The Nintendo Switch shortage is seeing price gougers charge as much as $600 for a brand-new console on Amazon and one intrepid Redditor has had enough. Rather than pay an insane price, he decided to simply build his own.
It might sound a bit crazy (and it kind of is), but it's entirely doable. Whether or not you can do it, however, comes down to your ability to assemble electronics.
Why is the Nintendo Switch Shortage Happening?
If you're curious as to why the Nintendo Switch shortage is happening, it's pretty simple: the coronavirus messed things up pretty badly.
Like many tech companies, Nintendo had a factory in China. That factory closed down for a while like most of the others, and this meant that their production was slowed as a result.
Fortunately, the company had also opened a factory in Vietnam a while ago which didn't shut down. While this other factory didn't entirely prevent a Nintendo Switch shortage, it certainly helped to keep it from being as bad as it could have been.
How to Build Your Own Nintendo Switch
Let's kick things off with an important disclaimer: we really don't recommend that you try this unless you are supremely confident in your ability to build electronics. Even if you are, you should work carefully so you don't mess up hundreds of dollars worth of parts.
The Reddit submission showing off this unusual Nintendo Switch shortage solution also features an Imgur album with a step-by-step process for getting the job done.
How to Build A Nintendo Switch to Starve Online Price Gougers
How does this all work, anyway? Well, the Nintendo Switch is an electronic device. Just like phones, PCs, and any other device you can think of, there will occasionally be the need to replace some parts. Replacement parts are available online for professionals and hobbyists to purchase, so this absolute madlad decided to grab one of everything and put it all together.
Even if you are skilled with this stuff, it's not going to be a quick fix — the creator says that it took him "about a month and then some" to get all of the parts together. On the upside, he managed to build his own NIntendo Switch virtually from scratch for around two hundred bucks. You can try to give this project a whirl if you're brave enough, but it'd probably be best to just wait for them to be back in stock.
Read more about how the COVID-19 novel coronavirus is affecting the gaming world at our Coronavirus Gaming Convention Cancellations and Game Delays Hub.
What do you think of this solution to the Nintendo Switch shortage? Do you think you could build your own Nintendo Switch? Let us know in the comments below!
