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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Do you ACTUALLY believe that Nintendo is creating artifical Switch shortages?

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I cant afford one :( well i can i have a credit card but dont like using it, maybe awhile before i can get one



 

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This theory is nothing more than rubbish.

People are pointing to a generation ago to "prove" that Nintendo would magically take away sales. If they're shipping units by airplane and have increased production since the day it released, why would anyone still think they're trying to create artificial demand? Are they still salty about Nintendo stopping the NES mini?



Aeolus451 said:
specialk said:

Lol. "My" excuse is what is being reported in the most respected business publication in the world. I'll stack that up against the wild speculation of vloggers any day.

And Microsoft and Sony absolutely do face shortages. When they release products that generate fervor and have high demand. The PS4 was difficult to find for months after launch. I bought my in late March of 2014 and had to call around to several stores. You can google "PS4 Shortage" to see more. The only piece of hardware that MIcrosfot has ever released to high demand (on par with Wii/PS4/Switch) was the Kinect.

And there were Kinect shortages. 

Did I not have this "Neither Sony or MS have these problems with shortages at this level the vast majority of the time." in my post?

Where did I say that sony or ms don't have shortages?

I would be more open to this idea if the Switch was selling Wii U-like quantities each week and they were telling us it's because of production issues but from the numbers we currently have Switch is selling exceptionally well trailing the Wii's debut by about 345k units and the PS4's debut (greatest first 3 months for a console ever) by about 1.2m.

Those are great sales numbers, especially for the period of March through May, it makes the argument for real supply issues much more credible than a marketing ploy to boost hype.



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TruckOSaurus said:
Aeolus451 said:

Did I not have this "Neither Sony or MS have these problems with shortages at this level the vast majority of the time." in my post?

Where did I say that sony or ms don't have shortages?

I would be more open to this idea if the Switch was selling Wii U-like quantities each week and they were telling us it's because of production issues but from the numbers we currently have Switch is selling exceptionally well trailing the Wii's debut by about 200k units and the PS4's debut (greatest first 3 months for a console ever) by about 1.2m.

Those are great sales numbers, especially for the period of March through May, it makes the argument for real supply issues much more credible than a marketing ploy to boost hype.

if im not mistaken, Wii & PS4 are the only consoles to ever have a better first 3 months than Switch so it makes no sense to claim they are deliberately holding back stock.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

mountaindewslave said:
Eagle367 said:

So yeah you have no solid proof just speculation right. And yes I believe ninty is incompetent in measuring their demand supply ratios. They messed up with the Wii u but couldn't possibly determine the switch would be so popular that 2.74mil first month wouldn't be enough. Now they have to battle mobile giants for screen and memory parts so the shortage is real. As for the Wii and DS tell me which company sold 20mil+ consistently each year for four+ years? Even the ps2 legged out on a year to year basis Wii was destroying it. Hell the ps4 is selling more than the ps2 time matched but it is still very behind the Wii. Ninty is a Japanese company in the traditional sense unlike Sony and Japanese companies have always been conservative. Its in their genes not to over produce but under producing is alright. That's how they function. Ninty is also just a gaming company so if they go overboard and it doesn't work out they don't have a safety net like Microsoft or Sony. They also sell their hardware at a profit always over production would be disastrous while for Sony and Microsoft it is routine and they can just lower the price if they over produce. When you look at ninty as a business and Sony and Microsoft it's very clear why ninty always has shortages

Nintendo has actually fairly rarely had stocking problems; people way overhype things. The reality is there are certain regions that it will always be hard to stock well for compared to others. The only time I can even think of where the theory potentially has slight grounds would be the Wii era, but even then they were manufacturing LOADS of DS's at the time, so it's not hard to imagine that it was somewhat difficult for them to manufacture for home consoles and handhelds at a quick enough rate.

the fact that there is a shortage in high end parts for mobile electronics at the moment adds to the difficult in manufacturing (google if you haven't heard about the issues, the Switch uses a few of the the same high-in-demand parts that things like Apple phones also use)

Yeah well that's generally the point. People just like to take a lie and run with it



Just a guy who doesn't want to be bored. Also

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I do believe believe Nintendo is creating artificial demand. Zelda is an amazing game but is it worth buying a switch just for one game? Probably not, but hearing news about supply issues for months creates a sense of need to buy it now rather than wait. If Nintendo kept up with stock and no one was reporting supply issues then people could easily say "I want a switch but not for 1 or 2 games. I'll just wait until there is more games since I can just walk into any store and buy it at any time."

Everyone knows deep down that when they're done with that their switch will just be collecting dust and ignored until more games come out later but they forget all that when all they hear is supply issue.

Yes, I know that there are people genuinely who want the switch but can't find it in stock so it might be a loss of sale, but that is mostly temporary and they'll most likely buy it immediately if they ever saw it available.



It impresses me how Nintendo fans are unaware of Nintendo´s history and bussiness' philosophy.

Nintendo stance is the "I know what is better for our fans" position. It always has been. They delayed Japanease games in America, because they want to create a expectation hype - Zelda NES. They thought Super Mario 2 was to similar too the first and too difficult for Americans.

Nintendo limited how many games a publisher could publish every year on Nintendo Platforms. They controlled the volume of cartridge.

The setbacks with N64 and Game Cube didn´t changed Nintendo´s mind. Neither the Switch is much different from the WiiU - it is basically a more portable version with a killer first party game.



TruckOSaurus said:
Aeolus451 said:

Did I not have this "Neither Sony or MS have these problems with shortages at this level the vast majority of the time." in my post?

Where did I say that sony or ms don't have shortages?

I would be more open to this idea if the Switch was selling Wii U-like quantities each week and they were telling us it's because of production issues but from the numbers we currently have Switch is selling exceptionally well trailing the Wii's debut by about 200k units and the PS4's debut (greatest first 3 months for a console ever) by about 1.2m.

Those are great sales number, especially for the period of March through May, it makes the argument for real supply issues much more credible than a marketing ploy to boost hype.

Using scarcity marketing doesn't really work well if a product isn't popular. It's a marketing strategy that increases sales by giving the impression that a product is limited or scarce thus increasing it's demand and ultimately it's sales. People are more likely to buy it on a whim versus waiting on it when stock is availible. 

They not actually selling less when they do this.  you just selectively limit the amounts you ship to certain stores so that they sell out to give the impression that the product is scarce.

Nintendo used managed scarcity and scarcity marketing to effectively market the wii, nes classic, amiibos and many of their products to increase their sales. 

Here's some articles with explanations of what I'm talking about and that nintendo is known for this or suspected of using this strategy.

 

"1. Product Scarcity

Scarcity is often used to bolster sales, but it can also be used to create massive brand lift. It plays on the customer’s fear of missing out. Marketers use limited-time offers like daily deals, limitations on quantities, or one-time only promotions to create a sense of urgency and leverage scarcity.

Promoting “out of stock” items is another effective approach to developing product scarcity, as it shows potential customers that your product was so popular that your inventory is temporarily depleted. This strategy has been leveraged by a number of manufacturers in recent years:

 

Amazon Fire TVs ran out of stock just a week after launch

Nintendo shorted the production of the Wii game console

Apple delayed shipping by two weeks or more on the iPhone 5 just minutes after it launched

You could shrug it off as a supply and demand issue, but these companies certainly didn’t refuse the heightened media coverage and consumer demand that resulted from supply shortages."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sujanpatel/2016/10/22/create-a-demand-for-a-new-product/#f36d9a47e2dd

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"This isn’t the first time Nintendo has had difficulty fulfilling demand for a product. In fact, it’s something of a pattern. Do a quick search for Nintendo Wii managed scarcity and find the hundreds of stories asking, one way or another, Why can’t Nintendo keep the Wii in stock.

Yes, the Wii was successful. But so is the new iPhone, and you can go into any Apple Store in America and walk out with one. The Wii was hard to come by for years. It wasn’t cutting edge technology, by design. It was designed to be affordable. There was no fancy RAM, shortages of which kept the PlayStation 3 hard to come by for a couple months. They just didn’t fulfill demand. One year later. Two years later. All the while, keeping the media narrative of the hottest toy in town alive.

Anyone who buys or, worse still, collects amiibos is all too familiar with this pattern. Simple toy, relatively easy to manufacture, is impossible to find. There are preorders, there are email lists, there’s price gouging from scalpers on marketplaces like eBay.

As of Oct. 2015, Nintendo sold over 21 million amiibos, an impressive figure to be sure for just one year. Meanwhile, Activision had some sold 250 million Skylanders figures as of June 2015, less than four years after the franchise debuted. You don’t hear about Skylanders scalping much, do you?

So either Nintendo is constraining supply, in order to drive hype and awareness and the allure of exclusivity — a holiday narrative as applicable to the NES Classic as it was for Tickle Me Elmo — or Nintendo is just consistently bad at assessing demand and then meeting it."

https://www.polygon.com/2016/11/11/13597938/nes-classic-edition-shortage

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In case you still don't believe of bit of what I'm saying, look up "scarcity marketing". 



Dark_Feanor said:
It impresses me how Nintendo fans are unaware of Nintendo´s history and bussiness' philosophy.

Nintendo stance is the "I know what is better for our fans" position. It always has been. They delayed Japanease games in America, because they want to create a expectation hype - Zelda NES. They thought Super Mario 2 was to similar too the first and too difficult for Americans.

Nintendo limited how many games a publisher could publish every year on Nintendo Platforms. They controlled the volume of cartridge.

The setbacks with N64 and Game Cube didn´t changed Nintendo´s mind. Neither the Switch is much different from the WiiU - it is basically a more portable version with a killer first party game.

Exactly. None of them understand what scarcity marketing is and that nintendo has clear track record of using that strategy to sell their products. Alot of toy companies use that tactic. Alot of companies in general use that tactic. 



Aeolus451 said:

Using scarcity marketing doesn't really work well if a product isn't popular. 

Nice unfalsifiable position you've got there.

If a product is scarce, it's because of artificail scarcity, not popularity. If it isn't scarce. It's because it wasn't popular. 

Nintendo shipped 18.6 million Wiis in FY 2007. What was their actual production capacity? Ballpark me a number.