Maybe next time they'll dream really big and announce a product they have no intention of selling whatsoever. That seems to be the end game, according to GAF's business analysts. A product can't be a failure if it never makes it to market.
Nintendo releases some info about unorthodox shipments in March due to being being caught off guard by demand and now criticism of Nintendo's handling of product distribution is just "lol memes" or conspiracy nonsense now? I wasn't expecting this to be a reaction.
Reminds me of a quote Reggie gave to Time(?) after it was announced Tatsumi Kimishima would be president. Something about Kimishima finding ways to supply more and more Wiis amidst that console's heyday.
Pffft. You OBVIOUSLY don't understand how businesses work.
You actually make MORE money by not having product around to sell! What's so difficult about understanding that? Nintendo knows this and this is why they've maintained artificial scarcity since its playing card days!
1) Create an in-demand product.
2) Make it easy for scalpers to buy, but not customers.
3) Keep shipments small, so that no product is on the shelves.
4) Sit back and RAKE in the CASH!
It's as plain as the nose on my face, man!
Sarcasm, but I still don't know what they were thinking with the NES Classic.
Reminds me of a quote Reggie gave to Time(?) after it was announced Tatsumi Kimishima would be president. Something about Kimishima finding ways to supply more and more Wiis amidst that console's heyday.
how can air transport can cost that much ?
Sometimes I have tickets around 50-60 to travel accros Europe and I'm the size of a dozen switch boxes and it doesn't include my luggage
Pffft. You OBVIOUSLY don't understand how businesses work.
You actually make MORE money by not having product around to sell! What's so difficult about understanding that? Nintendo knows this and this is why they've maintained artificial scarcity since its playing card days!
1) Create an in-demand product.
2) Make it easy for scalpers to buy, but not customers.
3) Keep shipments small, so that no product is on the shelves.
4) Sit back and RAKE in the CASH!
It's as plain as the nose on my face, man!
Sarcasm, but I still don't know what they were thinking with the NES Classic.
Love the sarcasm! You perfectly encapsulated Gaf in every business thread.
But Seriously every time I open a thread about Nintendo business decisions I am immensely disappointed with how little people here and in general understand how businesses, specifically large multinational, publicly traded corporations.
It takes like 5 minutes to google search some of the topics and get a base level understanding. I am not talking about high level macroeconomic shit either, but the methods that companies use to make decisions.
Its not worth even getting in to anymore. Most of you guys should start with working capital and follow the path from there. Almost every business decision is based on what is the best return based on a limited pool of working capital.
Love you guys, you'll be a lot happier when you stop worrying about the esoteric accounting and financial rules Nintendo uses in their decision making processes.
how can air transport can cost that much ?
Sometimes I have tickets around 50-60 to travel accros Europe and I'm the size of a dozen switch boxes and it doesn't include my luggage
Well, cargo space ain't cheap. Plus airlines typically have different service levels that give priority to cargo at higher levels (meaning it won't get bumped)
Tack on fuel surcharge.
Plus cargo is charged on either actual weight or dimensional weight
Using air freight isn't "unusual" in logistics. Heck, in my experience Japanese companies prefer air freight. Nintendo's just cheap. Source: I worked in logistics for six years doing imports and customs brokerage. Worked at a Japanese firm for a year. Nintendo's just reeeally cheap and penny pinching. Fun fact: Sony air freights Vita memory cards ffs. I've personally cleared them into the country. A single skid of Vita cards is worth just over a million dollars too.
Very true. Very hard to track down red or blue joy cons at the moment. Have only seen a few Mario Kart 8 games and a small amount of Zelda as well.
Might pick up the Lego game when I see a copy because it's pretty scarce atm.
Great to see it going so successfully though. This is like Wii scarcity, but this time I'm actually following the stocks of the Switch unlike the Wii. lol Bodes well for the future.
The day of the switch launch, the package delivered late as hell, about 15 minutes past the latest time of 7 pm. When I talked to the guy, he said something along the lines of "I hear this [package of botw] got flown in today!" So this doesn't really surprise me. Still pretty cool though, having so much flown in.
Nintendo releases some info about unorthodox shipments in March due to being being caught off guard by demand and now criticism of Nintendo's handling of product distribution is just "lol memes" or conspiracy nonsense now? I wasn't expecting this to be a reaction.
This is nothing new people. Nintendo's console hardware either bombs or explodes in popularity and Nintendo shoots for a middle ground in their manufacturing projections for it.
I always felt like Nintendo was overly optimistic about selling 2 million units in the first month, and the vast majority of GAF thought the Switch was DOA. So I don't think really anyone expected demand to be this high out the gate.
Using air freight isn't "unusual" in logistics. Heck, in my experience Japanese companies prefer air freight. Nintendo's just cheap. Source: I worked in logistics for six years doing imports and customs brokerage. Worked at a Japanese firm for a year. Nintendo's just reeeally cheap and penny pinching. Fun fact: Sony air freights Vita ffs. I've personally cleared them into the country. A single skid of Vita cards is worth just over a million dollars too.
It's almost like they have profit margins to maintain...if they can use alternate means of transportation that are slower, but cheaper, that doesn't make them penny pinchers, just economical
Well, cargo space ain't cheap. Plus airlines typically have different service levels that give priority to cargo at higher levels (meaning it won't get bumped)
Tack on fuel surcharge.
Plus cargo is charged on either actual weight or dimensional weight
This, plus I'd imagine Nintendo isn't a regular customer so they'd have a premium price compared to the longer term + regular contracts their usual customers would hold.
Simplified:
Nintendo uses a short-term contract for this shipment. = premium price
Usual customers have a long-term contract. = discounted price
Using air freight isn't "unusual" in logistics. Heck, in my experience Japanese companies prefer air freight. Nintendo's just cheap. Source: I worked in logistics for six years doing imports and customs brokerage. Worked at a Japanese firm for a year. Nintendo's just reeeally cheap and penny pinching. Fun fact: Sony air freights Vita memory cards ffs. I've personally cleared them into the country. A single skid of Vita cards is worth just over a million dollars too.
Actually it is unusual and costly for companies to use air freight. Maybe you've had experiences with some companies who have no issues, especially with smaller things, but my company imports a ton of product from China and we do everything in our power to avoid air freight.
Air freight should usually be used in emergency situations. The cost of Air can sometimes be 10-15 times that of putting a container on a ship.
Yeah Nintendo is cheap, or cost efficient, but Air freight is far from the norm or everyone would use it on the reg.
Not using air frieght does mean your supply chain has to be pretty awesome top to bottom though bc one missed shipment or you miss a forecast and its 8-12 weeks to fix it if you can't spend for the Air freight.
Are those numbers really accurate? I can send a package from Germany to China via air freight at about the same price. Businesses should be able to get better deals.
when you ship one item you are sharing a plane with other shippers and passengers with a destination already planed. When you ship thousands of items you are renting the plane for your use.
Actually it is unusual and costly for companies to use air freight. Maybe you've had experiences with some companies who have no issues, especially with smaller things, but my company imports a ton of product from China and we do everything in our power to avoid air freight.
Air freight should usually be used in emergency situations. The cost of Air can sometimes be 10-15 times that of putting a container on a ship.
Yeah Nintendo is cheap, or cost efficient, but Air freight is far from the norm or everyone would use it on the reg.
Not using air frieght does mean your supply chain has to be pretty awesome top to bottom though bc one missed shipment or you miss a forecast and its 8-12 weeks to fix it if you can't spend for the Air freight.
Yup yup. My company imports in bulk from china (to the US) as well, and we have pretty much never used air freight because it's crazy expensive compared to ship freight.
Earlier today, I had a couple of forum bullies tell me I was "too emotional" for saying that an outcome was neither unthinkable nor impossible (Note that I didn't actually say that said outcome would happen). So, after seeing that link and the bitterness, I feel that I've earned the right to watch and laugh at people shifting the goalposts once more.
There was a WSJ article a few weeks back which said they are doubling their FY17 production from 8m units to 16m units. If that's true, I'd say about a million or slightly less per month with an extra 4-5 million units built and shipped specifically for the holiday period.
Hope the supply and demand keep up so they can keep selling these.
I believe Nintendo did this with amiibo in the past.
I would've hoped conspiracy theories of "Nintendo under shipping" would've died down when Nintendo announced it was the fastest selling console they've released meaning it's the most amount of units supplied in the same amount of time.
Hope the supply and demand keep up so they can keep selling these.
I believe Nintendo did this with amiibo in the past. I would've hoped conspiracy theories of "Nintendo under shipping" would've died down when Nintendo announced it was the fastest selling console they've released meaning it's the most amount of units supplied in the same amount of time.
I do wonder what the profit margines for this thing are. I imagine shipping the Switch is rather cheap due to how small it is. I'm pretty sure Nintendo was aiming to make money from every unit.
It sure is amusing listening to people with no expertise in logistics talking about air freight not being cheap. Domestic air freight isn't cheap. Interational is like 8x more
Is it really that hard to buy a Switch right now? I ordered one on Friday just past and got it the next day through Amazon. Bought MK8D without a preorder too on release.
I still don't understand Nintendo. Literally everything they put out, even initially (WiiU), sells out and they don't have enough stock and they said they were surprised by the unusually high demand. Stop being surprised and just make enough before launching the damn systems, happened with Wii, WiiU initially, NES Classic, Switch now. How can literally everything be shocking.
I still don't understand Nintendo. Literally everything they put out, even initially (WiiU), sells out and they don't have enough stock and they said they were surprised by the unusually high demand. Stop being surprised and just make enough before launching the damn systems, happened with Wii, WiiU initially, NES Classic, Switch now. How can literally everything be shocking.
They didnt get it right with the Wii, the Classic, amiibo, and all kinds of software and accessory releases. And are you really gonna ignore the various 3DS retailer stock issues they've had as recently as a few months ago?
I didn't say they NEVER get it right. It happens often enough to be a thing.
Is it really that hard to buy a Switch right now? I ordered one on Friday just past and got it the next day through Amazon. Bought MK8D without a preorder too on release.
They didnt get it right with the Wii, the Classic, amiibo, and all kinds of software and accessory releases. And are you really gonna ignore the various 3DS retailer stock issues they've had as recently as a few months ago?
I didn't say they NEVER get it right. It happens often enough to be a thing.
