Nintendo will try to avoid scalping with its next console.

At Nintendo's most recent General Meeting of Shareholders, Nintendo answered a lot of questions including one from a Splatoon 3 fan who spent $3.5K to critique the game. (Thanks, Kotaku and Videogameschronicle!) Some of the questions were about Nintendo's next console. When asked about scalping concerns, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had this to say:

"With regard to resale measures when launching new hardware, we recognize that the most important thing is to first produce and ship in numbers that can meet customer demand. We will then consider whether there are any other possible measures that can be taken."

While the comment doesn't over much specifics, it is nice that this statement was made.

The meeting notes can be found on Nintendo's website (in Japanese, sorry!). The Q&A will be posted at a later date. We'll keep you posted on any additional updates.

Author's Note: It's nice that this issue is on Nintendo's radar, and it's nice to see other things coming out through the shareholder Q&A. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!

Credits:
Writing: Thirdkoopa
Editing: @Zerp
Thumbnail Graphic: @Zerp
Social: @Zerp

 

Hoepfully they can also avoid scalping with those Mario-themed Oreos.

 

I certainly respect the desire to prevent it from happening, but considering that consoles getting scalped isn’t exactly something that’s the company’s fault, all I can really say is that I wish them luck.

 

What reality does this company even reside in anymore? Stop scalping? Like it hasn't been an issue plaguing us for decades?

 

no they wont

 

Scalping with Nintendo consoles, particularly in North America, has always been interesting because it's kind of a byproduct of a part of their strategy that goes back to the 80s.

I forget where I heard this—I'm pretty sure it was r/amiibo back in the Wii U days—but apparently when Nintendo launches a new console, they tend to deliberately lowball their predictions on what demand for it will be in the North American market. The idea is that if they keep supply low, then if demand exceeds supply, that's good because they know there will still be demand for later production runs. If demand is low and the console doesn't do well at launch, then you don't have as much leftover stock you need to move, and you know to slow down production.

In other words, they basically treat product launches as a soft launch to gauge interest. Hell, the NES even had an actual soft launch in North America. It actually was released early in New York City before it was made available everywhere else.

The catch is that in the age of the internet, scalping is easier and more widespread than it ever was, so dealing with scalping means you have to make a larger supply, but also have means to prevent people from buying up consoles en masse to avoid an induced demand situation where that increased supply just ends up going to scalpers.

The most common solution to scalping is a one-per-customer rule, but that comes from the retail side of things. Unless Nintendo wants to shoot themselves in the foot by switching to a direct-to-consumer model for their next console (even if just at launch), the only way they can really control that is through contract negotiation with their retail partners - e.g. making those restrictions a requirement for retailers (or at least large chain retailers) who want to sell their next console.

 

What reality does this company even reside in anymore? Stop scalping? Like it hasn't been an issue plaguing us for decades?

If you read the rest of the article you would see that it doesn't actually say Nintendo is planning anything specifically against scalping. The quote given simply says that they will try to "meet customer demands". As Scribe said in his response, above, that Nintendo's strategy is to ship lower-end numbers to keep demand going for their product. Nintendo is effectively creating demand by under-shipping products, which effectively feeds the scalping process.

With this information you can actually see Nintendo literally saying they are doing the opposite of what this headline purports.

 

If you read the rest of the article you would see that it doesn't actually say Nintendo is planning anything specifically against scalping. The quote given simply says that they will try to "meet customer demands". As Scribe said in his response, above, that Nintendo's strategy is to ship lower-end numbers to keep demand going for their product. Nintendo is effectively creating demand by under-shipping products, which effectively feeds the scalping process.

With this information you can actually see Nintendo literally saying they are doing the opposite of what this headline purports.

Yes, they are a predatory corporation. Hence why I phrased my question, the way I did.