Nintendo Switch 2 is fast approaching with preorders likely to go live in just a few months time after the scheduled Direct showcase on April 2. But how many Switch 2 will there actually be? Will it be just as hard to get one at retail as the original Switch was? Well, probably, but the Nintendo President has recently made an official statement regarding how the company is going to be dealing with scalpers this time around.
A report courtesy of Bloomberg back when the Switch 2 was officially revealed seem to suggest a more than ample supply chain at the ready for the launch of the next-generation console. That report dished up numbers close to 20 million units within its first year of availability. But that doesn’t say a whole lot about how tings will be available stateside and perhaps more importantly, how many there will be available before holiday 2025.
20 million feels like a nice number to me nonetheless and perhaps even about as much as we could have hoped for if it is indeed the case.
That said, the current Switch is reported to have had “around 15 million units” available in its first year of availability, and we all know how tough it was to get one of those.
Nintendo has had likely years to prepare for this moment, for its biggest and arguably most important moment of the last several years, but all but the most behemoth of corporations struggle with the long ugly arm of the scalpers.
No matter what happens it is almost a guarantee that we will see Switch 2 consoles land on eBay and other re-seller sites shortly after release, and we can only hope gamers won’t have to resort to paying what often times amounts to exorbitant prices on what is rumored to already be a more expensive Nintendo console than ever.
So what’s Nintendo going to do about those dastardly scalpers? Well, probably not enough, but it isn’t entirely blind to the problem either.
Nintendo head Shuntaro Furukawa recently spoke to the Japanese press regarding the issue.
Furukawa officially stated that Nintendo is more than aware of the issue and has already begun making preparations to help circumvent the re-sellers (as translated by VGC):
We will take all possible measures based on the experience we have accumulated to date (regarding scalpers and the like). We are making preparations.
Furukawa also stated that Nintendo is making preparations based on past experiences (Switch 1) and is working towards amping up manufacturing to meet demand.
Okay, so this doesn’t fill me with confidence as someone who worked tirelessly to not only get a Switch but also around the clock to help 9to5Toys readers (mostly not) score one without getting burned by the re-sellers. Only time will tell now how prepared Nintendo actually is for all of this, but it does seem a mostly insurmountable problem at this point.
Good luck folks! And we will once again be doing everything we can to keep oyou ut of clutches of the scalpers.
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