Since it's being touched on, what do you guys think of "lost sales"?
On one hand, I think there is a time limit on people's purchases. You have to capitalize on interest or else it fades
On the other hand, if someone can't find one now for Splatoon 2, are they just not going to care a year later if Pokemon and AC come out, in addition to Splatoon 2 still being available?
Maybe.
Part of me thinks the sale would happen eventually. If it's between Xbox and PS someone might just go with the other since the two competitors are fairly similar. Whereas Nintendo's lineup is mostly their own. You aren't going to get those experiences anywhere else at the moment.
But again back to the other side, a potential customer might just buy the other options even if it doesn't satisfy all their needs (i.e a Splatoon 2). After all, the best ability is availability. And getting a new console for Christmas may be more important than getting their first choice. Or a potential customer may just buy nothing at all, which is always an option
tldr
Eff, I don't know. I ended up rambling a bit back and forth.
Lost sales matter that way that games that would really benefit from every additional Switch user like Fifa, Skyrim or NBA 2k might suffer from the low availability of consoles. The big first party games have ridiculous attach rates and will sell will no matter what...but for games that maybe only attract as small part of the installed base, increasing the the number of sold consoles asap is essential.
Bamco is supposed to drop a Tales of title on Switch this FY...games who dont necessarily care for Mario Kart or Splatoon might be interested to jump in because of Xenoblade, Tales of or Skyrim providing content that attracts a wider range of customers.
So yeah Nintendo wont directly suffer for it...but its just another step that makes the situation worse for 3rdPartys that signed on to be on board early.
What's the best decision : going cautious, knowing that even if you suffer from shortages you'll be able to catch the lost sales later on, and in case it end up being a failure you wouldn't have overshipped them, or going full blast at the risk of severely regret it if it doesn't take off ?
It's not like Switch is a safe product that was bound to sell well, hence the reaction in January, it's an unusual product and its success wasn't a certainty at all. It's easy to say now that they should have been prepared to have another Wii on their hands. If you argued that in late 2016 you would have been, rightfully so, laughed at.
lol...nah i was certain that the Switch would be a success after the unveiling trailer. Its a device getting all of Nintendos IPs that can be used on the big screen and on the go. Also as a customer its not my role to figure out how high the demand of the console would be - Nintendo has more information than we, they knew what kind of first party lineup they would have for Year 1. They are dropping 2 potential GotY, a IP like Splatoon in Japan, best of Mario Kart 8, new IP like ARMs etc.
Their has to be a middle way between these embarrassing shortages and producing too much - they just have to be more flexible they wanna be at a table with the big boys. They launch the system with 98 or 99 MC BotW, while announcing that Fire Emblem, Prime 4, Pokemon, Yoshi, Kirby whatever are all coming to Switch and are surprised that people wanna get their hands on the system ? Come on.
