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Why are there no Nintendo Switches in stock?

heringer

Member
I mean this probably sounds harsh but like

Have you been under a rock? Between high demand, conservative forecast-driven production, and the NAND completion, its been covered pretty extensively on GAF.

Demand is high, but not the main problem when you are consistently selling less than PS4 in all territories. Nintendo being conservative like always is the main culprit here.
 

Asd202

Member
The timing makes a difference in how they were stock piling units. With a holiday release they were manufacturing for awhile to have a big release. Nintendo could have done the same thing or launched earlier. They launched earlier to build momentum into the holidays instead. The way they planned inventory was different.

Actually wasn't Switch supposed to launch in the holidays 2016 but was pushed back for games according to Nintendo?
 
Demand is high, but not the main problem when you are consistently selling less than PS4 in all territories. Nintendo being conservative like always is the main culprit here.

They weren't conservative with the Wii U and it burned them hard. Can you blame them for not wanting to do the same thing again?
 

SpartanN92

Banned
Because Nintendo.

It's one of two things:

A. They are so incompetent at forecasting demand that they don't make enough units.

Or

B: Intentionally withholding supply to increase demand which is effective all the way until the point when you literally have customers with cash in hand saying "I will pay you money for this now" and Nintendo says "No."

Either way Ninetendo is operating under standard Nintendo hardware operating procedure.
 

Montresor

Member
Hey OP. I managed to snag one from Amazon yesterday for MSRP when it was in stock for a few hours. But later I found out I can get it way cheaper from the military exchange website. We are talking $250 shipped. So I gonna order one from there and may be you can buy the amazon one off of me.

Also gaf, as a person who has never owned a Nintendo console before, does $250 for swtich sounds like a good idea ?

If you are serious/successful with this, you can PM me your Amazon link whenever it goes on sale, hehe. =)
 

MCN

Banned
Demand is high, but not the main problem when you are consistently selling less than PS4 in all territories. Nintendo being conservative like always is the main culprit here.

The Switch uses certain components that are shared with the iPhone. Apple are basically hogging all those components at the moment (presumably ramping up production of the forthcoming iPhone 8), so right now Nintendo are making literally all the Switches they can. And as quickly as they can make them, they sell out.

Don't you think if Nintendo wanted to make and sell more, they would? They can see the demand (especially in Japan), but the components aren't there to fulfil it at the moment.
 

Persona7

Banned
So.......produce.....more....of them?

Do you know how long it takes to plan, build and operate a multi-billion dollar factory? The current factories are operating at capacity and it's not enough. Not to mention limits on parts and resources that might not even be available.

Nintendo is getting the short end of the stick because Apple is a bigger company that pretty much carries the companies making these chips. Of course they get preference. Then you factor in other phone and tablet manufacturers.
 
So.......produce.....more....of them?

That'd be in Toshibas hands. I believe that's who all these tech companies are mainly using for parts. (Could be wrong). Point is, it's out of Nintendos hands if Apple paid more to have those chips already, or had a greater quantity in a contract.
 

Neonep

Member
First off never call or look online for stock. Your best bet is to go to the store yourself. 2nd there have been restocks around every major release, MK8D, ARMS, & Now Splatoon 2. They is usually the best time to get one. Also go in the morning to any store, gives you a better chance at getting one.
 
Actually wasn't Switch supposed to launch in the holidays 2016 but was pushed back for games according to Nintendo?

But you still produce accordingly. It's was a Spring launch and not a holiday launch so the production strategy is different due to the way that sales are heavily weighted towards the end of the year. Flooding the market in the Spring could have been bad if it didn't catch on.

So.......produce.....more....of them?

That's not on Nintendo though. They source parts, just like everyone else, from other companies and they can't just magically make more. Manufacturing doesn't turn on a dime.
 

Majora

Member
So odd, it's in stock everywhere in Belgium. I don't understand how some countries are still not getting a proper supply this far into its release.

No offence but when people from countries like Belgium, New Zealand and the Nordic regions talk about how the Switch is easy to find in comparison to Japan and the US, it really doesn't mean anything because those countries are tiny in comparison. Those countries could combine all the stock sitting on their shelves and it would barely make a dent in the US and Japan demand.

The US and Japan need literally hundreds of thousands of units per month right now. Belgium needs a minute proportion of that.
 

jackal27

Banned
My brother walked into Best Buy and they had 12. They were gone the next day. I think it's just demand to be honest.
 

heringer

Member
The Switch uses certain components that are shared with the iPhone. Apple are basically hogging all those components at the moment (presumably ramping up production of the forthcoming iPhone 8), so right now Nintendo are making literally all the Switches they can. And as quickly as they can make them, they sell out.

Don't you think if Nintendo wanted to make and sell more, they would? They can see the demand (especially in Japan), but the components aren't there to fulfil it at the moment.

Of course they are doing what they can. Right now. That's the point. They failed to foresee this problem and didn't have a contingency plan.
 
What does benefit of holidays has to do with stock? Also looking at US and Japanese sales there is now way they shipped 5 million Switches yet. PS4 as of March 2014 was at 7.5 million Switch right now seems to be around 4 million at best.

There have been some estimates lately (that I can't find right now) that it was closing in on 5 million shipped over the past couple weeks, and the Splatoon 2 launch should've pushed it past that towards 5.2 or so, in about 4.5 months. PS4 sold 6m in a little less than 4 months (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4#Sales), so it's certainly behind but the numbers are not that far off.

We'll hear the official numbers through June 30th next week.

Oh and the holiday makes a huge difference because Nintendo needs to stockpile their produced units to amass a huge amount for the upcoming holidays, while Sony had the holidays at launch, meaning they didn't have to worry about stockpiling for another 12 months after launch.
 
What sucks for the OP is his timing since the market was flooded with consoles yesterday and you could have easily gotten one yesterday morning. Had he realized this yesterday, he likely would have gotten one.
 

Azax

Member
I can still find some in Sweden. Mosly the neon colored ones. They aint so popular like the grey ones...
 

orioto

Good Art™
That's sad cause i guess the initial though is "let's use cell phone parts cause we'll have nice price drops along the way and all" and in the end it results in a bad bad shortage problem.

Do you think Nintendo will go back to specific pieces of hardware after that issue ? Cause that wouldn't be great neither..
 

Hawk269

Member
I was in a Frey Myer last week and they had a stack of about 20 of them. I was in the store at around 4pm and they said they had them all day and only sold 2 so far. They said all of the Stores received some.

Was in a best buy last night and they also had them in-stock as did the Wal-Mart next door.
 

boyshine

Member
In stock pretty much everywhere here (norway)

FMiVHyE.png
 

Xclash

can't grow facial hair
So.......produce.....more....of them?

Off the top of my head, There is Samsung, Toshiba and SK Hynix. Perhaps a few more companies. I don't know the status of Toshiba regarding selling the division that creates the chips but wouldn't help either in the short term.
 

HeeHo

Member
I have a friend who has been trying to get one for months. He has Best Buy Gamer's Club and has notifications set to when they are in stock. He also just barely missed yesterdays Amazon supply of Switch.

Kind of glad I blindly pre-ordered it. He was in a wait and see mode at the time of release, but unfortunately, coupled with his 9-5, M-F schedule, he has been having a hell of a time trying to get one.

I can see why people are frustrated. I'm a bit surprised my friend hasn't gotten bitter over it and quit the search, although, in some weird way, I think it makes people want it even more. After a few text messages lamenting his failure to get one, I was expecting him to exclaim that he was "f---ing done" or something, but surprisingly he still seems determined.
 

Persona7

Banned
That's sad cause i guess the initial though is "let's use cell phone parts cause we'll have nice price drops along the way and all" and in the end it results in a bad bad shortage problem.

Do you think Nintendo will go back to specific pieces of hardware after that issue ? Cause that wouldn't be great neither..

Cell phone parts? Flash memory is in pretty much every electronic device. The problem is so many different manufacturers need the chips right now and there is a shortage.
 
That's sad cause i guess the initial though is "let's use cell phone parts cause we'll have nice price drops along the way and all" and in the end it results in a bad bad shortage problem.

Do you think Nintendo will go back to specific pieces of hardware after that issue ? Cause that wouldn't be great neither..

No way, having supply problems for a year is not the end of the world in the grand scheme of a console generation. This isnt a sprint, its a 5-7 year long marathon.
 

Asd202

Member
There have been some estimates lately (that I can't find right now) that it was closing in on 5 million shipped over the past couple weeks, and the Splatoon 2 launch should've pushed it past that towards 5.2 or so, in about 4.5 months. PS4 sold 6m in a little less than 4 months (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4#Sales), so it's certainly behind but the numbers are not that far off.

We'll hear the official numbers through June 30th next week.

You're comparing sellthrough to shipped. Sony shipped 7.5 million as of 31st of March 2014. It definitely not at 5 million if you look at current US and Japanese sales. In the US Switch since launch sold (not counting July) at around 1.5 million in Japan right now it's at 1 million. There is now way they shipped 2.5 million to rest of the world. If I had to guess at looking at those numbers it's around 4 million right now.
 

Rellik

Member
The Switch uses certain components that are shared with the iPhone. Apple are basically hogging all those components at the moment (presumably ramping up production of the forthcoming iPhone 8), so right now Nintendo are making literally all the Switches they can. And as quickly as they can make them, they sell out.

Don't you think if Nintendo wanted to make and sell more, they would? They can see the demand (especially in Japan), but the components aren't there to fulfil it at the moment.

They could make more by spending the cash it would take to set up new production lines. This is what competent companies like Apple do when there is a shortage. Nintendo are just being tight.

This is the same company who has a HOT item in the NES Classic and refused to make more. They threw money down the drain for fuck all.
 
They could make more by spending the cash it would take to set up new production lines. This is what competent companies like Apple do when there is a shortage. Nintendo are just being tight.

This is the same company who has a HOT item in the NES Classic and refused to make more. They threw money down the drain for fuck all.

thats not the problem, maybe you should learn to read
 

Persona7

Banned
They could make more by spending the cash it would take to set up new production lines. This is what competent companies like Apple do when there is a shortage. Nintendo are just being tight.

This is the same company who has a HOT item in the NES Classic and refused to make more. They threw money down the drain for fuck all.

Nintendo is not in the memory business and can't spare the billions it costs to build and operate a memory plant.
 
Because Nintendo.

It's one of two things:

A. They are so incompetent at forecasting demand that they don't make enough units.

Or

B: Intentionally withholding supply to increase demand which is effective all the way until the point when you literally have customers with cash in hand saying "I will pay you money for this now" and Nintendo says "No."

Either way Ninetendo is operating under standard Nintendo hardware operating procedure.
A couple of months before release, people were laughing at the idea the Switch could sell 5M units in the first 6 months and their were doubts they could reach that on the first year.
It blew everyone's exceptions, no one predicted the Switch to sell this well.
Nintendo had issues with the Wii U where they had to keep unsold stock for many months and that made them lose many millions.
They were a bit more conservative this time but no one could expect this kind of reaction.
The thing is on track to outsell the Wii U's entire life time in little over 18 months.
 
It's not a demand issue. It's not breaking any sales records. Nintendo is clearly having a very hard time manufacting enough units due to the rumoured components kerfuffle. If they don't sort it out by Christmas..welp.
 
It's not a demand issue. It's not breaking any sales records. Nintendo is clearly having a very hard time manufacting enough units due to the rumoured components kerfuffle. If they don't sort it out by Christmas..welp.

But it is a demand issue. It exceeded their expectations and because they tried to increase manufacturing capacity, they've run into a parts issue.
 

Rizific

Member
theres been two major restocks coinciding with rhe releases of mk8 and splatoon 2 and even smaller restocks in between. hell, the op of the other exact same thread as this got his switch yesterday. at this point if you were actually interested in one and bothered to put an ounce of effort into finding out info about restocks, you should have one by now. i stopped by best buy yesterday after work at around 530pm and saw a pile of switches. it was the same scene when i picked up mk8 on release day too.
 

RedZaraki

Banned
It's not a demand issue. It's not breaking any sales records. Nintendo is clearly having a very hard time manufacting enough units due to the rumoured components kerfuffle. If they don't sort it out by Christmas..welp.

The problem is the potential future sales. The quicker you spread these things, the quicker word of mouth grows and the MORE future sales you generate. Sure, lots of these delayed sales are coming eventually, but some people that buy things on a whim from hype are being lost.

Absolutely, the total lifetime sales of this device are being harmed right now from this shortage.
 
It's not a demand issue. It's not breaking any sales records. Nintendo is clearly having a very hard time manufacting enough units due to the rumoured components kerfuffle. If they don't sort it out by Christmas..welp.

Yeah, supply and demand are entirely exclusive concepts that have nothing to do with each other. Anyone can tell you that obvio-fact!
 

jrDev

Member
Saw 3 at Best Buy yesterday morning...so stock was definitely shipped out for Splatoon launch, just don't know how long that lasted...
 
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