Posted in: Games, Nintendo, Video Games | Tagged: nintendo, nintendo switch

Can't Afford Switch Price Gouging? Build One Yourself Like This Guy

Published Sun, 19 Apr 2020 06:40:33 -0500

As the global coronavirus pandemic rages on, it remains extremely difficult to obtain a Nintendo Switch without spending an exorbitant amount of money. While there are some drops here and there occasionally that you can pick up as bundles as stores begin restocking slowly but surely, for the most part, Switches are nowhere to be found. You can pay upward of $500 on eBay or Amazon, but no one wants to pay that much for the system.

One gamer decided to take things into his own hands by doing what anyone who didn't want to pay an excess of cash for a Switch would do. He just made his own. Brennen Johnston decided to build a Switch for his friend in a bid "to starve out online price gougers." Johnston took to Imgur with carefully-documented photos and instructions from the process, which no doubt took quite some time to put together.

Getting gouged on eBay? Build your own Nintendo Switch. Courtesy of Brennen Johnston.

"After playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons and hyping it up to my friends, they decided they wanted a Switch," Johnston explained. "They called around to different retailers every day for a week with no luck finding anyone who had one in stock. No one knew when the next shipment would be. This led to an online search like Craigslist, OfferUp, and eBay." That was obviously not a fruitful search, so he decided to make his own Switch.

"I did this build for many reasons," Johnston said of his Switch in an email to Motherboard. "It is eco-friendly to recycle as much as possible, the experience gave me valuable knowledge for my career, and my friends are on a tight budget due to a layoff in their household. But a large part was because toilet paper hoarders got their karma by not receiving refunds. I just want to see console scalpers get some of that justice."

The project took a ridiculous amount of time to put together, including the time to bid on parts from sellers who weren't charging too much money. He found the parts via eBay and Chinese supplier websites. He purchased all of his parts separately and even created homebrew Switch Joy-Cons to go with the main system. His favorite part was trying to create the system under a strict budget, and the system ended up costing around $199 to complete.

"I love learning with hands-on and improving hardware designs. This was a perfect opportunity to gain a ton of knowledge. If I do it again I will try to design and manufacture a better cooling heat-sink just for personal curiosity."

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