Nintendo Basically Just Told Switch 2 Console Scalpers To Go Pound Sand
In no uncertain terms, Nintendo is planning to release a "successor" to its incredibly popular Switch console, which is something Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa went on record saying a little over a month ago. We'll have to wait for more details on things like hardware specifications, features, and pricing. In the meantime, however, Furukawa saw fit to bring up Nintendo's next game console, this time with comments about how the company plans on combating scalpers.
Put simply, Furukawa told investors that as a countermeasure to scalping, the most important part of Nintendo's plan is to "produce the number [of units] that can meet the customer's needs firmly, and this idea has not changed from last year."
Some of Furukawa's statement may have been lost to translation (we used Google Translate), but the gist of it is clear—supply enough consoles at the outset to meet demand. That's basic economics, but is that a reasonable expectation? You may recall that Nintendo made a similar promise ahead of the original Switch's release in 2017, saying it intended on inundating the market with 2 million units so as not to replicate that the same shortage that potential buyers faced with the NES Classic. Even so, the Switch was difficult to come by at times.
It wasn't just at launch, either. A global pandemic and subsequent chip shortage hit the tech industry hard. Even in 2020, the Switch was often times difficult to find in stock, with scalpers turning to auto-purchasing bots to get a leg up on consumers.
Looking ahead to the Switch 2 (or Switch Pro or whatever Nintendo's next game console ends up being called), Furukawa added, "The situation has been resolved. We do not think that the shortage of components, etc., will have a major impact on production."
That's promising, though given how popular the Switch is, we'll have to wait and see if Nintendo can actually flood the market with enough units at launch to meet demand.
Perhaps most interesting, however, is a comment suggesting some type of legal action against scalpers and/or to prevent resales at marked up prices.
"We are considering whether we can take any measures within the scope of legal restrictions, talking into account the circumstances of each region," Furukawa added.
In all reality, hoping for regulatory processes to prevent scalping is probably an unrealistic expectation. It might also be unrealistic to expect that the Switch 2 will readily available to each gamer who wants to buy one on launch day, or even shortly thereafter, despite Furukawa's comments to investors (PDF). We shall see.
