Switch is just going great nuff said.

im not one to wildly speculate on conspiracy, but they did do that with the NES mini and Nintendo has fallen on harder times so why wouldn't they try it? its not illegal, it builds anticipation for your product and when people do finally see it in stock, they're more likely to impulsively buy it, considering they might know when they will have the opportunity again. it also makes your product seem more hyped. I'm not saying they did do it, but it wouldn't surprise me.

To the conspiracy theorists... 1. This problem or issue doesn't exist without demand. 2. Running the problem of excess inventory destroys ones earnings report (see Wii U). 3. I will guarantee that there is WAY more money to be made in making Switches than the license heavy NES Classic.

Considering what they've done with their previous systems ie even NES Classic, its really hard to believe they are not creating this artificial demand.

I mean....the source for this article isn't really helping either. I mean...remember all those articles about Wii U selling out like crazy?

Worst selling console out of the 3 companies sooooooo yea.

I'm sure its selling great to those who want it, but doesn't mean Nintendo isn't purposely withholding shipments to generate fake excitement, it wouldn't be their first time.

It easier to except that they do this, then to seriously say they legit can't ship out hardware properly.

Either they are doing this on purpose or they are too stupid to ship out hardware....

Thankfully....only Nintendo has ever been accused of this. Oh....wait. What did some say in 2013 for PS4 and Xbox One supply shortages?

"Some have even taken to social networks, claiming that the companies have purposefully limited supply to create artificial demand for their video game systems."

http://money.cnn.com/2013/1...

I mean it's not like they did it with the NES classic, oh wait....

All these people claiming they limited the NES Mini stock to increase demand clearly haven't stopped to think about what they're saying.

If that's the case, Nintendo must have known that demand was high enough to sell the 2.3 million. However, Nintendo makes no extra money on aftermarket sales that are done at steep prices. Nintendo makes the same amount on each one whether it's sold to the consumer for $60 or $120. Then production ended and Nintendo will make money off of them no more. Why would they limit stock to increase demand, but not produce enough to sell more due to the increased demand? They'd literally be making no extra money on it.

I have checked for one on all 6 American retailers EVERY SINGLE DAY SINCE RELEASE AND STILL CAN'T GET ONE. I'm a 40-year-old man with a 10-yo daughter and we have a PS4 Pro, 2 very nice gaming PCs, 3DS XL, and various other devices. BUT WE STILL WANT A SWITCH BADLY!!!

i cant take Nintendo Seriously if X1 and PS4 sold 1 mill day one and throughout the holiday you were atleast able to snag one if you looks hard enough. After January they were on the shelves no problem. Now its Spring time and retailers are getting shipments of 15 every 2 or 3 weeks since launch. Thats just fucking ridiculous

Nintendo have been in this business longer than anyone. And launched more products than Sony / ms. Back to nes/famicom to all the home systems after. Not to mention many many handhelds and revisions. They know how to manufacture and project demand.

I feel they artificially constrain products to generate demand / buzz and make ppl want to buy it if they see it. Cus you think OMG THEY'RE IN STOCK! I BETTER GET IT!

You want to know if they are doing this with switch? Look at the previous products; they did it with nes classic. Want to look further back? They did it with certain amiibo figures too!

No it's not crazy, it's common practice for Nintendo.

It is crazy talk, some people will say anything.

This is what I've been preaching on N4G and Gameranx for Months. Other companies do it, but Nintendo does it Nonstop and in an annoying way. They rely on it too much and everyone gives them a free pass.

ive been trying to buy one since release

I just find this a pointless argument to have.

On One side, you can't say it's false and crazy because 1. You don't know it's false and 2. It's not crazy to think a company would do something like that.

On the other hand, there's no proof that they ARE creating artificial demand. As others have said, they paid higher shipping costs to restock quickly. Sure it could be a PR stunt but again no proof.

This can just go around in circles for ever without knowing for sure either way.

There's no artificial demand, people really want one, Nintendo just messed up their production

The tinfoil is indeed strong in here today.

Less profit translates to losses....INTERESTING....
Well there goes the credibility of the article..
Also from my first read it seems he puts the blame on Nintendo's shit supply chain, but isn't that basically artificial in the sense that they are not updating it and hence creating a false demand?

So is this the new thing bash Nintendo for units sold and call it a lie. For one they told us the nes mini was a one time thing. They didn't make them to make money they made them to get people interested in Nintendo again. They aren't making games on the system so after production cost shipping paying stores to put them on shelves how much do people think Nintendo made off of those things.

They had their financial meeting recently they sold more than they planned to. Now people are saying speed up production but there's more to it than the thought of making more there's quality control can't just send the product out there.

Really? I asked various retailers on how many Switch consoles they had available. Most of them said 5 units, it's definitely fake demand. Wait until PS4 and Pro to drop in price and see what happens. Not to mention Xbox Scorpio coming out this year. I bet they will magically will ship more units. Also let's not forget they did the same fake demand with the original Wii.

Naw. I think the "conspiracy" theorists are right. Nintendo is purposely limiting the supply of Nintendo Switch consoles to increase demand. Nobody bought the Wii U, but all of a sudden everybody wants the Switch(a console with a relatively weak launch lineup and lackluster 3rd party support). Yeah Okay.

***Despite Nintendo’s best efforts, Switch systems are still hard to come by in retailers all over the world. ***

Sorry, but not even close to their best efforts.

The comments and likes to dislikes are completely DUMB in this section and of course they would be because ITS A NINTENDO HATE THING. The Switch demand is high. Why would Nintendo FLY systems out for delivery instead of driving them by way of transport??? Out of all my gaming friends. I'M THE NINTENDO FAN. They are so so... THEY ALL HAVE SWITCHES but maybe 1. I plan on buying very soon as well. The only OTHER time that happened was with the Wii... NO ONE OF MY FRIENDS HAD A Wii U. NONE. I'm talking about females and males here. Nintendo can't win with trolls and biased gamers. Just the Zelda DLC... The first DLC is MORE than you get with SEASON PASSES, and this is just the beginning. YET EVERYONE was hating on $20 price tag. Where are those haters now??? LOOKING LIKE DUMBASSES.

I know[ledge] Nintendo is doing just that.

I don't even listen to what this guy says or what any media says, I KNOW HOW Business works in the REAL WORLD.

Smh, Look ...its Business, and its the Media's Job to lie about the REALITY of things, of course I disagree with shady business practices, but there more common than people know, but again your free to believe whatever.

smh, lol you consumers crack me up, so NIAVE, and honestly its not even that, PEOPLE WANT TO BE LIED TO,....

Its is what it is.

Basically it boils down to the Nintendo haters in denial as usual. They really can't stand the thought of switch being a success. Get over it grow up.

I love this. The same morons on this site that say the Switch is junk and they will never buy one complaining that they aren't available. That's just rich... idiots.

Switch, after the launch, doesn't have a huge demand, facts at hand

Haha, what Nintendo is making is relative to their profits. I don't understand why they would have released so little though if some of predicting shortages throughout 2017.

the hater will always claim the same line, i'm sure no matter what anyone says or has proof will change their minds. so this is pointless. The viral mentality of the internet just amplifies the hate or the fanboys.

Jesus christ, you can't go to you local store and see a few units and claim " OH THERE YOU GO THEY HAVE 5 UNITS, THIS IS BS I KNEW THEY WERE ARTIFICIALLY CREATING DEMAND". Didn't know N4G had so many inventory managers for Nintendo global supply chain...

seen this?
"Nintendo is incompetent when it comes to supply. "

Think this is like supplying a corner store with chips?

Think people expect to have the precises amount of units for every customer that walks into any store around the world, bitch and complain when they don't see what they want...

If they didn't meet their 2M goal then the haters would of been like, SEE!!!! THE DEMAND WAS ARTIFICIAL!!!! The past the goals and it's still negative. Honestly, tell me... dear haters... what do you want?

its not crazy its true i work at a gamestop they send us 5 switch consoles and it sells out for that day yeah no DUH you sent us 5 switch consoles!! and thats like 5 per month the artificial demand is true

No they aren't. It's called artifical demand because Nintendo has the ability to make as many of these consoles as they wanted. Nintendo isn't some fledgling company that is strapped for cash and would have had to make a small amount initially because of finances. Nintendo and other video game companies do these things to drive up demand, it's a trick as old as the book in sales. Microsoft did the same thing for the Xbox pro controller and everyone freaked out and had to have one because it was in demand... Now nobody even talks about it.

This isn't anything new. Companies from time to time do this throughout history - think about what Apple does with their precious overpriced magical rectangles and how they only have a "limited amount" of a specific color, when its a bunch of slaves working @ Foxconn with nets outside the windows so they don't kill themselves working in such horrible conditions, but Apple dresses it up like it's this mystical process to create these plastic/semi-metal shells and creates a DEMAND for them.

It is, what it is.

Artificial demand ? Supply is issue. A company restricts supply to a choke point. Demand is 100%. Vultures grab demand and put product thru a paywall ... demand seems greater than actual. Marketing pr jumps on huge market!

Look at ebay for proof. Over 22000 switch postings with many of those for 5 to 10 systems available. Its 50 to 100 thousand of the 1 million usa units. 10% of market absorbed into secondary market? Seriously... if demand were that high then pricing would continue to grow. Look at it... stuck at 400$. Vultures are creating scarcity of 300 units but 400 to 500$ units are not selling.

Supply control is leading to demand perception. Nintendo has every right to sell 1 to 1 billion units at the pace they want. The claims of wii like demand are false and created for marketing. I look forward to buying one eventually but not in the current climate or with the library

I was just at Target and they had six switches. I counted them because my son wanted one because I have one

Every company (INCLUDING Nintendo and their switch) could make more units for launch, but they dont. Therefor, because something sells out doesnt completely measure the demand for it...

If you wanna play that game, the switch is one of the least popular products in retail compared to other things at this rate...

I want to want a Switch, if that makes sense. No system sellers in sight for me though.

All you have to do is look at the website's name and determine that it is biased in favor of Nintendo. Have been seeing this lately with the Wii and 3DS especially a few months after the Holidays. I'm not surprised that the same is being repeated with the Switch. That's why I walked away from Nintendo for good and will be a PC gamer from this point forth. This is something that will erode the Nintendo brand.

No one is accusing Sony if there aren't any PS4s sitting on shelves because they have sold a bunch of systems. With the ARM based Switch, there aren't as many excuses as there would be with x86 based consoles.

In contrast, PS4 sold 4.2 million units within about 1 1/2 months of launch. Christ, the iPhone 6/6s sold 10 million units in the launch weekend.

I don't care about sales numbers, but it is telling that Nintendo launches have been egregiously under-estimated at best, and intentionally short-stocked at worst. It's nearly impossible to parse through the strategy in any intelligible way (why drum up demand that is clearly already there?), but there's nothing that indicates Nintendo is uniquely unable to keep pace with its own hotness.

An iPhone, for example, is more intricately manufactured, yet Apple keeps pace with demand (of course, I'm not touching on the fairly-despicable Apple manufacturing processes).

To me it's clear one thing, numbers....they don't lie. Those 2.7million units sold on the month of March means that it has surpass the original goal of 2 million units. That's something artificial demand cannot emulate.

If you think about it Nintendo only had the idea to reach the 2 million goal. The marketing and the Zelda pretty much did it's job to maintain the hype and this si the result.

Nintendo has a track record of doing exactly that though.

How can Nintendo Ethuanist claim talk of artificial demand aren't true after discontinuing the NES Classic and not even selling 3M units when it's clear that they could have easily sold 10M units? That is something that the Nintendo diehards cannot defend Nintendo. That is a company that doesn't have sufficient confidence in their products and it shows.

If Nintendo cannot meet the demand of their customers, it's time to go 3rd party. I would happily play legal Nintendo games on the PC.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau