Rick Dangerous Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 What's up with Nintendo hardware shortages lately? You'd think as a major multi national corporation they could figure our how to make enough of their product so that it is widely available. Below is the scene at my local best buy today, Not a Switch, Wii U, NES Classic, 3DS, or 2DS to be found......lol I get that it's launch time and the Switches are flying off shelves, but i've generally noticed low or now stock just about everywhere these days. With all their liquid capital you'd think they could make it happen. Makes me wonder if it's a marketing/sales tactic, manufactured scarcity as it were.. Whats your take? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punisher5.0 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Happens to all hot hardware. Sony, Apple, etc. Nothing we haven't seen before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Dangerous Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 Happens to all hot hardware. Sony, Apple, etc. Nothing we haven't seen before. True... but you think they'd have the factories cracking out NES Classic's by now, and the 2DS/3DS, why is that so hard to keep well stocked? There are plenty of places in SE Asia they can manufacture, i really wonder why they don't ramp up production a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punisher5.0 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 True... but you think they'd have the factories cracking out NES Classic's by now, and the 2DS/3DS, why is that so hard to keep well stocked? There are plenty of places in SE Asia they can manufacture, i really wonder why they don't ramp up production a bit. Yeah I'm surprised about the NES Classic. I figured for sure they would have been all over by now. I think Nintendo played it safe on the production run to not be stuck with unsold hardware. You really never know for sure how well something is going to sell (look how slow the PS3 was in the beginning) and companies have to play the statistics game. Sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong. I didn't see the NES Classic being this popular either. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boog Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 It's not just hardware... there were several Wii U games with limited supply like Devil's Third (1st print), Mario & Sonic Rio Olympics, Wii Sports Club, etc. And, Fire Emblem SE for 3DS probably could have still sold out at double the quantity that they shipped. Also, many of the amiibos were pretty scarce before the re-releases. Scalpers have been making easy money on Nintendo products for the last couple of years... so many products that were scarce from day one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Hardware shortages ... or surplus demand? As for software, the eShop never seems to run out of stock. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Almost almost feels like an attention grabbing post or a troll post. Not a Switch, Wii U, NES Classic, 3DS, or 2DS Switch -- They shipped a couple million plus and they got snapped up, how many did you expect them to be able to blow out? More should be around anytime now to a week or two out at worst. WiiU -- It failed, they're not manufacturing it anymore and haven't for awhile, it's dead, and they moved on so people should too from that flop NES CE -- They admitted they fouled up, thought people would be less into it since people got cheaper entry on the VC which backfired, already said they're ramping up making them, and they have but scalpers are still grabbing them the moment they hit online but I've seen pics in/out of the US of them on the shelf when found. 3DS/2DS -- This one there's no explanation to, but I think it's actually tied to the NES CE. My theory is that they knew they needed to get as many millions and change worth of that Switch hardware out. While the factories can't all press the parts/assembly of the Switch they also have their factories that assemble final product into the box, and the other lines that create the paper/cardboard messes that the systems go into too. Those are universal. It could stand to some reason they shelved getting the NES CE and 2/3DS systems put into their cardboard and other packing materials so they could truly focus on blowing out the Switch so if it was super hot it wouldn't end up being a scalpers paradise like the Wii was for not just one but two Christmas seasons. For all we know they may have boxes upon boxes of finished NESCE and 2/3DS systems waiting for their final packaging to be pressed, folded, and manually assembled. You have a give and take issue here they need to deal with here you have basically 4 pieces of hardware being supported at 1 time from a limited amount of locations and resources so they allocated almost everything to the new toy they knew would guarantee fly off the shelf and have plenty of perks to sell with it (you could argue the NES CE would fly too, but other than an added controller, there's no gravy to profit from.) Also tying back to WiiU, they knew it was a failure very early on within the first year. Did you notice how fast they dropped having a physical pack in game in the box, and how quickly they started doing minimum style runs on their own published titles hard core because there was no expense involved in packaging and all that entails. Unless they've stealth killed the 2DS and perhaps 3DS as well which I doubt given their news about the system it's just temporary very likely due to the Switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlegamer Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Nintendo is conservative and would rather be back ordered than back stocked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 JIT mfg. And I do not believe this was an attention-grabbing troll post. Too many accusations of that sort of thing happening recently anyways. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojay1997 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Nintendo is conservative and would rather be back ordered than back stocked. I have to say that I strongly agree with this. Nintendo has always been a pretty conservative company and what people seem to forget is that unlike other diversified companies like Microsoft or Sony, a significant miscalculation of demand for something could cause very significant damage to their entire business. Frankly, they seem to have hit the sweet spot with the Switch launch IMHO as I still saw some available on Saturday in Southern California and if you made a decent effort on Friday morning, you probably could have found one at a major retailer. It will be interesting to see if demand remains steady or if this is just a temporary spike caused by the usual scalpers and launch day hype. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Agreed I'm curious as well. Retailers are saying it's the best response they've had to Nintendo hardware in years. I'm seeing more happy customers online by far than angry people over scalpers too compared to the WiiU years ago and definitely the NES CE which is/was a disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I can't imagine any scalpers making big profits from this. Though I don't doubt many imbeciles will try. It isn't a must-have holiday or anything like that. Only rush could be some birthdays or shit like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaddog Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 For any other company, supply shortage is a disaster. For Nintendo, it's tradition... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I agree with the OP. But WII U is off production so that should not be there. The rest I agree but WII U is EOL (END OF LIFE) so that will not be new in any stores anymore. As for the shortages it to make money. If they had thousands of boxes still on the shelf people would think its not a good buy because its not popular and nobody wants it. The same reason I never bought a Atari Flashback 7 or AT Sega with cart slot and 80 games builtin. Its available everywhere I go and there is no hurry. And its not sold out like NES CLASSIC so it must be lame if nobody wants it. I would buy a classic anyway. But things that are not popular are obviously lame if they are not super popular like NES CLASSIC so its not worth it. Or at least it seems like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Online is not too bad but some are just plain crazy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Switch-32GB-Gray-Console-with-Pro-Controller-Zelda-Ready-to-Ship-Now-/172563414925?hash=item282d94bf8d:g:aOUAAOSw32lYvKJR 33 minutes left and its already upto 480 dollars. http://www.ebay.com/itm/nintendo-switch-/232260012803?hash=item3613c68b03:g:Hq8AAOSw4A5YujzF 5 hours left and some guy just bid 500 dollars. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-NINTENDO-SWITCH-NEON-RED-NEON-BLUE-JOYCONS-VIDEO-GAME-CONSOLE-NINTENDO-/192122232185?hash=item2cbb609d79:g:v0EAAOSwTuJYvbn4 even this guy thinks its worth close to 2000 dollars. He is insane. There is a zelda addition he is asking a lot. But this is the plain unit. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NINTENDO-SWITCH-NEON-EDITION-W-ZELDA-MASTER-EDITION-BUNDLE-AND-POSTER-NEW-/152458100342?hash=item237f35fe76:g:npMAAOSwax5YuSn0 And even with zelda its not worth 1199 dollars. Not even close. Unless zelda is brand new or rare. But its not. And even if it is will be more soon. So not worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 As for the shortages it to make money. If they had thousands of boxes still on the shelf people would think its not a good buy because its not popular and nobody wants it. I don't think this is much of a reason. Nintendo is probably making as many as they can. Getting millions of product available for a first run is a huge endeavor. I don't think most people understand just how difficult it is even for a large company to get production ramped up to such a scale. It takes a lot of money just to gear up a production line for a specific product, not to mention the money needed to spend outright on parts. Being able to manufacture just the right amount of product to meet demand takes a huge investment, and missing the target on either side of having too many or too little can mean millions of dollars down the drain. Guessing the right amount can sometimes be a crap shoot, as accurately gauging demand for an unlaunched product is extremely difficult to do. From the sound of things, it seems like Nintendo did a good job of setting and then hitting the right targets for this launch. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I agree with the OP. But WII U is off production so that should not be there. The rest I agree but WII U is EOL (END OF LIFE) so that will not be new in any stores anymore. As for the shortages it to make money. If they had thousands of boxes still on the shelf people would think its not a good buy because its not popular and nobody wants it. The same reason I never bought a Atari Flashback 7 or AT Sega with cart slot and 80 games builtin. Its available everywhere I go and there is no hurry. And its not sold out like NES CLASSIC so it must be lame if nobody wants it. I would buy a classic anyway. But things that are not popular are obviously lame if they are not super popular like NES CLASSIC so its not worth it. Or at least it seems like it. All that brain-twisting second guessing and perceived perceptions and shit.. in the end you either like it or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I don't think this is much of a reason. Nintendo is probably making as many as they can. Getting millions of product available for a first run is a huge endeavor. I don't think most people understand just how difficult it is even for a large company to get production ramped up to such a scale. It takes a lot of money just to gear up a production line for a specific product, not to mention the money needed to spend outright on parts. Being able to manufacture just the right amount of product to meet demand takes a huge investment, and missing the target on either side of having too many or too little can mean millions of dollars down the drain. Guessing the right amount can sometimes be a crap shoot, as accurately gauging demand for an unlaunched product is extremely difficult to do. From the sound of things, it seems like Nintendo did a good job of setting and then hitting the right targets for this launch. With "Big-Data" it should be a no-brainer to manufacture exactly what they will sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Even a used wii U is selling for close to what it was brand new. If it was new then maybe but used even with box no thanks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Wii-U-Mario-Luigi-Deluxe-Set-32GB-11-Games-Accessories-/192115501589?hash=item2cbaf9ea15:g:OwMAAOSwCU1YtJ0f Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Or start making them and wait 1 year. Then when you release it you have enough to go around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punisher5.0 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Or start making them and wait 1 year. Then when you release it you have enough to go around. No offense but I don't think you understand how manufacturing works. Especially for a publicly traded company. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 I understand. I understand I and so many others can't find a classic edition in store without going the ebay (scam / gouge) route. So instead of trying to keep up with demand it would make sense if they just had enough ready for launch. Instead of only making a few and trying to keep up with demand. I mean they did not know how popular it was going to be. But I mean common its Nintendo it was def going to be no doubt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 A lot of people are probably excited about the switch because they think it's the first new Nintendo console in 11 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 With "Big-Data" it should be a no-brainer to manufacture exactly what they will sell. Huh? I understand. I understand I and so many others can't find a classic edition in store without going the ebay (scam / gouge) route. So instead of trying to keep up with demand it would make sense if they just had enough ready for launch. Instead of only making a few and trying to keep up with demand. I mean they did not know how popular it was going to be. But I mean common its Nintendo it was def going to be no doubt. And exactly how many do you think they needed for launch? Typically for any kind of hardware launch, manufacturing starts months ahead of time. Time is needed to work out the kinks in the manufacturing process and for proper QA testing. It's quite easy for just anyone to say "oh, they should've made enough units to meet demand." It's another thing entirely for any company to do just that. Having said that, though, Nintendo should have done better with the NES classic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 300,000,000. 1 for each person in america. Just kidding. But seriously at least a quarter to half of that just to be safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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