Artificial scarcity sucks for all manner of reasons, from encouraging a completely needless scalping industry to ruining an indefinite number of Christmases. And where it makes less sense than anywhere else is “limited editions” of video game hardware in different colors. Just stop it.
Earlier this month, Valve announced they were going to sell a limited-edition, all-white version of the excellent portable gaming machine, the Steam Deck. It went on sale on November 18, and on November 19, Valve confirmed it had sold out everywhere, and reiterated that there were no plans to ever make any more. Today, it’s being rumored that Sony plans to launch a black version of the PS Portal, but only as a limited edition. In September, Sony sold a limited-edition, 30th anniversary version of the PS5 with such limited stock that elaborate queuing methods were devised, and even then it was miserable. And on and on and on for all of time.
Limited editions are created to cause a buzz. When there’s a special version that features designs from a popular game, or celebrates an anniversary, it gets a lot of attention, and by design, too few are made to meet demand. They exist to cause FOMO, and see collectors scrambling to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to get another version of a thing they likely already have, while anyone who just fancies getting a new device that features their favorite IP is most likely to fail. It’s therefore massive advertising for the product, and very likely leads to further sales of the ordinary, vanilla versions after people discover they cannot get the new, prettier case. So yeah: because capitalism, no duh, etc. But when this extends to literally just a different plain color, it’s idiotic.
Nothing needs to be a limited edition. The limit is entirely self-imposed by the creators, for the reasons given above, with the rationale that people will feel special for owning something that others cannot get. There are many who will defend the forced shortages of stock for a version of their favorite peripheral designed to look like R2-D2 or what have you, as it’s only special because there aren’t many of them, and around the circular logic goes. It strikes me as a sucky way to make yourself feel good, but we all crave rarity and the status it brings, and I’m not here to argue against that today. I’m here because that goes from odd to just inexplicable when it comes to something being black instead of white.
Yes, absolutely, it costs a bit more money for a company to make more than one color of their hardware. It’s a different production line run, with different inks, and then requires different packaging. But oh good grief, it’s negligible when you’re Sony or Valve or whoever it is trying to imply they’ve discovered the Ark of the Covenant because they produced a different run of plastic cases. And the reality that it doesn’t need to be this way is no better proven than by one particular producer of plastic peripherals: Nintendo.
Gosh, yes, we’re not here today to rag on the litigious behemoth, because when it comes to offering a range of colors without artificial scarcity, it’s hard to fault Nintendo! And that’s been the case as far back as I can remember. Game Boys were sold with six alternative colors than the regular grey, and this trend of readily available variety continued through the Game Boy Advance, Advance SP, and all iterations of the DS, all with so many colors to chose from, and most of them always available.
Come the Switch and it got even better! Sure, the screen usually comes just with a plain black bevel, but it’s all about the color of the Joy-Cons, which offer so much variety, along with the option to mix and match. Heck, it was a defining feature of the launch model, with its red and blue defaults. It’s enough that when my kid has friends round for a big Fortnite or Minecraft game, there’s no confusion over whose is whose, given they’re all essentially a different color. Let alone the Switch Lite, which launched in a variety of colors, and even still sells Zelda and Animal Crossing special versions years after they were released.
That strikes me as what should be normal. Pretending that a console or a peripheral can only come in one color, at least until the planets align and the spirits allow a special alternative to appear until the next blood moon, is utterly ridiculous, and removes one of the most important things a customer wants: choice.
What’s weirder still is that this false scarcity creates two secondary markets, neither of which benefits the companies imposing the limits. There’s the scalping market, where people scoop up as many of the special editions as they can and then resell them for vastly higher prices, which of course does nothing to benefit the original manufacturer. Then there’s the third-party accessories market, where entirely separate companies sell faceplates and cases that provide excellent variety for people who want a distinct and colorful device, but usually at the cost of voiding any warranty as they precariously remove screws they were never intended to touch. And, again, not one cent of that money ever reaches the company making the original product.
The main result of it all seems to be disappointment. Sure, it’s great for the few who were lucky enough to get to the front of queues that last literally minutes before selling out. But they’re the few! The majority are left bummed out, and unless they’re rich/stupid enough to massively overpay to scummy scalpers, there’s no recourse! “No,” said the massive corporation, “You may not have the product you wanted to give us money for. Because…of the reasons.”
Just sell your product in seven colors! It’s not that complicated! It’s a Photoshop color-shift for your packaging design, and a few extra pennies on the cost of the device for the extra paint. How do I know they can? Because Nintendo does it for every device, and they all do it for their controllers!
Right now, to use an incredibly trivial example, I have a black TV above a black shelving unit, and a white Xbox Series S and a monstrous white original PS5. It looks rubbish! I’d have bought both in black if I could. I should have been able to. I certainly shouldn’t have to read the gaming news every hour to see if Sony is announcing a seven-second window in which they’ll sell a non-white version of a device to the fastest bots.
Although, if I’m being more honest, what I actually want is everything in purple. Purple GameCube, I love you. I’ll always love you.
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