Nintendo’s ‘Ring Fit Adventure’ is selling out across the Americas

In a statement to Polygon on Friday, Nintendo confirmed copies of Ring Fit Adventure are selling out throughout the Americas. Demand for at-home exercise options as people hunker down to avoid the spread of Covid-19, slowed manufacturing, and predatory resellers are driving the outage. The apologetic statement claims Nintendo is “working to provide more units as soon as possible.”

Break the bank to break a sweat — Nintendo announced shipment delays for Switches and Ring Fit Adventure in Japan in early February. Over the course of that month, Chinese resellers started hoarding copies of the game and jacking up the price to at least double the $80 retail value. An Australian retailer had to start capping sales of Ring Fit Adventure to deal with local and online resellers.

“Resellers are purchasing large quantities of the game from Japan, Asia, Australia, and the rest of the world and then selling them to Chinese consumers on sites such as Taobao,” Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, told Wired. Taobao is analogous to eBay. “Chinese gamers turned to in-home entertainment to stay occupied during the Covid-19 outbreak as many cities were put under lockdown and people were advised to stay home.”

If your local gym is still open, going to the gym isn’t necessarily a catastrophic idea if sanitization standards are raised. But as cautious exercisers turn to their homes, a fitness role-playing game is more welcome than ever.

If you’re wondering why Switch owners can’t just download the game, the flexible ring controller and leg strap are crucial to gameplay. Shipment delays don’t seem to be impacting the coral Switch Lite, so hopefully, as Nintendo leans on factories outside of China, gamers can have some fun with their workouts soon.