Weekly Japanese magazine Bunshun has published a piece claiming that China is to blame for the ongoing Nintendo Switch shortages in Japan.

According to Bunshun, since the start of 2020, Japanese scalpers have been buying up Nintendo Switch consoles to resell to China. But you may be wondering – isn’t that strange since Tencent officially launched the Nintendo Switch in China in 2019?

The reason is simple – the Tencent Nintendo Switch is walled off from Nintendo Switch systems sold in the rest of the world. It cannot play online with players outside China and its Nintendo eShop only has 10 games, effectively rendering the Tencent Nintendo Switch a useless product since games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate can’t be played online.

This has led the Chinese to pay good money for Nintendo Switch consoles sold in places like Japan and Hong Kong, and they don’t feel uneasy about paying more than the Japanese/Hong Kong retail price, unlike customers in other regions. The high demand and scalpers are thus the reason why the shortages have continued till this day, claimed Bunshun.

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