While it won’t hit stores until March, we are mere hours away from the official public unveiling of the Nintendo Switch. Pre-orders for the home/portable hybrid console will open shortly after, but it seems you’ll have a hard time engaging in the simple transaction of exchanging your money for Nintendo’s hardware… yet again. According to the Nintendo New York Twitter account, only a limited quantity of Switch pre-orders will be available following the console’s presentation:
A limited quantity of pre-orders for the #NintendoSwitch will begin on 1/13 at 9AM while supplies last at #NintendoNYC.
— Nintendo NY (@NintendoNYC) January 11, 2017
The term limited quantity has become Nintendo’s new catchphrase; a presumed strategy the Japanese company most recently employed for the launch of its NES Classic console, which went on sale for around £60 and, because of its scarcity, was sold on for more than twice that amount on eBay. The NES Classic secondary market is still booming, with second-hand sellers making more money out the retro console than Nintendo itself due to limited stock. The same thing has been happening with Amiibos for the past few years. Hell, Nintendo even sold out of a digital game release in 2015! How is that even possible?
What is the point of this manufactured scarcity? All it seems to result in is secondary markets, inflated sell-on prices, and a bunch of disgruntled Nintendo fans. The company would be nuts to pull the same trick again with the Switch. Let’s hope that, come the official launch in March, that there are enough Switch consoles to go around.
Nintendo’s Switch presentation event will begin on 12th January at 20:00 PT/23:00 ET in the US and 13th January at 04:00 GMT.
