Latest / Connecting the Dots / Nintendo's Price Increases, Financial Outlook, and the Canvas EdTech Breach

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Nintendo's Price Increases, Financial Outlook, and the Canvas EdTech Breach · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome to Connecting the Dots. I'm Alex.
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  And I'm Morgan. And we are broadcasting live
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  from the Snarful Solutions Group right here in
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  Sacramento, California. Yep. It is Friday, May
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  8th, 2026. And if you're local, it's looking
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  like a beautiful day. We've got sunny skies,
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  about 83 degrees outside and just a really light
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  six mile per hour wind. Which is honestly a relief
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  compared to the rest of the country right now.
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  Yeah, no kidding. Nationally, there are 173 active
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  weather alerts with 55 of those over land. So
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  definitely stay safe if you're traveling. Right.
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  And looking at the markets, it was a bit of a
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  rough day yesterday. The Dow took a pretty decent
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  hit, dropping over 405 points. That's about 0
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  .81 % to close at 49 ,596 .97. Yeah, and the
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  S &P 500 dipped, too, down about 39 points, settling
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  at 7 ,337 .1. Bitcoin is also doing that hover
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  thing again. It's just under 80K, sitting at
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  79 ,686 .43. Which is down slightly for the day,
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  but still up over 1 ,100 points for the week,
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  so not too shabby. True. And for the sports fans,
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  no games for the local Kings or the SF Giants
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  yesterday. But the Oakland A's absolutely crushed
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  the Phillies 12 to 1. JT Jin took the win, which
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  was honestly just an incredible game to watch.
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  Oh, absolutely. But all right, let's transition
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  to the main event today. We are taking a deep
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  dive into the source material surrounding global
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  tech friction. Yeah, we really want to explore
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  the cascading real world impacts of this stuff.
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  I mean, we're talking about everything from supply
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  chain crunches, hitting family living rooms to
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  massive software vulnerabilities that are frankly
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  disrupting global education. It's all connected,
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  which is exactly what we do here. Exactly. But
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  before we jump in, we have a quick word from
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  so let's unpack this first story because this
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  is going to affect a lot of parents out there.
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  Nintendo just announced a global price hike for
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  the Switch 2. And it is not a small hike either.
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  Starting September 1st, the U .S. price is jumping
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  from 450 bucks up to 500. Yep. And it's hitting
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  everywhere. Canada goes up 50 bucks to 679 .99.
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  Europe gets a 40 euro bump to 499 .99. And Japan
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  is getting hit even earlier, right? Like May
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  25th. Exactly, May 25th. And they're seeing price
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  hikes across the entire board. Not just the Switch
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  2, but the original Switch line, Nintendo Switch
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  Online, and strangely enough, even their traditional
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  playing cards. Wait, playing cards? Like actual
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  paper cards? Yeah, literal playing cards, which
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  kind of hints that this isn't just arbitrary.
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  inflation there's a massive physical supply chain
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  issue going on here right and we should probably
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  explain the why behind the electronic side of
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  this yeah because usually consoles get cheaper
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  over time right historically yes but we are currently
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  in the middle of a global memory shortage the
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  industry is actually calling it ramageddon ramageddon
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  i love tech industry branding right But it's
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  serious. Basically, the massive build out of
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  AI data centers, you know, by companies like
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  Meta, Google, Microsoft has created this unbelievable
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  surge in demand for DDR5 RAM and solid state
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  drives. OK, so the big AI companies are basically
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  buying up all the memory chips to build their
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  massive servers. Exactly. Which drives up the
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  cost for everyone else. Add in those April 2025
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  Trump terrorists on Vietnam and China and the
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  whole hardware ecosystem is just stretched incredibly
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  thin. I mean it's kind of like trying to buy
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  flour during a massive neighborhood baking craze.
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  Oh that's a good way to put it. Like AI companies
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  are buying up all the ingredients to bake these
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  massive data centers and gamers are just left
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  paying double for the scraps just to play a video
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  game. That's exactly what's happening and the
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  real world impact here is that gaming which used
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  to be the standard relatively accessible family
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  pastime is becoming a luxury hobby. Yeah 500
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  bucks is a lot of money for a family. It is and
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  Nintendo isn't alone Sony bumped the PS5 Pro
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  to $900 recently. Which is just wild. Right.
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  And Valve had to completely delay the Steam Machine
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  because they couldn't source the parts affordably.
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  Wow. Okay, but let's look closer at this Nintendo
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  situation, moving on to our next story. Yeah.
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  Because their newly released Q4 financials just
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  came out. Yep, they did. So, if things are so
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  expensive to make... Is Nintendo actually losing
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  money? Oh, definitely not. Not even close. Wait,
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  really? Yeah, they just reported full fiscal
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  year sales of $14 .6 billion. That is a 98 .6
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  % increase. That is double. That is insane. Right.
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  And their operating profit is up 27 .5%. The
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  Switch 2 sold 19 .86 million units, which actually
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  outsold the original Switch's first full year.
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  Okay, and I saw their software is booming too.
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  Mario Kart World moved, what, 14 .7 million units?
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  Yep, and Pokemon Legends ZA is doing massive
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  digital numbers as well. So wait, I have to push
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  back here. Let's look closer at this corporate
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  narrative. Sure. They just had the best console
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  launch in their history. Their IP is exploding.
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  I mean, this Super Mario Galaxy movie grossed
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  over $800 million in just four weeks. Yeah, it
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  was a smash hit. Yet their Q4 revenue actually
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  missed estimates. And they're projecting a massive
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  100 billion yen hit to revenue next year. Are
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  they just sandbagging their expectations? It
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  really looks like that on the surface, but you
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  have to understand how hardware life cycles work.
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  launch years are always heavily front -loaded.
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  Right, because all the die -hard fans buying
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  on day one. Exactly, but now they're facing this
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  $50 price hike because of component costs. That
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  instantly cools down the more casual buyers.
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  Plus consumers are still totally happy playing
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  older original Switch games, like Animal Crossing.
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  Oh right, because the Switch 2 is backwards compatible.
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  Yep. So projecting a drop to 16 .5 million hardware
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  units for the next fiscal year, that's not sandbagging.
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  That's just a realistic stabilization when your
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  supply chain is this hostile. Got it. So they're
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  flush with cash. But they know the hardware market
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  is about to hit a brick wall because of ramageddon.
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  Exactly. Okay, well let's pivot a bit. We just
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  talked about the vulnerability of hardware supply
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  chains and entertainment. But what about the
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  software our kids rely on for their actual futures?
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  Ah, yeah, the Canvas situation. This is rough.
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  It is genuinely alarming. The massive EdTech
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  platform, Canvas, which is owned by Instructure,
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  was completely taken down this week. And we are
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  talking about a platform used by 275 million
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  users across roughly 9 ,000 institutions. Right.
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  And it got hit by a data extortion attack from
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  a cybercrime group called Shiny Hunters. The
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  timeline on this is just pure chaos, so Shiny
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  Hunters actually breached them on May 1st. And
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  the very next day, May 2nd, the Chief Information
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  Security Officer for Instructure claimed the
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  whole thing was, quote, contained. Which was
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  clearly not true. because by May 7th, students
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  from Harvard down to local high schools were
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  logging in to take their final exams and what
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  did they see? A literal ransom demand plastered
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  right on their screens, right in the middle of
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  finals week. Which is just a nightmare for those
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  kids. So Instructure pulls the plug in the whole
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  system and they slap a scheduled maintenance
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  label on the site. Yeah, which is just bad PR.
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  I mean, calling a massive system -wide ransomware
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  defacement scheduled maintenance feels like telling
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  you your car is resting. when the engine is actively
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  on fire. It really does. Why downplay it when
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  millions of students are physically locked out
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  of their finals? Because the reality is incredibly
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  embarrassing for them. This wasn't some incredibly
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  advanced zero -day hack. Shiny Hunters often
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  uses a really low -tech strategy called voice
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  phishing. Wait, voice phishing? Like they just
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  call people on the phone? Basically, yeah. They
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  target systems like Okta or Salesforce by calling
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  a company's IT help desk, pretending to be an
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  employee who lost their phone, and begging for
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  a password reset or a multi -factor authentication
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  bypass. Oh, wow. So they just social engineer
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  the IT guy into handing over the keys to the
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  castle? Exactly. And the worst part is this is
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  a re -compromise. Shiny Hunters actually breached
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  Instructure back in September of 2025, too. Wait,
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  really? Last year? Yeah. They used that breach
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  to leak University of Pennsylvania donor records.
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  So Instructure knew these guys were a threat
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  and they still left a door open. That is just
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  wild to me. It really highlights the danger of
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  single points of failure in our digital infrastructure.
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  When one platform like Canvas holds the keys
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  to 9 ,000 schools, the leverage these hackers
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  have is just immense. Because if they break that
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  one central lock, the whole system comes crashing
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  down. Right. 9 ,000 schools paralyzed by one
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  bad IT phone call. That is a terrifying thought.
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  Well, before we wrap up, a quick thanks to Old
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  code SNARFL for 15 % off at OldGlory .com. So
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  looking back at all the sources we unpacked today,
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  there's a pretty clear theme here. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Whether it's AI data centers over in Virginia
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  driving up the cost of your kids' gaming console,
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  or massive companies struggling to navigate these
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  volatile supply chains despite making record
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  profits. Or, you know, hackers bringing the global
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  education system to its knees with a phone call.
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  Right. We're all just deeply, deeply reliant
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  on a very fragile, interconnected tech ecosystem.
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  We really are. And we want to leave you with
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  a final thought to ponder today. If a single
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  cyber criminal group can paralyze 9 ,000 schools
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  through one software platform, how many other
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  single points of failure are quietly lurking
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  in the workplace software you use every single
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  day? Yeah, that'll definitely make you look twice
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  at your login screen tomorrow. We're here to
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  help at Snarful, so reach out on our website
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  if you have any more questions. That's a wrap
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  on today's top stories. Remember, tech doesn't
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  have to be complicated, and we're here to help
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  connect the dots. If you've got questions or
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  want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
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  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
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  time.