With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacting every aspect of the video game industry, the Nintendo Switch console has been in rather short supply lately. Players hoping to get their hands on thedefinitive edition ofXenoblade Chronicleswho do not yet have a Switch will have to wait for better times or find an alternative method of getting the console.
Those alternative methods do exist, as many people saw the writing on the wall about how theNintendo Switchwould soon be in short supply and decided to act. In addition to the actual production being slowed by the virus, many people bought the Switch in bulk with the goal of selling it back to people at a raised price, earning the infamous title of “Switch Scalpers.”
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Many are understandably upset at the lack of Switches available, especially since being confined at home is the perfect time to own one, and Switch Scalpers are a big part of the reason they are hard to come by right now. But not everyone is taking the dastardly actions of the few Switch bulk buyers lying down. An intrepid soul who goes by the Twitter handle Solomon Gumball birthed an idea for a Switch based troll. Gumball called a whole bunch of Switch Scalpers in the area, asked them to meet him at a nearby Arby’s parking lot with all their Switches, and then never showed up.
Gumball revealed the brief text interactions he had with the various scalpers to facilitate theNintendo Switch prank, where they were instructed to bring as many Switches as they had and meet nearby. They were then led on a merry dance as Gumball directed one to be on the look out for someone in a white Camry, only for them to discover the person in that car was also selling Switches. When one scalper texted him saying he’d been figured out, he told them he was on the way and had gathered them there for convenience, and the scalper believed him.
On the one hand, times are tough for everyone right now, and even good naturedfake reveal trollsmay make people more upset than they usually would. Even if what Switch Scalpers do is scummy, it may not be ethical to gather them all together in one place with the coronavirus still around.
In a time when gettingcheap Switch controllersis easier than getting a cheap Switch, exacerbating the problem of scarcity for your own benefit is something that’s going to upset people. Even if it is only with a clever troll and not legal action.
