I've never bought the "omg we had no idea our product would be popular" bullshit line. I took one look at the NES Classic and without gauging online reaction knew a lot of people would want one. Nintendo (still) not making enough is either artificial scarcity or extreme incompetence. It's all they had for the holidays - Switch or no Switch they had plenty of time to make enough.
The way I see it, they might have needed to allocate more resources for the Switch. Last year everybody was talking about the Switch, and I mean EVERYBODY. the co-owner of my Spanish Youtube channel made a few videos analyzing the way the press handles the Switch and analyzing Nintendo's strategy, and we went from 13k subs to 48k late last year. We're now sitting at 84k.
It was easy to see it would be popular. But TBH, no idea if it was made scarce on purpose.
Uuugh if you lose or break the console you have to contact Nintendo to get them to transfer your "primary console" status still.
So, a little better than it was previously.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I would never give Nintendo much credit for either foresight or for being able to predict what people will buy. They have a long history of completely random and pointless peripheral nonsense, a lot of which barely worked; fortunately for the Wii, they made peripheral devices work as a reliable control system and made it the nice, friendly, approachable system through marketing. Then they tried something similar with the Wii U... except it was a big fat failure, and they probably don't even understand why nobody wanted to have to use a tablet to play games (or that it would massively confuse so many of the people that bought a Wii). Now the Switch has more or less standard controls applied in a non-standard way, and they had no idea it would be a hit at launch.
The scarcity of the system doesn't surprise me at all, and I seriously doubt it was intentional. If Nintendo had any clue about the actual demand for the system, it would hover around "tough to get but still out there" because they would've adequately met demand, plus some extra.
It's not malice and it's not incompetence, Nintendo just doesn't know if what they make will be a hit and so they err on the side of caution. The only really dumb mistake they made was not having a plan ready if the system did sell out, they could just come right out and say "hey, new shipments will be out in a week" instead of leaving everyone wandering if this is another bungled launch of theirs.
Can I link my Nintendo Account to more than one Nintendo Switch console?
You can link your Nintendo Account to multiple consoles. However, you can only activate one console per Nintendo Account. Games that you’ve downloaded with your Nintendo Account will only be playable on the one active console for your account.
Can I link my Nintendo Account to more than one Nintendo Switch console?
You can link your Nintendo Account to multiple consoles. However, you can only activate one console per Nintendo Account. Games that you’ve downloaded with your Nintendo Account will only be playable on the one active console for your account.
You can change which console is the primary console and download them to the new one.
I'm assuming you can delete a game and redownload it as often as you want on a single primary device, even if you change which one is the primary.
This reminds me a lot of Amiibos, actually. There's one full game on the system now and it's available on a different console as well, so why would Nintendo expect the Switch to wildly sell out now?
Can I link my Nintendo Account to more than one Nintendo Switch console?
You can link your Nintendo Account to multiple consoles. However, you can only activate one console per Nintendo Account. Games that you’ve downloaded with your Nintendo Account will only be playable on the one active console for your account.
In the context of the original post that was replied to, Maz's FAQ link answers the question: in the event of lost or dead consoles, your games can be transferred/redownloaded on a new system. Your reply to it seemed to dispute this and imply that you can only download stuff to one Switch with your account, ever. But just because your account can only be active on one Switch doesn't mean you can't have two Switches that you toggle between any time you like, if you wanted to do so for some reason. Games aren't tied to one Switch forever.
The problem is that the Switch expects to spend a lot of it's time away from the internet, so it can't enforce a check to make sure that the console is the "primary". Otherwise you could set a console to be your active switch, put it in airplane mode, and then repeat, allowing an indeterminate amount of switches to play with one purchase.
The problem is that the Switch expects to spend a lot of it's time away from the internet, so it can't enforce a check to make sure that the console is the "primary". Otherwise you could set a console to be your active switch, put it in airplane mode, and then repeat, allowing an indeterminate amount of switches to play with one purchase.
Again: solved problem. Apple has this same issue, and solves it by doing what Nintendo does here *and* letting you press a "deauthorize all" button every so often. The timer prevents real abuse and means you don't have to talk to support.
Did you guys get a protection plan for yours? Haven't gotten a case yet and am worried about taking it out and about it and potentially dropping it. Although I guess the screen isn't going to shatter? I do have one of those amfilm glass things on it.
edit: Switch could do like a "three days without connecting to the internet and the games need to reverify with a net connection" kinda thing
Can I link my Nintendo Account to more than one Nintendo Switch console?
You can link your Nintendo Account to multiple consoles. However, you can only activate one console per Nintendo Account. Games that you’ve downloaded with your Nintendo Account will only be playable on the one active console for your account.
In the context of the original post that was replied to, Maz's FAQ link answers the question: in the event of lost or dead consoles, your games can be transferred/redownloaded on a new system. Your reply to it seemed to dispute this and imply that you can only download stuff to one Switch with your account, ever. But just because your account can only be active on one Switch doesn't mean you can't have two Switches that you toggle between any time you like, if you wanted to do so for some reason. Games aren't tied to one Switch forever.
Okay, I guess I misread the context of the original post, since I seem to have only seen Maz-'s.
But as it stands right now, the only way to unlink and account on the user side is on the console itself, so to unlink them for a lost or stolen console, you'd need to contact nintendo support. And I thought that, if you were involving support, you could redownload on a new 3ds or wiiu, anyway?
If the cost of support calls to transfer licenses becomes greater than the cost of them implementing and running a service forcing the Switch to require an internet connection every 7 days or month or something to verify license/primary consoles, then they'll do the latter.
They can also just not do timed checks, and only flag accounts that get a suspicious # of primary console activations in a short period.
Edit: Oh yeah! I also got my blue left joycon back today. Basically sent Monday, got back today (should've been yesterday but UPS had problems). Works much better now, and at least on part if not better than the other ones.
IMO, definitely worth testing and sending it in if you can be without one joycon for a week.
Disney does artificial scarcity with their asinine vault deal.
It's both to make you want to rush out and buy one because you're not going to get an option to mull over it, and it also creates the illusion of high demand. Long lines and news stories about people camping overnight are basically free press, and those don't happen if you satisfy demand. They also suggest that the item must be worth looking into if "so many people" want it.
I mean, the bandwagon effect is a real thing, and not being able to get something DOES make people desire it more. I dunno if this is the case with the Switch, but let's not act like companies don't do things that seem unusual or counterproductive until dig a bit deeper into the reasoning.
30-70 year old movies are not the same thing as brand new game consoles and toys. Disney does that to have an excuse to talk about their back catalog every couple years and keep them in the news - because there is nothing else keeping them there. They are also easy and cheap to produce whenever they want.
Nintendo has NO reason to create artificial scarcity. Their consoles are not sold at a high markup as a luxury good - they are going for the low end of the market, aiming for volume. They want kids to buy their stuff. You limit supply when you want to give an impression of being an exclusive or luxury good, in order to CREATE demand. Nintendo doesn't need to do that - the demand is there! It's just that tooling and producing 70 types of amiibo and a couple types of game console is much more difficult than stamping out some blu-rays.
There is no basis in assuming artificial scarcity except for people just grumbling because they couldn't get what they wanted when they wanted it. Hell, everyone I've seen posting from Australia talks about how there's been Switches on the shelves the whole time - what about the artificial scarcity there?
So when is the 3DS officially dead? Are there certain releases already under development that are going to get at least a lot closer to release before that announcement or could we be seeing it by the end of this year?
I dunno when it will be "officially dead" but my 3DS is still sitting in the same spot it was when I took that Switch haul photo on launch day. It's pretty dead as far as I'm concerned. I'll still play it from time to time. It has a great, ginormous library and there will still be new releases, but everything I used my 3DS for can now be done better on the Switch (sans 3D which I don't really need).
The only thing that kept me from taking my Switch everywhere with me like I did the 3DS was the fragility of the thing, and now that I have a good case that's pretty much a non issue
Disney does artificial scarcity with their asinine vault deal.
It's both to make you want to rush out and buy one because you're not going to get an option to mull over it, and it also creates the illusion of high demand. Long lines and news stories about people camping overnight are basically free press, and those don't happen if you satisfy demand. They also suggest that the item must be worth looking into if "so many people" want it.
I mean, the bandwagon effect is a real thing, and not being able to get something DOES make people desire it more. I dunno if this is the case with the Switch, but let's not act like companies don't do things that seem unusual or counterproductive until dig a bit deeper into the reasoning.
30-70 year old movies are not the same thing as brand new game consoles and toys. Disney does that to have an excuse to talk about their back catalog every couple years and keep them in the news - because there is nothing else keeping them there. They are also easy and cheap to produce whenever they want.
Nintendo has NO reason to create artificial scarcity. Their consoles are not sold at a high markup as a luxury good - they are going for the low end of the market, aiming for volume. They want kids to buy their stuff. You limit supply when you want to give an impression of being an exclusive or luxury good, in order to CREATE demand. Nintendo doesn't need to do that - the demand is there! It's just that tooling and producing 70 types of amiibo and a couple types of game console is much more difficult than stamping out some blu-rays.
There is no basis in assuming artificial scarcity except for people just grumbling because they couldn't get what they wanted when they wanted it. Hell, everyone I've seen posting from Australia talks about how there's been Switches on the shelves the whole time - what about the artificial scarcity there?
Dollary-doos don't have a favorable exchange rate.
If Nintendo is doing the artificial scarcity thing I wouldn't think they're doing in on purpose. I think they're just really terrible at gauging demand, even over a long period of time where they've released similar products in the past. They're either doing it because they think it'll help, or because they're out of tune with how much people like their stuff. But it happens consistently enough for me to think there's a problem, not necessarily them mustache twirling about trying to build hype.
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Linespider5ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGERRegistered Userregular
edited March 2017
The Switch was always going to sell out. The only arguably weird thing about the launch was the decision to do a global launch, which, maybe that's not such a weird thing anymore, but there could be arguments to be made for a more regional rollout, possibly, and still getting the important feedback about unexpected Joy Con troubles, screen concerns, dock issues, etc.
Short of some eventual future where we all just order the single-use production license that lets us fire up our printers to produce the new electronics du jour ourselves, there are always going to be shortages after limited, carefully calculated initial product runs.
And even then, maybe not. Is there still a waiting list to get a cronut if you want one?
The Switch was always going to sell out. The only arguably weird thing about the launch was the decision to do a global launch, which, maybe that's not such a weird thing anymore, but there could be arguments to be made for a more regional rollout, possibly, and still getting the important feedback about unexpected Joy Con troubles, screen concerns, dock issues, etc.
Short of some eventual future where we all just order the single-use production license that lets us fire up our printers to produce the new electronics du jour ourselves, there are always going to be shortages after limited, carefully calculated initial product runs.
And even then, maybe not. Is there still a waiting list to get a cronut if you want one?
Man, I do love me some cronuts. Have never seen them in this country but they were all over Japan last time I was there.
That aside
I agree, I don't think Nintendo's strategy is artificial scarcity, at least not in the normal sense of the word. I think they're just super conservative with their production of stuff like the NES classic and non-XL variants of the "new" 3DS and would rather make 10 and sell 10* than make 20 and sell 19, even if it leaves 9 people unhappy.
For the Switch I can't imagine they'll be doing anything other than shipping them out as fast as the factory can slap them together. Also if there is any justice in the world there will be a surge of systems returned to retailers at the start of April from scalpers unable to make their fortune.
* You can make up your own joke about how the shipping allotment for the NES Classic to the US was literally 10 units, I tried to come up with something funny but just couldn't find the right angle.
Scalping a Switch is not exactly a profitable endeavor. The price right now seems to be roughly $400 with just the system itself. With eBay fees, PayPal fees, and shipping costs (most people expect free shipping when paying that much money) the amount of money you get is hardly worth the hassle. It might pay for your copy of Zelda and that's about it.
So the honest truth is I don't think I've got any reason to play my Switch till ARMS arrives. That's a month and a half I think.
- I've seen the credits in Zelda and don't particularly feel inclined to play it any more.
- FAST RMX gave me a good afternoon of unlocking tracks, but I'm not dying to improve my lap times.
- Snipperclips is great! Ok so I will definitely play this a bit more with my eldest. After the first 15 levels this gets too hard for my other kids. But it's not really a single player game.
- Metal Slug 3 is a fun diversion, but arcade games like this are kinda annoyingly hard, yet can be brute forced with infinite credits.
- All the other games I haven't bought... nothing catches my attention. At least not compared to the backlog of games on the PS4. (Maybe I could be up for Blaster Master Zero)
It's also worth pointing out that the Australian eShop is being stupid about release dates. It's possible some indies could get released, but they are not telling us. For example the US is getting all the Tomorrow Corporation games, but we've apparently only got 1 listed for next week.
Anyways, I feel the same about the Switch as I did before launch. The lack of a fully fledged VC, bugger all first party non-Wii U games, so-so 3rd party games, indies not yet released and generally expensive prices have seriously dampened my enthusiasm.
I still can't believe VC is such a big deal for people nowadays. With so many good games we have now and a plethora of ways to play older games it just seems like it'd be so far down on the list of things that are important for a console.
urahonky on
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Linespider5ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGERRegistered Userregular
I still can't believe VC is such a big deal for people nowadays. With so many good games we have now and a plethora of ways to play older games it just seems like it'd be so far down on the list of things that are important for a console.
I would even argue that making it something that's always around would diminish the incentives of the feature in the first place.
I haven't owned a Nintendo system since the Gamecube, so the VC is something I'm really looking forward to having access to. People like me might be in the minority though, judging by the Wii sales.
I'm more worried about being able to transfer save files. It would be awesome if for example Splatoon 2 comes out and my wife loves it as much as Splatoon and we buy an additional Switch and we can play with each other*.
I'm more worried about being able to transfer save files. It would be awesome if for example Splatoon 2 comes out and my wife loves it as much as Splatoon and we buy an additional Switch and we can play with each other*.
*don't say it
The number one thing I want is cloud saves. Or let me back up to my desktop. Or both (Nintendo, the Vita already does this... and Sony is at least as obsessive about avoiding cracked systems as you are so...)
If the Switch had a VC with the range of the Wii store, I'd probably pick up at least 5 games immediately.
I kinda enjoyed the Wii VC, though for a long time our TV couldn't deal with the 4:3 aspect ratio and the Wii-Motes were frequently out of batteries. However, I went crazy for the Wii U VC because of the convenience of the GamePad.
But you know, I'd prefer there to be lots of great first party games to play over a VC, but that hasn't happened either.
I still feel a good big chunk of Nintendo's stupid stance on saves is all because of Pokemon and them wanting to avoid people duping perfect shiny legendaries easily.
@UncleSporky and anyone else who I'm Switch friends with: Twitter is telling me to add people, but I only joined Twitter to enter a Nintendo competition, made one tweet to enter said competition, and never used it again.
I'm saying this in case anyone's getting similar emails, please don't be offended if I don't add you in Twitter, I hate Twitter with a passion.
Beat me on Wii U: Raybies
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
@UncleSporky and anyone else who I'm Switch friends with: Twitter is telling me to add people, but I only joined Twitter to enter a Nintendo competition, made one tweet to enter said competition, and never used it again.
I'm saying this in case anyone's getting similar emails, please don't be offended if I don't add you in Twitter, I hate Twitter with a passion.
No one should ever feel compelled to apologize for this sort of thing.
Posts
The way I see it, they might have needed to allocate more resources for the Switch. Last year everybody was talking about the Switch, and I mean EVERYBODY. the co-owner of my Spanish Youtube channel made a few videos analyzing the way the press handles the Switch and analyzing Nintendo's strategy, and we went from 13k subs to 48k late last year. We're now sitting at 84k.
It was easy to see it would be popular. But TBH, no idea if it was made scarce on purpose.
Nope.
Man, you sure as fuck wouldn't know it from your posting history!
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/switch-game-downloads-cant-be-shared-across-multiple-systems/
Unless there's an updated article about it?
You can't put your SD card in another switch with downloaded games, log into your account, and then play them.
And I think you can only have one "primary" switch which is what your games are playable on.
If you have two I don't think you can buy zelda digitally once and play it on both? It's confusing.
http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22467/~/nintendo-accounts-on-nintendo-switch-(faq)
So, a little better than it was previously.
The scarcity of the system doesn't surprise me at all, and I seriously doubt it was intentional. If Nintendo had any clue about the actual demand for the system, it would hover around "tough to get but still out there" because they would've adequately met demand, plus some extra.
It's not malice and it's not incompetence, Nintendo just doesn't know if what they make will be a hit and so they err on the side of caution. The only really dumb mistake they made was not having a plan ready if the system did sell out, they could just come right out and say "hey, new shipments will be out in a week" instead of leaving everyone wandering if this is another bungled launch of theirs.
And they tend to err really far on the caution side a lot of the time. And do baffling things like lie about friend codes.
Yeah, uh, did you read your own link?
You can change which console is the primary console and download them to the new one.
I'm assuming you can delete a game and redownload it as often as you want on a single primary device, even if you change which one is the primary.
In the context of the original post that was replied to, Maz's FAQ link answers the question: in the event of lost or dead consoles, your games can be transferred/redownloaded on a new system. Your reply to it seemed to dispute this and imply that you can only download stuff to one Switch with your account, ever. But just because your account can only be active on one Switch doesn't mean you can't have two Switches that you toggle between any time you like, if you wanted to do so for some reason. Games aren't tied to one Switch forever.
Again: solved problem. Apple has this same issue, and solves it by doing what Nintendo does here *and* letting you press a "deauthorize all" button every so often. The timer prevents real abuse and means you don't have to talk to support.
edit: Switch could do like a "three days without connecting to the internet and the games need to reverify with a net connection" kinda thing
But as it stands right now, the only way to unlink and account on the user side is on the console itself, so to unlink them for a lost or stolen console, you'd need to contact nintendo support. And I thought that, if you were involving support, you could redownload on a new 3ds or wiiu, anyway?
They can also just not do timed checks, and only flag accounts that get a suspicious # of primary console activations in a short period.
Edit: Oh yeah! I also got my blue left joycon back today. Basically sent Monday, got back today (should've been yesterday but UPS had problems). Works much better now, and at least on part if not better than the other ones.
IMO, definitely worth testing and sending it in if you can be without one joycon for a week.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
30-70 year old movies are not the same thing as brand new game consoles and toys. Disney does that to have an excuse to talk about their back catalog every couple years and keep them in the news - because there is nothing else keeping them there. They are also easy and cheap to produce whenever they want.
Nintendo has NO reason to create artificial scarcity. Their consoles are not sold at a high markup as a luxury good - they are going for the low end of the market, aiming for volume. They want kids to buy their stuff. You limit supply when you want to give an impression of being an exclusive or luxury good, in order to CREATE demand. Nintendo doesn't need to do that - the demand is there! It's just that tooling and producing 70 types of amiibo and a couple types of game console is much more difficult than stamping out some blu-rays.
There is no basis in assuming artificial scarcity except for people just grumbling because they couldn't get what they wanted when they wanted it. Hell, everyone I've seen posting from Australia talks about how there's been Switches on the shelves the whole time - what about the artificial scarcity there?
Thanks for contributing to the discussion.
I dunno when it will be "officially dead" but my 3DS is still sitting in the same spot it was when I took that Switch haul photo on launch day. It's pretty dead as far as I'm concerned. I'll still play it from time to time. It has a great, ginormous library and there will still be new releases, but everything I used my 3DS for can now be done better on the Switch (sans 3D which I don't really need).
The only thing that kept me from taking my Switch everywhere with me like I did the 3DS was the fragility of the thing, and now that I have a good case that's pretty much a non issue
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
Dollary-doos don't have a favorable exchange rate.
Short of some eventual future where we all just order the single-use production license that lets us fire up our printers to produce the new electronics du jour ourselves, there are always going to be shortages after limited, carefully calculated initial product runs.
And even then, maybe not. Is there still a waiting list to get a cronut if you want one?
If it fails, you'll probably hear about a DS successor in 2-3 years. Although if the Switch fails Nintendo may be turbofucked for a good while.
Man, I do love me some cronuts. Have never seen them in this country but they were all over Japan last time I was there.
That aside
I agree, I don't think Nintendo's strategy is artificial scarcity, at least not in the normal sense of the word. I think they're just super conservative with their production of stuff like the NES classic and non-XL variants of the "new" 3DS and would rather make 10 and sell 10* than make 20 and sell 19, even if it leaves 9 people unhappy.
For the Switch I can't imagine they'll be doing anything other than shipping them out as fast as the factory can slap them together. Also if there is any justice in the world there will be a surge of systems returned to retailers at the start of April from scalpers unable to make their fortune.
* You can make up your own joke about how the shipping allotment for the NES Classic to the US was literally 10 units, I tried to come up with something funny but just couldn't find the right angle.
- I've seen the credits in Zelda and don't particularly feel inclined to play it any more.
- FAST RMX gave me a good afternoon of unlocking tracks, but I'm not dying to improve my lap times.
- Snipperclips is great! Ok so I will definitely play this a bit more with my eldest. After the first 15 levels this gets too hard for my other kids. But it's not really a single player game.
- Metal Slug 3 is a fun diversion, but arcade games like this are kinda annoyingly hard, yet can be brute forced with infinite credits.
- All the other games I haven't bought... nothing catches my attention. At least not compared to the backlog of games on the PS4. (Maybe I could be up for Blaster Master Zero)
It's also worth pointing out that the Australian eShop is being stupid about release dates. It's possible some indies could get released, but they are not telling us. For example the US is getting all the Tomorrow Corporation games, but we've apparently only got 1 listed for next week.
Anyways, I feel the same about the Switch as I did before launch. The lack of a fully fledged VC, bugger all first party non-Wii U games, so-so 3rd party games, indies not yet released and generally expensive prices have seriously dampened my enthusiasm.
I would even argue that making it something that's always around would diminish the incentives of the feature in the first place.
*don't say it
The number one thing I want is cloud saves. Or let me back up to my desktop. Or both (Nintendo, the Vita already does this... and Sony is at least as obsessive about avoiding cracked systems as you are so...)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I kinda enjoyed the Wii VC, though for a long time our TV couldn't deal with the 4:3 aspect ratio and the Wii-Motes were frequently out of batteries. However, I went crazy for the Wii U VC because of the convenience of the GamePad.
But you know, I'd prefer there to be lots of great first party games to play over a VC, but that hasn't happened either.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
I'm saying this in case anyone's getting similar emails, please don't be offended if I don't add you in Twitter, I hate Twitter with a passion.
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
I remember when I had time to be good at games.
*cue X-Files theme*
No one should ever feel compelled to apologize for this sort of thing.