Nintendo Has A Simple But Effective Plan To Stop Switch 2 Scalpers

Nintendo has a plan to combat the potential scalping of its Switch successor: one that boils down to making certain that there are enough units available to satisfy demand when it's eventually released. In a Q&A session during a shareholders meeting, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa explained how the company will take on the reseller market.

"As a countermeasure against resale, we believe that the most important thing is to produce a sufficient number to meet customer demand, and this idea has not changed since last year," Furukawa said (translated via IGN). "In addition to this, we are considering whether there are any other measures that can be taken to the extent allowed by laws and regulations, taking into account the circumstances of each region."

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Switch consoles became sought-after items. The global semiconductor shortage in 2021 saw supply shrink, but echoing previous statements regarding availability, Furukawa added that Nintendo is anticipating that it'll have enough stock to combat scalping.

"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," Furukawa said. "At this time, we do not believe that the shortage of components will have a significant impact on the production of the successor model."

Several months ago, Nintendo confirmed that a Switch successor was in development and that the Switch 2 will be announced during the company's current fiscal year ending in March 2025. The Switch successor comes at a time when Switch hardware sales have begun to decline, but with 141.32 million consoles and over 1.2 billion games sold as of March 31, 2024, the Switch has had a terrific run so far. Here's hoping the successor is backwards compatible so fans can keep playing their full library.