During Nintendo’s recent shareholder meeting, president Shuntaro Furukawa touched on a subject that will no doubt be playing on the minds of gamers worldwide as we move ever closer to the reveal of the Switch successor: scalpers.
Last year, Nintendo already expressed its interest in reducing the number of scalping incidents relating to new hardware by simply ensuring that the company “produce and ship in numbers that can meet customer demand”. At June’s shareholder meeting this year, Furukawa reiterated this desire but crucially indicated that the component shortage issue plaguing the gaming industry over the last few years is seemingly no longer affecting Nintendo.
In a translation via IGN, Furukawa stated the following:
“Although we were unable to produce sufficient quantities of Nintendo Switch hardware last year and the year before due to a shortage of semiconductor components, this situation has now been resolved. At this time, we do not believe that the shortage of components will have a significant impact on the production of the successor model.”
This is certainly good news, then, for those hoping to pick up the console on day one (whenever that is). If there’s one thing that defined the launch of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X in 2020, it’s that nobody could get their hands on the darn things for months at a time, with fresh restocks being swiped by customers (and scalpers) in as little as a few minutes.
If Nintendo can produce enough units of the Switch successor to meet demand and supplement this with a strong launch lineup of games, then we suspect the company will be off to a good start.
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
