Poll of the Day > Do MS/Sony/Nintendo deliberately manufacture fewer consoles at launch?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I can't remember a year when a console has launched near christmas and there wasn't a shortage.

Seems deliberate, to build hype maybe.

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seems like Nintendo absolutely does intentionally

the others I think they do to some extent, especially at the initial launch and the following year or so

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Thank you armchair economists.

Or, and heres a crazy idea, they can only produce a certain amount at a time, and they sell out quickly due to demand?

Or are you going to conveniently forget both the psvita, xbone and wii u that sold like shit and had tons at launch? Oh ofcourse you are.

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Because of course it makes all kinds of sense to have scalpers sell to customers at inflated prices that you see none of. What a brilliant idea.

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Scalpers literally take them all using bots.

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It might partially be due to the fact that they do not yet know how well their consoles are going to sell. So if they are going to manufacture and sell some amount of a video game console, and only ten percent of the supply was sold, then the company would suffer a large loss. This is just a drastic example, really. In any case, my guess is that these lot would not want to manufacture more consoles than they can sell. In regards to Mr. Kimbo's remark, it may be that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft do not wish to repeat the mistakes they had made before. Another way to look at it is that if say Nintendo wants to intentionally cause a shortage, then I speculate that they only wish to minimize the costs they incur by manufacturing unsold consoles. And like Mr. Kimbo also said, it does not make sense for these companies to intentionally underproduce in order to enable scalpers. Only scalpers profit off scalpers.
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FatalAccident posted...

Seems deliberate, to build hype maybe.

lol, this old silly theory again. There's no real benefit to creating an artificial scarcity long-term product offering where the real money is based on lifetime software sales rather than the console itself, which is often a loss-leader. Limited-run strategies are really reserved more for collectibles and fashion. By contrast, game companies WANT to get consoles in as many hands as possible.


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I read an article a while back that said Sony have to source a lot of the parts and can only build as many units as they have parts for. Think this was back when PS4 launched, but I read a different article that said they're either experiencing or expecting a shortage in parts to build the PS5 but were working on rectifying the situation, though I'm not sure they ever did.

So no, I don't believe, at least on Sony's part, that there is a purposeful limiting of product in order to increase hype and demand. Don't believe Nintendo would purposefully do this, either. Like Zeus pointed out, consoles typically sell for a loss and they hope to make up the difference through the sales in software and peripherals, or down the line when costs of manufacturing drop and they can eke out a profit on the units themselves. Think it took about 4 years for the PS3 to turn profitable.

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Haven't found the older article but I found this:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-14/sony-is-struggling-with-playstation-5-price-due-to-costly-parts

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Not sure. Nintendo seems to put out more than the other two (At least in the places I live). So, I dont think they do. The other two usually send out a lot less. But they also probably cost more to make. So, probably not...

Kimbos_Egg posted...

Or, and heres a crazy idea, they can only produce a certain amount at a time, and they sell out quickly due to demand?

This could also be true. Recently, the switch was a hot items that sold a crazy amount in a short time. People complained that Nintendo was holding back. But it might have been just that literally everybody wanted one...
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It felt like Nintendo definitely did that with the Wii. You couldn't find one in its first year without waiting outside a store before opening time.

I have no clue why they'd do that, though. Seems like it would stifle early software sales more than anything.

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faramir77 posted...

It felt like Nintendo definitely did that with the Wii. You couldn't find one in its first year without waiting outside a store before opening time.

This is weird to me. I've mentioned before, by my experience was totally different than other's people experience with this... When the Wi released at my target, there were like 64 or something (I remember is being 60-something, but no more than 65). Both the 360 and PS3 have a considerable less amount. Less than 20 of each at the same Target. And even at Best Buy, they had at least twice as many Wiis as 360s and PS3s. GameStop normally had a few Wiis, but rarely either of the other 2. And if they did, it was a couple at most.

That's why I never understood why people thought Nintendo was holding back. Even back then, everybody at school was happy that Nintendo sent out so many Wiis so that most of us had one. Where barely anybody was able to get a PS3 or 360. Tbh, I don't think it was that Nintendo didn't send out a bunch. I think it was so popular that they sold out fast even though they sent a good amount. Wasn't the Wii one of the few Nintendo consoles that like really exceeded expectations on sales or something at that point?
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So whats the excuse for not having enough units lol

especially if it happens year after year

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FatalAccident posted...

So whats the excuse for not having enough units lol

especially if it happens year after year

If you're asking me, it's because people keep buying them... I'll use switch as my example: More people than ever have been buying the switch. People who I never saw play any other system have been buying it. People who I normally see only playing games on PC are buying it. And with it being handheld and console, people have been buying more than one per household. When it came to a 360, my family got only one. My brother and I shared. When it came to the Switch, we both got one. Meaning if I lived at home, there would be two in the same household, even though we only needed one of other home consoles. I've seen married couples with one each, and families where everybody had their own. Not everybody, of course. But I've seen it more with Switch than other home consoles...
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faramir77 posted...

It felt like Nintendo definitely did that with the Wii. You couldn't find one in its first year without waiting outside a store before opening time.

I have no clue why they'd do that, though. Seems like it would stifle early software sales more than anything.

Any extra they make is essentially losing money, so they might be really conservative with that. Or their production might just be shit. Nintendo never makes enough of anything.


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Remember when the pandemic first hit and everyone (in the US, at least) was buying up toilet paper and disinfectant? There were times you couldn't find either in store shelves. Disinfectant is still somewhat scarce. It's supply and demand.

The PS5 and Series X are hot commodities right now. It's Christmas time. People (and bots, unfortunately) are buying them up as soon as they get restocked on store shelves and online. It's supply and demand. This isn't rocket science ffs

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faramir77 posted...

It felt like Nintendo definitely did that with the Wii. You couldn't find one in its first year without waiting outside a store before opening time.

I have no clue why they'd do that, though. Seems like it would stifle early software sales more than anything.

Ah, the ol' "it felt like" BS. I mean, it couldn't have been that demand was that high. Can you imagine how you'd act if a system didn't sell out it's initial shipment? You'd be claiming "failure".

jsb0714 posted...

Ah, the ol' "it felt like" BS. I mean, it couldn't have been that demand was that high. Can you imagine how you'd act if a system didn't sell out it's initial shipment? You'd be claiming "failure".

A full year of sales is not an "initial shipment". Furthermore, I never said that they actually were doing that.

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Kimbos_Egg posted...

Because of course it makes all kinds of sense to have scalpers sell to customers at inflated prices that you see none of. What a brilliant idea.

..Did the scalpers steal the consoles or something?

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1) Ensure that supply is below demand to justify the cost to consumers.
2) Limit the size of the market which scalpers will corner.
3) The initial run is used to discover manufacturing defects.

The Xbox 360, PS2, and PS3 went through numerous hardware revisions to reduce their failure rate. By limiting the initial run the company saves resources that can be used on the improved version later on.

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Consoles are manufactured and sold at a loss, they probably don't want to make more than they have to and would prefer to under guess than over

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But i dont get it. Surely youd said

in 2018 we made 1m units, they ran out, in 2019 lets make 1.5m units

ok in 2019 1.6m units ran out, lets make more. They cant keep running out of consoles. Its stupid, idk why people make excuses for this bs lol

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FatalAccident posted...

But i dont get it. Surely youd said

in 2018 we made 1m units, they ran out, in 2019 lets make 1.5m units

ok in 2019 1.6m units ran out, lets make more. They cant keep running out of consoles. Its stupid, idk why people make excuses for this bs lol

Do you just not know how manufacturing works or what? They can only make so many units at one time, especially if there's a parts shortage like there has been this year.

Let's say you sell 1million units in a year, you're not guaranteed to sell 1 million units the next year. You can sorta project that and hope but nothing is guaranteed.

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why is this topic in my amp

i've not posted in it until now to see why it was in my amp

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Final Fantasy2389 posted...

Do you just not know how manufacturing works or what? They can only make so many units at one time, especially if there's a parts shortage like there has been this year.

Let's say you sell 1million units in a year, you're not guaranteed to sell 1 million units the next year. You can sorta project that and hope but nothing is guaranteed.

nah thats bs lol

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FatalAccident posted...

nah thats bs lol

Really? So you know exactly how many of a unit they are going to sell? Also, it takes time to build the unit and to ship them places. They can literally only do so much. They dont just snap their fingers and make a million units appear...
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After the first year, Sony really should have taken the hint and dropped the price of the Vita and the memory sticks

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The problem is most likely hardware components issues. As a current example, look at the availability of graphic cards and CPU's. Both of them keep going in prices and are almost never available because the manufacturers aren't producing enough of them. And since most companies depend on said manufacturers to produce parts for their consoles... The result ends up being not enough units being produced.

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LinkPizza posted...

Really? So you know exactly how many of a unit they are going to sell? Also, it takes time to build the unit and to ship them places. They can literally only do so much. They dont just snap their fingers and make a million units appear..

I just think its not hard to forward plan for something considering theres a shortage every single year. Because the question I would be asking all three is what lessons theyve learned from previous shortages. Surely you can anticipate future sales based on previous sales.

if you made say 1m units and sold out last Christmas, why would you only make 975k units this year for example?

Im confused because I havent seen any legit reason why we run out of consoles at Christmas time. Seems like such a dumb issue.

Is there a genuine reason? And dont tell me shortage of parts lol

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faramir77 posted...

A full year of sales is not an "initial shipment". Furthermore, I never said that they actually were doing that.

Oh please. You're obviously referring to PlayStation and XBox and they haven't been out a full year.

jsb0714 posted...

Oh please. You're obviously referring to PlayStation and XBox and they haven't been out a full year.

Wtf are you talking about:

faramir77 posted...

It felt like Nintendo definitely did that with the Wii. You couldn't find one in its first year without waiting outside a store before opening time.

I have no clue why they'd do that, though. Seems like it would stifle early software sales more than anything.

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FatalAccident posted...

I just think its not hard to forward plan for something considering theres a shortage every single year. Because the question I would be asking all three is what lessons theyve learned from previous shortages. Surely you can anticipate future sales based on previous sales.

if you made say 1m units and sold out last Christmas, why would you only make 975k units this year for example?

The thing is, there will probably already be a shortage every year. When every buys it. Plus, they don't know how mant they will sale. I was looking at the number of systems sold. It's all over the place. I don't know how fast this took place, though. GameCube sold 22 million units. The next system to come after that was Wii, which sold 101.63 million. Which is a much larger number. The next system was Wii U, which sold 13.56 million. And that's even less than the GameCube. And the switch, so far, has sold 68.3 million. There's not way to guess how many they need to have. So, you can't really based it on how many of your last consoles sold. There was no way to gauge that the Wii would sell nearly 5x as many consoles as the last system. And the next system would only sell a little more than half of the GameCube. And after those three, it would be impossible to guess how many Switch units to make unless you were psychic...

And that's just talking about anticipating how many they need. There's also the fact that even where they run out, they still need time to make them, ship them out, and everything is between. And they aren't all powerful magic beings. They can't just snapped and make 1 million more Switches appear. And they still have others things they are working on. And as others have said, the sell consoles at a loss. Which means they need to have the money to make them... Which probably explains why they can only make a certain amount at a time.

FatalAccident posted...

Im confused because I havent seen any legit reason why we run out of consoles at Christmas time. Seems like such a dumb issue.

Christmas, on the other hand, has all kinds of store running out of products. Because everyone is buying all kinds of things. I'd say it would be hard for a console to not sell out around Christmas time.

FatalAccident posted...

Is there a genuine reason? And dont tell me shortage of parts lol

A parts shortage is a reasonable explanation. But either way, it doesn't sound like you want a reasonable explanation. People have been posting them, but you've been brushing them off. If you're so smart, then go tell the gaming companies your plans on how they should run their companies...
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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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Fair enough

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Manufacturing is down this year, there has been supply issues with some things cause the pandemic has slowed down that sector.
Apple is having issues with the 12 series (there are people who ordered a 12pro when preordereds opened, and still haven't received it), Google is having issues with the Pixel 5 and 4a.

Switch had issues earlier this year between March and June. I think there was an intel chip that had issues this year. The list goes on.


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To build hype? That is an incredibly stupid theory.

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LinkPizza posted...

The next system was Wii U, which sold 13.56 million.

I knew the Wii U was pathetic, but had never looked up the actual numbers. Holy fuck Nintendo dropped the ball on that.

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Ogurisama posted...

Switch had issues earlier this year between March and June.

Manufacturing issues aside, the Switch also hit a huge, unexpected spike in demand in that period. Animal Crossing launched at pretty much the perfect time, just as people were getting locked down and really needed something comforting and lighthearted to pass the free time they suddenly had, and it ended up being a major system-seller as a result. That demand was also unusually skewed in favour of the regular model because relatively few people were spending enough time outside of the house to justify the portable-focused Lite, hence there were so many stories of stores selling out of regular Switches while having shelves full of Lites.

I'm sure there were also manufacturing problems, because it's 2020, but increased demand also played a major role there.

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