A new gaming console is always going to be a hot seller, but scalpers and those looking to buy one just to re-sell them at a higher price make the process infinitely more annoying. Nintendo has been watching.
With the Nintendo Switch 2 coming out some time this year, the company says it’s bracing itself for a battle with how to deal with resellers and scalpers looking to game the system, according to a new quote from the company’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa.

“We will take all possible measures based on the experience we have accumulated to date (regarding scalpers and resellers),” Furukawa said, via Nikkei (translated by VGC). “We are making preparations.”
This is comforting to know, especially considering what a fiasco it was to purchase the latest big console releases back in 2020 when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S hit the market. The issue was compounded by a microchip shortage and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but scalpers made it almost impossible to grab a new console.
The Switch 2 is likely going to be in high demand, and Nintendo knows it, so hopefully Furukawa’s statements and that knowledge means the company has a large amount of consoles ready to go, and should hopefully be quick to re-stock all retailers once they are sold out.
In recent years, scalpers have been using bots to instantly purchase items like consoles and anything else you can imagine to only put them up for sale at higher prices to try and make a profit. Because of this, gamers looking to get the new console (or whatever else the hot item may be) are left in the dust. Resellers are a bit of a plague in the gaming industry, and they are especially egregious for big console releases. Hopefully, with Nintendo joining forces with retailers and their own defense systems, the scalping issue won’t be as bad as expected.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will be fully unveiled in a new Direct presentation on April 2 after its initial announcement in January, and is due to launch some time in 2025.
Published: Feb 4, 2025 05:34 pm