Hacker News Reader

Comment by Y_Y | Hacker News Reader

> Nintendo will send out invitations for "priority" purchasing of the Switch 2, direct from the company, starting on May 8. Those who have purchased a Switch Online membership as of April 2, have had it for a minimum of 12 months, have opted to share gameplay data, and have logged at least 50 hours get priority. There will be a 72-hour window in which to use priority purchasing invitations.

So they're trying to circumvent retailers, while "rewarding" people for allowing telemetry and having a long running credit card subscription, by offering them a time-limited fomo pre-release.

I think I won tech-MBA bingo, why do I still feel so empty inside?

View on HN

As far as MBA schemes go, this is pretty benign. Realistically,they are putting consoles into the hands of the most vocal, most dedicated, and most enthusiastic customers first. This makes a ton of sense, and if gets around scalping, I'm all for it.

At least you are getting "something" for having telemetry turned on, usually you get zilch.

They're rewarding loyal customers, makes sense to me. The telemetry thing is kind of gross, but necessary if they want to base it on how much you've actually played and not just how long you've subscribed.

This was obviously designed as a customer-friendly way to cut scalpers out of at least part of the initial supply chain. Scalping has been an incessant problem in console gaming due to supply shortages, and it makes everyone miserable except the scalpers. Valve provided a similar release strategy with the Deck as what Nintendo appears to be doing here, and it was extremely successful and welcome by the community.

Yeah, absolutely.

Anybody talking about how much they like (or dislike) Nintendo's plan needs to compare it to the alternative which is "insane levels of scalping" and not some kind of mythical ideal zero-scalping world where supply precisely meets demand on day 1.

I ended up getting my PS5 directly from Sony almost two years after the release. It was still just not in stock whenever and wherever I occasionally checked.

This is flip/scalping prevention. Gang-type groups would arrange squatting campaigns at retailers to soak up stocks, some shipping to China in bulk. It fizzles launches and it had been damaging to brands just as pirating, if not more, and so a loyal customer purchasing program is absolutely necessary.

I suppose scalping hadn't been as severe globally or in US until recent NVIDIA GPU launches? But it's been a major problem for past ~15 years in Japan for all sorts of hyped products.

Well... they could just make enough stock for everybody, and there would be no need for scalpers. Just delay the launch a bit, fill up the warehouses, and when they start selling, everyone gets one, and the scalpers lose.

But no, any scarcity is a must in modern times, so people don't think twice before buying if they see it in stock somewhere.

isn't the whole issue that they have no good way of knowing how many to make until launch? you don't want to wind up like Atari burying copies of ET in the desert

Tell me you don't work in the hardware business without telling me you don't work in the hardware business!

They create artificial scarcity by buying up all stocks everywhere nationwide. They've got capitals to do so.

The gray market price under presence of organized scalpers just isn't the natural point of equilibrium on supply-demand curve.

    I suppose scalping hadn't been as severe globally 
    or in US until recent NVIDIA GPU launches?

For years, it was absolutely massive for iPhone launches.

It was amusing, if not a little frustrating. News coverage would always show it as evidence of fanatical Apple fans. But (especially after the first year or two) it was pretty clearly mostly flippers/scalpers.

If the person doesn't share gameplay data, then Nintendo can't know if the person played at least 50 hours

Can't the person register their device on the Nintendo website, with a serial number and date of purchase? That's often needed for electronics repairs. That alone should be enough to determine whether the person is a scalper or true fan.

Seems like a way to combat scalping. Which is a massive problem

Ah, share gameplay data. The thing every modded switch has turned off.

Why would Nintendo give special treatment to owners of modded switches?

Not Nintendo, but you as a modder need to block Nintendo's servers when inside the custom firmware, otherwise you risk being banned.

Keep in mind that this is Nintendo's store policy. If you buy your Switch 2 from any other retailer, we do not yet know what the requirements will be.

I don’t think it’s is very GDPR compliant if they do that in Europe. Sometimes I wish the GDPR had teeth.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com