Nintendo President Warns That Switch Shortages Possible In The Future, Due To Very Strong Demand
With its global popularity still trending strong, the Nintendo Switch has been steadily flying off shelves and into gamers’ hands. Due to global trends, however, supplies of the consoles could eventually hit a snag.
Speaking to Nikkei, Nintendo Co. Ltd. President Shuntaro Furukawa first assured the press that the “immediate” supply of materials for Nintendo Switch semiconductor production was secure for now. However, he also soon cautioned that this could change in the near future – owing to high demand for the system, which may outstrip Nintendo’s ability to manufacture enough Switch consoles:
“We have been able to secure the necessary materials for the immediate production of semiconductors for switches…However, in Japan and other countries, demand has been very strong since the beginning of the year, and there is a possibility of shortages at some retailers in the future.”
“It is difficult to say how we will deal with this, but in some cases we may not be able to prepare enough for orders.”
For what it’s worth, the recent shortage of semiconductor production due to the COVID-19 pandemic has also hampered production of Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S consoles. We’ll just have to wait and see if Nintendo hits a similar roadblock in its future production schedule.