Nintendo opens a logistics center in Tarragona, Spain

Last month, it was announced that Nintendo would open a logistic center in Tarragona, Catalonia (in Spain). The 13,600-m2 logistic platform is located in the Vila-Rodona Park logistics area in Alt Camp, Tarragona, and was leased by EGD Logistics. This new platform will only be used to distribute Nintendo consoles and games, and will employ between 50-100 people (depending on the workload).

But what’s interesting about this logistics center is that it will not be used exclusively for distribution. It will also have a post-production line, that Nintendo will use to update the Firmware of its consoles. The goal is quite obviously to prevent consoles with an exploitable Firmware to end up on the market.

After all, there’s a massive delay between the moment a console leaves the factory in China and the moment it ends up in your home. One of the reasons for that is due to the fact that consoles are shipped by sea, which is by far the cheaper methods to ship goods from all around the world. It may be cheap, but it’s also a pretty slow shipping method, which is why you always need to update the firmware of your consoles when you buy them.

With this post-production line, Nintendo will be able to update the Firmware of the consoles when they reach Europe. There will still be a delay between the moment a console leaves that post-production line and the moment you buy it, but it will be much shorter (especially since units are not shipped from China immediately after leaving the production line).

This logistics center is strategically located near the AP-2 motorway, with connections to the ports of Tarragona and Barcelona: Nintendo didn’t chose this location at random. In fact, it’s in Catalonia that 80% of all Japanese companies in Spain can be found (Catalonia has one of the highest concentrations of Japanese industrial companies of any region in Europe).

Source: Barcelona Catalonia
Thanks mocolostrocolos for the heads up!