As Nintendo gets closer to launching the Switch 2 console, the company is also working on a strategy to prevent resellers from scooping up all available units.
As IGN reports, Nintendo told investors that it will have so many Switch 2 consoles available on launch day that it’ll be difficult for scalpers to nab them all.
“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,” Nintendo’s CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said during a Q&A.
Importantly, Nintendo is signaling it doesn’t expect a chip shortage to impact the Switch 2, like it did with the earlier Switch models.
“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.”
The other interesting part is how Nintendo says it's prepared to take legal action to stop the reselling—a tactic the company has favored when targeting software pirates and emulators. “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,” Furukawa said.
Hopefully, this means the company can avoid a repeat of what happened to the Nintendo Switch OLED model, which scalpers immediately pounced on in 2021 by snatching up product preorders, causing prices to temporarily skyrocket.
In May, Nintendo confirmed it’ll announce the Switch 2 before March 31, 2025. So it’s possible the company will finally shed light on the product this summer or fall for a holiday launch.