LogFAQs > #948561321

Consoles? Probably not. Consoles are genuinely hard to produce in large quantities, and launch demand is often higher than is feasible to meet. There's little benefit in creating an artificial shortage there, particularly where having a larger install base gives a competitive edge in today's multiplat-heavy world and opens the door to so much more money from game sales.

Other products? Absolutely. Stuff like the NES/SNES Classic and Amiibos are much easier to produce plenty of, and there's plenty of room to generate extra demand by doing more limited productions runs, not unlike what often happens with any given year's "hot Christmas toy," or the Disney Vault. Some of that still boils down to having difficulty predicting just how many will sell and not wanting to overproduce and leave stock sitting in warehouses, but there's almost certainly a deliberate element in there. Just look at Mario 3D All Stars for a clear-cut example: Nintendo's cutting off digital sales at the end of March. There's no genuine shortage of the digital product or concerns about overproducing it (since it can literally be replicated infinitely on demand); that limit to its availability is 100% an artificial decision to capitalize on people's fear of not being able to get the product later to drive up demand.

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