switch. They just do not want to sell product. They are worse then Disney use to be with the "movie vault". At least Disney EVENTUALLY made stuff available again.
 
westrock2000 said:
That's interesting, I saw a sign on a Gamestop saying the same thing, though it didn't allude to any agreement. I thought it was just the store itself.
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That's the way he explained it to me that it's a Nintendo policy being enforced through Gamestop.
 
NES Classic, SNES Classic, Switch....

While they are all good hardware and desirable I give no fucks about purchasing one because I'm not going to scramble about and get into the middle of a bidding war with thousands of other people over something nintendo just doesn't want to make enough of. I'd love a NES classic, MSRP on the thing was $59 -- and they are all $150-300 amazon/ebay. hell they could have made even more money by incorporating a pay for classic games sort of thing download... $1.99 here or there for old favorites and turn the Classic into a money printing machine.

They had multiple chances at my money and fucked up on every single one.
 
zamardii12 said:
I might have to agree. Went into Gamestop the other day while waiting for my haircut (it's right next door). Saw they had Nintendo Switches behind the counter. Asked to purchase one and the guy said that they have reached an agreement with Nintendo that the only way they can sell a Switch is if you buy it with 3 accessories and/or games. So 2 games, 1 accessory or any combination of. I said I don't want any of that stuff. He said don't you want any games? I said no because I only want to buy digital. Then I asked what their cheapest accessories were? And he said screen protectors for $15 each (which you can probably get on Amazon or eBay for like $5 or less). I was like, "What? How can Nintendo dictate to me how I spend my money, or what I do with what I buy?" The guy said that this is done to prevent scalping.

Needless to say I left Gamestop without a Switch because that's complete bullshit. Why does Nintendo give a fuck if people scalp? Nintendo gets the money for the sale either way. Are they just jealous they're not making more? It's bullshit. The way to prevent this is to only allow one Switch sale per household and problem solved (not for houses with multiple kids).
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Not sure if it is Nintendo or Gamestop that is doing the funny business here. I remember reading that Gamestop was in a bad state financially and recently were doing a bit better due to Switch sales. Their CEO specifically bragged about the fact in his press conference that the "attach rate" was 5:1 or the rate at which people were buying other accessory items which are profitable for Gamestop. This was the main bright spot in their earnings report.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/41...ines-q2-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript

It is likely that the sales persons at GameStop are under tremendous pressure to sell accessories/games with the Switch because that is a number that investors (and thus his bosses) care about. If I had to guess, I would hazard that this a sales rep making up stuff to make sure he hits his "attach rate" target so that he gets his commissions/bonus-- so he blames it on Nintendo knowing that most people would just bite the bullet and buy it anyways. I could be wrong but I have not heard of this being a policy at other retailers.
 
collegeboy69us said:
NES Classic, SNES Classic, Switch....

While they are all good hardware and desirable I give no fucks about purchasing one because I'm not going to scramble about and get into the middle of a bidding war with thousands of other people over something nintendo just doesn't want to make enough of. I'd love a NES classic, MSRP on the thing was $59 -- and they are all $150-300 amazon/ebay. hell they could have made even more money by incorporating a pay for classic games sort of thing download... $1.99 here or there for old favorites and turn the Classic into a money printing machine.

They had multiple chances at my money and fucked up on every single one.
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The thing is to wait. I mean think about it; Nintendo has a lot of great IPs that I want to play. I am in no hurry to get a Switch, and this time next year or probably even by next summer there will be plenty of Switches on the shelves as well as a library of games to support it. Right now the games aren't anything I can't play on my Wii U or wait for so I am not stressing about it, but that Gamestop shit about not allowing me to buy from them unless I buy 3 accessories is horseshit.
 
GreenOrbs said:
It is likely that the sales persons at GameStop are under tremendous pressure to sell accessories/games with the Switch because that is a number that investors (and thus his bosses) care about. If I had to guess, I would hazard that this a sales rep making up stuff to make sure he hits his "attach rate" target so that he gets his commissions/bonus-- so he blames it on Nintendo knowing that most people would just bite the bullet and buy it anyways. I could be wrong but I have not heard of this being a policy at other retailers.
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Somehow I doubt that this one sales rep lied to me when there was another one right next to him and a bunch of people around me. If they want to sell accessories that's one thing, but to lie and say that they CAN'T sell a Switch without some other purchases attached to it sounds like something someone else told him to do/say such as a manager or higher up.
 
The real kick in the nuts is that Nintendo has a bad track record of releasing the "New New Super Ultra Version 5" console. By the time everyone who wants a switch gets one, it'll become obsolete. I wish they'd just release a damn console, specs be dammed, and then release one of EVERY fan favorite IP for said console. They could have sold billions of WiiUs if, oh I dunno, they released a Zelda, Metroid, etc. on it.

But no, Nintendo will keep making new consoles with controller gimmicks instead of what they are loved for - great games...
 
I'm not saying that the forced purchases aren't a Gamestop or store policy... I'm saying that it might not be Nintendo that was requiring it. One question for you: Did the store require you to buy NINTENDO branded accessories or ANY accessories? If any accessory qualified then you know that it wasn't Nintendo since Gamestop and not Nintendo would be the one making the profit on it.

It's not unthinkable that the management of the store was the one forcing sales reps to tell this story (even if untrue). Remember the Wells Fargo disaster where managers were forcing the bankers under them to illegally open banking accounts without permission so that they could get their bonuses? I bet the manager's bonuses are also tied to attach rate. In fact, I feel that it is even more likely that the managers were the ones who came up with this story. Sales rep might actually believe what he is telling you.
 
It took me alot longer than I liked to get mine. I eventually just had to start checking the games section when I went to the store. If they didn't have it, I didn't think about it until next time.
 
It's Nintendo. It's in their playbook. This is what they do. It's nothing new, it's just how they do things. See, they're successful! Look at how fast they sold out! Look at how much people are paying for them! W0W!
 
I casually walked into Wally World one day and saw they had 6 in the case, so I bought one. It's actually a nice little system, but fuck Nintendo and their accessory pricing. Those controllers are not worth $70 a pop for the Pro or $80 for the Joycon pair.
 
How many times are they going to use the "we underestimated demand" excuse?

As dumb as it is, I have to believe that is actually is the case. No company would be this stupid on purpose. Fake shortages then pump up stock for holiday is the way to go. As it stands they still won't have stock for holiday so the money grab ain't the reason. They just seem to suck at the logistical sides of business and production.
 
Same tricks every time.

I wonder how many times people will buy mario kong smash kart before they get sick of it.
 
They're probably accomplishing keeping production costs as low as possible,
while keeping it only in the hands of the dedicated consumer.

The average consumer is NOT going to be happy with the Switch.
It's limited online functionality and lack of AAA 3rd party content are the missing things
the average consumer expects to be able to use. Can't Netflix... only Mario games.

I'm a dedicated consumer however, and i still love it.
 
It is easy to blame Nintendo for shortages, especially as they have a history of it, but I do wonder if there might be some truth to this one. There are memory shortages. In fact we have been warned of NAND flash shortages for the past couple months. If everyone is having trouble getting enough supply of chips then it could stand to reason that Nintendo is having issues as well.

The Wall Street Journal is claiming that Nintendo wants to reach 18 million Switchs produced and shipped by the end of the year. While Gamespot is estimating that the system will remain hard to find all through the holidays.
 
I have one on my ebay page... not asking too much but hey why not... just look for acidrain97...
 
N4CR said:
Same tricks every time.

I wonder how many times people will buy mario kong smash kart before they get sick of it.
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I love Mario Kong Smash Kart. I'm a gamer!

The first party Nintendo games are always great. I don't get sick of them. I get sick of Nintendo's gimmicks, pricing, and availability.
 
Inu said:
They're probably accomplishing keeping production costs as low as possible,
while keeping it only in the hands of the dedicated consumer.

The average consumer is NOT going to be happy with the Switch.
It's limited online functionality and lack of AAA 3rd party content are the missing things
the average consumer expects to be able to use. Can't Netflix... only Mario games.

I'm a dedicated consumer however, and i still love it.
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Wrong. I'm exactly the average consumer and I bought an Xbox one last year and a Nintendo switch last month.

The only thing I do with my xbox one is play sports games locally with my friends a few times a month and that doesn't happen every month because working people have busy lives and kids. However with my awesome nintendo switch I can play Zelda when I have some spare time because it's portable, very easy to use and the controls are not overly complicated/retarded like most xbox one games.

Also when I have it docked and my baby starts crying and the wife is busy doing house chores, I can put it to "sleep" and forget about it for as long as I want and then come back and WOW my game is exactly where I left it without consuming 100W all the time.
 
Ur_Mom said:
I love Mario Kong Smash Kart. I'm a gamer!

The first party Nintendo games are always great. I don't get sick of them. I get sick of Nintendo's gimmicks, pricing, and availability.
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Fair enough and I can't say I have tried them for a very long time - do they have much variation between the various versions these days? For a while it seemed just like rehashes.
Zelda though I can understand the appeal.
 
The must buy 3 acc is 100% GameStop. They been doing the package deal thing on everything that is in demand. Nintendo doesn't care if GS sales acc cause they already got their money from GS for them.
 
N4CR said:
Fair enough and I can't say I have tried them for a very long time - do they have much variation between the various versions these days? For a while it seemed just like rehashes.
Zelda though I can understand the appeal.
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Doesn't matter if Mario Kart and smash bros is the same as always, they will sell anyway because Microsoft and Sony are unable to grasp the concept of local play and fun games, all they understand is FPS! Call of Duty and omg my console has 100 trillion gazillion teraflops of power!
 
Well, that's good for Nintendo, but I wish they would develop and release a console that would compete directly with MS and Sony. Competition is a wonderful thing when it comes to consumers. IE, AMD, after many years of dormancy, finally being a thorn in Intel's side. The more players, the better innovations and pricing that come to us.
 
ymer said:
Doesn't matter if Mario Kart and smash bros is the same as always, they will sell anyway because Microsoft and Sony are unable to grasp the concept of local play and fun games, all they understand is FPS! Call of Duty and omg my console has 100 trillion gazillion teraflops of power!
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Gotcha. Lack of local play/coop and 2P stuff these days pisses me off to, it's rare enough on PC with modern releases. Love that type of gaming.
 
vegeta535 said:
The must buy 3 acc is 100% GameStop. They been doing the package deal thing on everything that is in demand. Nintendo doesn't care if GS sales acc cause they already got their money from GS for them.
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This is exactly right. Gamestop is notorious for wanting to bundle all the things so they can have bigger sales.

As far as shortages go I have seen a few sitting on the shelf at walmart for the last few weeks. Guess it just really depends on the area you are in if they have them or not.
 
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