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

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SegataSanshiro said:
curl-6 said:

No it isn't. Every buyer that has to resort to a scalper or loses interest cos they couldn't find one is a lost sale for Nintendo.

They got thier money for that system.

And lost money for the games that the potential buyer didn't get because the system wasn't available. Sure, the buyer can get those games down the road, but by then, the buyer may have acquired the game on a competing console or lost interest in the game entirely. Not to mention the fact that publishers care about early sales of games more than anything. A publisher, Nintendo included, would rather you buy a game at launch than a year later.



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monocle_layton said:
If people think Nintendo is limiting stock, why do they keep announcing that they're raising production?

Not only that, but why did Nintendo resort to shipment by air for some of its stock a few weeks ago? Shipping by plane is FAR more costly than by boat. That's really all the proof you need that the shortages aren't artificial.



burninmylight said:
SegataSanshiro said:

They got thier money for that system.

And lost money for the games that the potential buyer didn't get because the system wasn't available. Sure, the buyer can get those games down the road, but by then, the buyer may have acquired the game on a competing console or lost interest in the game entirely. Not to mention the fact that publishers care about early sales of games more than anything. A publisher, Nintendo included, would rather you buy a game at launch than a year later.

I'm not the norm but I just build a small linrary of games before I have a system for a few months. More people should just do that.



So if Nintendo's lying about shortages, what about Toshiba, and all the other sources citing the scarcity of components like NAND memory? Is it all some vast industry-wide conspiracy to make Switch look popular? That's entering tinfoil hat territory.



Aeolus451 said:
KLAMarine said:

Okay, as requested, I've looked it up and I found it at the following web page:

https://www.sitepoint.com/scarcity-marketing/

And it's defined as follows:

"Scarcity marketing involves motivating people to buy something by telling them there is a shortage in what is available and a limited time to act. The goal is to create a sense of urgency through an aggressive call to action; to make people scared that they will not be able to acquire something that they want if they don’t act fast."

And an example is given:

"One of the most notable examples of scarcity marketing – the Disney Vault – started during the 1980s. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment began to reissue limited editions of their films and urge consumers to purchase these films before they went back into the “Disney Vault.” Because each Disney film is only for a limited time before it is put in the vault and not made available for several years until it is released again, consumers are driven to act fast when a new video is released."

I'm noticing a difference however: in the Disney Vault example, Disney urges consumers to purchase these limited edition films before they go back to the "Disney Vault" helping to create a sense of urgency.

Contrast this to Nintendo that has said numerous times that it plans to up production of the Switch for the sake of meeting demand:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nintendo-to-double-production-of-switch-console-1489728545

http://time.com/4705071/nintendo-switch-production/

https://www.ft.com/content/7edcebea-4207-11e7-82b6-896b95f30f58

http://bgr.com/2017/06/22/where-to-buy-nintendo-switch-online-shipments-increasing/

http://cogconnected.com/2017/06/nintendo-switch-shortage-apology/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06/15/e3-2017-nintendo-working-to-scale-up-switch-production

As for the history of Nintendo hardware shortages, understand that a shortage can have multiple causes: supplier purposefully holding back supply is one, supplier underestimating demand is another. How does one distinguish between the two?

This brings me back to a question I asked you before and you have yet to answer: how does one distinguish between a product being scarce because the supplier is intentionally holding back supplies and a product being scarce because demand is beyond manufacturing and supply chain capabilities?

Nintendo nor any other company would admit they used scarcity marketing in the past or using it now. So quoting what ninty says isn't very relevent. It's just the kind of pr that goes along with it. Owning up to the practice would defeat the point of it and consumers generally don't like it. It's a smart business strategy but it has some risks.

In response to your questions, you can't distinguish between the two just from one instance (like looking just at the switch because you can easily say it's due to supply contraints, etc) but you can tell the difference if it's obvious, something is leaked or if it's done enough to form a pattern. In ninty's case, they've done it enough to show a pattern if you look at past shortages with their other products and you're just honest with yourself about it.

Does this methodology you describe eliminate the possibility that Nintendo is just terrible at anticipating demand or perhaps external factors have come into play like a NAND shortage?

A number of outlets are reporting or have reported on NAND shortages:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/matthew-wilson/dram-and-nand-supply-shortage-expected-to-last-until-2018/

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ssd-hdd-shortage-nand-market,33112.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/234565/no-relief-for-dram-and-nand-shortages-in-sight-considerable-supply-only-in-2018

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nand-flash-memory-supply-shrinking-ssd-prices-rising/

 

And Nintendo needs these components to assemble Switch units. They're competing with smart phones:

 

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/05/31/demand-for-nintendo-switch-leads-to-nintendo-and-apple-battling-for-scarce-parts/

https://www.slashgear.com/apple-is-to-blame-for-your-nintendo-switch-shortage-30486866/

http://bgr.com/2017/05/30/switch-console-and-iphone-8-parts/

 

So if you're looking to place blame for Switch shortages on a conspiracy theory, please understand that a shortage can have multiple causes. In the Switch's case, a NAND shortage or Nintendo's inability to anticipate runaway demand.

Unless, like Curl-6 stated, Toshiba and smartphone makers are in on the conspiracy too to limit the supply of Nintendo Switch units out on store shelves.

curl-6 said:

So if Nintendo's lying about shortages, what about Toshiba, and all the other sources citing the scarcity of components like NAND memory? Is it all some vast industry-wide conspiracy to make Switch look popular? That's entering tinfoil hat territory.



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Despite the fact that the question in Truck's OP remains to be a ridiculous one to have to ask, discussion in this thread turned out to be way more intriguing than I previously thought it would. Correct or not.



specialk said:
vivster said:

All I can say is that it's their product and their job to produce and distribute it.

Sure. The buck ultimately stops with them.

You could say that they're incompetent for not finding a way to manufacture more, but as the Wall Street Journal speculates, the only way might be to try and outbid for components which could mean selling at a loss.

So we have a situation in which you could either say they're incompetent for not outbidding Apple, or they're incompetent at making money on their flagship product.

I'd rather look at things more holistically and say that the situation just is what it is right now.

No, no, no, no, this is logic. We can't use logic here. Would you please leave this thread? Thank you.



KLAMarine said:
Aeolus451 said:

Nintendo nor any other company would admit they used scarcity marketing in the past or using it now. So quoting what ninty says isn't very relevent. It's just the kind of pr that goes along with it. Owning up to the practice would defeat the point of it and consumers generally don't like it. It's a smart business strategy but it has some risks.

In response to your questions, you can't distinguish between the two just from one instance (like looking just at the switch because you can easily say it's due to supply contraints, etc) but you can tell the difference if it's obvious, something is leaked or if it's done enough to form a pattern. In ninty's case, they've done it enough to show a pattern if you look at past shortages with their other products and you're just honest with yourself about it.

Does this methodology you describe eliminate the possibility that Nintendo is just terrible at anticipating demand or perhaps external factors have come into play like a NAND shortage?

A number of outlets are reporting or have reported on NAND shortages:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/matthew-wilson/dram-and-nand-supply-shortage-expected-to-last-until-2018/

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ssd-hdd-shortage-nand-market,33112.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/234565/no-relief-for-dram-and-nand-shortages-in-sight-considerable-supply-only-in-2018

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nand-flash-memory-supply-shrinking-ssd-prices-rising/

 

And Nintendo needs these components to assemble Switch units. They're competing with smart phones:

 

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/05/31/demand-for-nintendo-switch-leads-to-nintendo-and-apple-battling-for-scarce-parts/

https://www.slashgear.com/apple-is-to-blame-for-your-nintendo-switch-shortage-30486866/

http://bgr.com/2017/05/30/switch-console-and-iphone-8-parts/

 

So if you're looking to place blame for Switch shortages on a conspiracy theory, please understand that a shortage can have multiple causes. In the Switch's case, a NAND shortage or Nintendo's inability to anticipate runaway demand.

Unless, like Curl-6 stated, Toshiba and smartphone makers are in on the conspiracy too to limit the supply of Nintendo Switch units out on store shelves.

curl-6 said:

So if Nintendo's lying about shortages, what about Toshiba, and all the other sources citing the scarcity of components like NAND memory? Is it all some vast industry-wide conspiracy to make Switch look popular? That's entering tinfoil hat territory.

So you're trying to say that all or most of nintendo consoles/products' shortages were due to part shortages instead of gigantic incompetence on nintendo's part or that nintendo is using scarcity marketing to sell their products by just looking at the switch? You've got to be kidding me. 

ugh. I'm talking about a common business strategy that alot of businesses use to increase their sales. There's nothing of a conspiracy in anything I'm saying. Some of you are even agreeing with me that nintendo has used this strategy before with other products. I'm just saying that nintendo uses it as much as they can. 



You think Nintendo would ship extra Switch's via airplane (which costs way more) to help demand in the US if they were "purposely creating an artificially scarcity" on them?I don't think so. They wouldn't artificially create shortages to just spend more money sending consoles via air.



[Switch Friend code: 3909-3991-4970]

[Xbox Live: JissuWolfe]

[PSN: Jissu]

Aeolus451 said:
KLAMarine said:

Does this methodology you describe eliminate the possibility that Nintendo is just terrible at anticipating demand or perhaps external factors have come into play like a NAND shortage?

A number of outlets are reporting or have reported on NAND shortages:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/matthew-wilson/dram-and-nand-supply-shortage-expected-to-last-until-2018/

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ssd-hdd-shortage-nand-market,33112.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/234565/no-relief-for-dram-and-nand-shortages-in-sight-considerable-supply-only-in-2018

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nand-flash-memory-supply-shrinking-ssd-prices-rising/

 

And Nintendo needs these components to assemble Switch units. They're competing with smart phones:

 

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/05/31/demand-for-nintendo-switch-leads-to-nintendo-and-apple-battling-for-scarce-parts/

https://www.slashgear.com/apple-is-to-blame-for-your-nintendo-switch-shortage-30486866/

http://bgr.com/2017/05/30/switch-console-and-iphone-8-parts/

 

So if you're looking to place blame for Switch shortages on a conspiracy theory, please understand that a shortage can have multiple causes. In the Switch's case, a NAND shortage or Nintendo's inability to anticipate runaway demand.

Unless, like Curl-6 stated, Toshiba and smartphone makers are in on the conspiracy too to limit the supply of Nintendo Switch units out on store shelves.

So you're trying to say that all or most of nintendo consoles/products' shortages were due to part shortages instead of gigantic incompetence on nintendo's part or that nintendo is using scarcity marketing to sell their products by just looking at the switch? You've got to be kidding me. 

ugh. I'm talking about a common business strategy that alot of businesses use to increase their sales. There's nothing of a conspiracy in anything I'm saying. Some of you are even agreeing with me that nintendo has used this strategy before with other products. I'm just saying that nintendo uses it as much as they can. 

But for this particular situation, with what we know in regards to manufacturing parts and assembly lines being bidded and prioritized, its no wonder Nintendo, even if they could, struggle getting more prioritization for parts and assembly lines to produce more Switch units. And Nintendo pretty much was open about how much they were producing for the initial launch (about 2+ million) and were open to manufacturing more if demand increases. Of course, easier said than done right? Considering what happened to the Wii U and Nintendo losing money for a few years, do you blame them for underestimating demand? Also look back on their overall sales history from the GameCube to the Wii then to the Wii U. Not really consistent sales wise. Wii Us were on shelves and were just there...sitting and waiting to be sold, leading to being Nintendo's worst selling home console....EVER! Yes, there were a variety of reasons why that happened, but it happened and it significantly affected Nintendo's bottom line that had to be made up by the comeback of the 3DS, DLC, amiibos, and probably careful stocking of units of their respective consoles. Not as bad as Sony's bottom line when the PS3 struggled out of the gate and was bleeding money, but it was a struggle nonetheless.

Remember, Nintendo had its first loss back in 2012 in decades, which lasted until 2014 or so. Nintendo doesn't want to lose money and have said they don't intend to sell Switch units at a loss. Then your hear the news about Nintendo actually shipping new Switch units by air mail, which is pretty pricey, and the recent news about chips and other parts being scare for a variety of devices being made, which led to the news your hear now about Nintendo and Apple. So I think in this particular situation, I don't think we can assume artificial shortages just because of history, Nintendo's fault or not (and I don't even know much about how those shortages of the past came to be, such as the original NES).