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Nintendo: Switch shortages are “definitely not intentional”

maxcriden

Member
I don't think there was a ton of money to be made on the NES Classic at $60, which is probably why it was discontinued so quickly.

Good point. Thank you. I do think Nintendo would have made more had they gauged demand and had the production line capacity for it, though.
 

Calm Mind

Member
Many posters will be like

I-dont-believe-you.gif

And they would be wrong because those who actually know the components for making Switch are being monopolized by Apple, Inc at the time and will improve the closer we get to Fall because (Apple) next production phase will be winding down.
 

brawly

Member
You have to either be among the most cynical people in the world, a manipulator/liar, or just generally ignorant to spin this into incompetence. If in my business we had so much demand we could not keep up with demand temporarily, that is called growth and success. It takes time to staff good people in that case - just like it takes time to get the parts they need in his case.

If you're a multi-billion dollar company and you can't supply a central european country for almost four month then clearly something is wrong.
 

Shang

Member
If you're a multi-billion dollar company and you can't supply a central european country for almost four month then clearly something is wrong.

That something is lack of resources. I believe one of the chips used in the Switch is also in most modern smartphones, and it's been more or less a bidding war to see who gets them. Nintendo can't outbid Apple
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Interviewer: But why do you not like our money? Why do you intentionally avoid meeting the demand for Switch?

Nintendo Rep: You know, money is good but it's also evil... It's just funnier to have people want it and not having it and we're all about FUN
 

Lothars

Member
System has only been out for 3 months.

It takes time to sort out these production issues.

I wonder if demand would have this high if the system had not launched with zelda.
It's Nintendo, it will take them forever to fix the production issues. I don't believe the switch shortages are intentional but I do think they continously drop the ball and I have no faith in them getting it right.
 
If you're a multi-billion dollar company and you can't supply a central european country for almost four month then clearly something is wrong.

What do you expect them to do? Outbid Apple for the NAND flash storage chips? Apple, the largest tech company in the world?

There's incompetence and then there's just poor timing (and luck).
 

Papacheeks

Banned
A lot of people believe Nintendo intentionally create shortages to drive demand via artificial scarcity. I do not believe this is the case. With amiibo, part of the issue was the port strike. With NES Classic, Nintendo simply did not understand the demand (or perhaps there was some other reason - but I don't believe they intentionally under shipped or intentionally left money on the table in that way).

(Well, it could be argued they're leaving money on the table now by discontinuing it, but maybe they figure they can make more with a revised model (or SNES version) launched at a different time that doesn't take attention from Switch.)

So again like with the NES classic they miss-judged demand? So they are incompetent is what your saying right?


Just like the issues they had with Amiibo's and the way certain retailers were making them exclusive in the beginning.

Nintendo needs someone over there to help properly run their product/hardware division. They could have acquired way more prior to global launch to have some kind of buffer.

What do you expect them to do? Outbid Apple for the NAND flash storage chips? Apple, the largest tech company in the world?

There's incompetence and then there's just poor timing (and luck).


If they had prepared better prior to their launch they wouldn't be in this mess. They were building up supply in December leading into 2017, there's no excuse to not for a new console to have a good amount of extra consoles made during a non holiday.

That's on Nintendo for not doing proper research in who else has big orders and contracts with certain manufacturing. A lot of this could have been mitigated. PS4/XBOX sold 1 million a piece in like 24 hours or something along those lines and they didn't even launch globally.

I hear everyone saying "they were being conservative" I'm like if you have all the buzz in the fall for people wanting a switch and people wanting NES classic it's not hard to see that your in the limelight and should account for that accordingly.
 

EMT0

Banned
ITT: Wafers grow on trees, in the dirt, are as abundant as seaweed, and also they spontaneously appear into existence as complete chipsets with no assembly required, just like in my video games
 

jts

...hate me...
Interviewer: But why do you not like our money? Why do you intentionally avoid meeting the demand for Switch?

Nintendo Rep: You know, money is good but it's also evil... It's just funnier to have people want it and not having it and we're all about FUN

This is the honest answer we deserved.
 

True Fire

Member
I mean, whether or not it's intentional, it's still a problem Nintendo has had ever since they introduced Amiibo.

Wii U must've shook them hard.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
With NES Classic, Nintendo simply did not understand the demand (or perhaps there was some other reason - but I don't believe they intentionally under shipped or intentionally left money on the table in that way).

"Let's be dumb fucks and not even gauge public interest through pre-orders"
 

Cipherr

Member
Company wants to make money.

Company does not self sabotage itself while in pursuit of that goal intentionally.

Its sad that this even has to be said. Jesus Christ.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
I mean, whether or not it's intentional, it's still a problem Nintendo has had ever since they introduced Amiibo.

Wii U must've shook them hard.

But the demand for NES, positive buzz around their mobile, and all the high buzz for switch unveiling in October with lead up on talk shows like jimmy fallon during holidays should be indicators to ramp up production and get some big orders in.
 

PSFan

Member
No one sensible would believe Switch shortages are intentional, especially with ARMS doing well and Splatoon 2 right around the corner.

So you are saying Nintendo would come out and admit they were intentionally shorting a product?
 
If they had prepared better prior to their launch they wouldn't be in this mess. They were building up supply in December leading into 2017, there's no excuse to not for a new console to have a good amount of extra consoles made during a non holiday.

There is an excuse, and it goes something like "Not wanting to sink your company because you overestimated demand on a product twice in a row".
 
A lot of people believe Nintendo intentionally create shortages to drive demand via artificial scarcity. I do not believe this is the case. With amiibo, part of the issue was the port strike. With NES Classic, Nintendo simply did not understand the demand (or perhaps there was some other reason - but I don't believe they intentionally under shipped or intentionally left money on the table in that way).

(Well, it could be argued they're leaving money on the table now by discontinuing it, but maybe they figure they can make more with a revised model (or SNES version) launched at a different time that doesn't take attention from Switch.)

Inside Nintendo HQ:

"Boss, we need to set our manufacturing targets for Switch and NES Classic Mini, how about 15 million units for each?"

"Are you crazy? We can't make that many consoles and still meet the insane market demand for Animal Crossing Amiibo?"
 

The Boat

Member
So many people here knew the Switch was going to sell like this, why doesn't Nintendo hire them? Pure incompetence.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
So you are saying Nintendo would come out and admit they were intentionally shorting a product?

I would expect it to make business sense to undersupply your main product.


Wiiu sold so badly because Nintendo didn't undership it amiright?
 
So it's incompetence. I have no other word for a complete four month shortage.

"I don't understand the current issues facing the tech industry and I don't care to!" That goes to basically every other poster in this thread as well who is trying to blame Nintendo for an issue that almost everyone not named Amazon and Apple are going to be having over the next two years.
 

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
So it's incompetence. I have no other word for a complete four month shortage.

If you're a multi-billion dollar company and you can't supply a central european country for almost four month then clearly something is wrong.

Ah, man, you said you didn't have any other words :(

OT: of course it's not intentional, that's just insane. Hopefully next time they launch new hardware, they hire some of the business savants in the gaming community to make sure everything goes smoothly.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
Company wants to make money.

Company does not self sabotage itself while in pursuit of that goal intentionally.

Its sad that this even has to be said. Jesus Christ.

Basically.

Anyone on "artificial scarcity" camp. Propose this to any company. Please try it.
 

gamerMan

Member
Nintendo is secretly keeping them stashed so they can drive up demand. They will release them in the wild when nobody wants them.
 
Not sure what would be gained by doing this. This is their flagship product for the next 5 years, and quite clearly the system is selling out on word of mouth/a winning concept so there's nothing to be gained by an artificial shortage. More sales will lead to more games which leads to more sales, rinse and repeat.
 

120v

Member
the next 6 months may very well be the best opportunity nintendo has to establish its userbase. artificial shortage talk is Derpy McDerpDerp
 
If they had prepared better prior to their launch they wouldn't be in this mess. They were building up supply in December leading into 2017, there's no excuse to not for a new console to have a good amount of extra consoles made during a non holiday.

That's on Nintendo for not doing proper research in who else has big orders and contracts with certain manufacturing. A lot of this could have been mitigated. PS4/XBOX sold 1 million a piece in like 24 hours or something along those lines and they didn't even launch globally.

I hear everyone saying "they were being conservative" I'm like if you have all the buzz in the fall for people wanting a switch and people wanting NES classic it's not hard to see that your in the limelight and should account for that accordingly.

Sure they could've made more but nobody correctly predicted the demand. The PS4 was also sold out for several months after launch. Does that make Sony incompetent too? These are business realities, businesses can't accurately forecast future demand 100% of the time. Probably even 75% of the time, that's just not how markets work.

And I'm not sure what your sales comparison is trying to say. Do you know that the Switch is likely tracking a good deal ahead of the XB1 now (wiki says XB1 was 5m shipped after 5 months, Switch is >4.5 just under 4 months)? We don't know how many Switches were sold in 24 hours, I would imagine it was close to 1 million.
 

jariw

Member
But the demand for NES, positive buzz around their mobile, and all the high buzz for switch unveiling in October with lead up on talk shows like jimmy fallon during holidays should be indicators to ramp up production and get some big orders in.

Can you please point to your post pre-Switch-release, where you stated that the Switch would clearly be such a big success? Fabricating such indications of the obvious success now doesn't serve any purpose, IMO.
 

ggx2ac

Member
But the demand for NES, positive buzz around their mobile, and all the high buzz for switch unveiling in October with lead up on talk shows like jimmy fallon during holidays should be indicators to ramp up production and get some big orders in.

Hype doesn't equal sales.

People were pretty hyped about the 3DS and that bombed at launch, 3.61M 3DS units shipped in February/March left it overstocked since the following quarter only had 700k shipped.

People on here weren't confident that the Switch would sell well because it was $300 and weaker than a PS4 arriving in the middle of a console generation.

Instead, the Switch beats past Nintendo launch records blowing away everyone's expectations which is why the shortages have occurred.

If the Switch was a regular home console, it would just be sitting on store shelves.
 

Shadoron

Member
That's on Nintendo for not doing proper research in who else has big orders and contracts with certain manufacturing. A lot of this could have been mitigated. PS4/XBOX sold 1 million a piece in like 24 hours or something along those lines and they didn't even launch globally.

Keep in mind Nintendo is battling phone manufacturers for many of the parts they are using in the Switch. Those phone manufacturers are producing hundreds of millions of phones worldwide every year, and the parts are die shrunk for space savings and lower wattage use. Sony and Microsoft don't have those same constraint issues, and can use larger components without such stringent wattage usage. How is Nintendo supposed to outbid companies with established supply chains, ordering hundreds of millions of these parts annually? Also, keep in mind, coming off the failure of the WiiU that Nintendo would of course be conservative in their initial projections. They may be a multi-billion dollar company, but they also have thousands of employees worldwide, and investors. They can't place an order for 100 million components right out the gate, and have the console fail. They would be bankrupt. Consoles are considered absolute sales monsters if they sell over 100 million in their entire *life time*. Apple puts out that many phones in what, a quarter of a year?
 

Mark1

Member
As far as I recall no company would ever admit to intentionally limiting stock lol.

Whatever the case though Nintendo need to fix this asap. With all the new games coming up how could the exciting reactions be kept at the current pace when very few can even buy one lol.
 

KNT-Zero

Member
Yes, they must have made a ton of money with that Wii U GC adapter secret plan.

Yeah it might sound dumb but if you think about it, there is something about the fact that Nintendo was relying on Smash Bros U to considerably boost WiiU sales, and by shortening stock of the one instrumental peripheral that was only compatible with that game, demand for the game would rise.

Not sure exactly how that would work, but eh. Not that I actually care. The point being, Nintendo has a habit of doing this to inflate the value of their products.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Whether the shortages are intentional or not, Nintendo actually benefits here through the psychological principal of scarcity. People always, ALWAYS want what they can't have, and always DESIRE something they have to work very hard to get. Basic but proven, set-in-stone principles of psychology. So by demand being limited, they've (again, whether it's intentional or not is irrelevant) created an excitement and desirability for the product. Honestly I think it will benefit them in the long run with higher lifetime sales because it keeps people talking about the system for a very long time.

People talking about your product = strong word of mouth = more people talking about your product = massive sales multipliers.
 
So you are saying Nintendo would come out and admit they were intentionally shorting a product?

Tell me what Nintendo has to gain from intentionally shorting a product. I want to know why every course on economics I took was a waste of time.

Whether the shortages are intentional or not, Nintendo actually benefits here through the psychological principal of scarcity. People always, ALWAYS want what they can't have, and always DESIRE something they have to work very hard to get. Basic but proven, set-in-stone principles of psychology. So by demand being limited, they've (again, whether it's intentional or not is irrelevant) created an excitement and desirability for the product. Honestly I think it will benefit them in the long run with higher lifetime sales because it keeps people talking about the system for a very long time.

People talking about your product = strong word of mouth = more people talking about your product = massive sales multipliers.

Scarcity doesn't really apply after a certain size point though and especially not in this case. What we see here is a console with a % of customers vs leads that any scarcity would be fairly pointless. Especially given the slim profit margins of the console itself. I'm not saying that it won't have any affect, but I find that it is particularly easy to overapply psychology to corporate business. Even the principals.
 

Sadist

Member
*Nintendo battling Apple for parts, which seems to be a very hard thing to do*

Geez Nintendo, you can't even outbid other multibillion companies competing for the same parts? Man how can you take yourselves seriously you guys should clearly do some sudoku
 
There was a time when I believed Nintendo was artificially constraining supply. But as I've gotten older it's become clear to me that they're just consistently bad at gauging interest in their devices. It's impressive, really.
 
Of course it is not intentional. There is a shortage in the amount of key internal components Nintendo can get their hands on because Apple is hogging most of it.
 
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