Worldwide consumer demand for Switch greater than Nintendo’s own estimate

Nintendo has replied to UK retailer GAME’s statement on the UK’s paltry supply of Switches. To recap, this was what GAME said:

Consumer demand for Nintendo Switch has been, and remains, very strong, however the level of supply to the UK market has been lower than expected. These lower levels, combined with the continued softness in our core Xbox and PlayStation markets, have impacted sales.

In a reply to the statement of the UK being allocated a lower level of Switches, Nintendo told MCV UK (Link):

For Nintendo Switch, our initial plan for the fiscal year ended March 2017 was to ship two million units by the end of March, but we increased production which resulted in shipping 2.74 million units globally.

For products like Nintendo Switch, it takes time to procure parts and run production, so we perform demand estimates far in advance of launch. Actual demand following the launch of these products surpassed our estimates globally.

To take advantage of this favorable momentum, we will continue to bolster our manufacturing facilities and strive to increase production in preparation for the Christmas period, which has been factored into our forecast of shipping 10 million units globally by the end of this fiscal year.

What Nintendo is trying to stress here is that GAME’s small allocation of Switch is not an isolated incident and that “Actual demand following the launch of these products surpassed our estimates globally.”

They also stressed that they are hard at work to ship 10 million units globally by the end of the fiscal year, which ends March 2018.

While Nintendo is hard at work pumping out more Switches, they are also hard at work pumping out new games for the Switch. So far, the Switch is going to see a whole lineup of games all the way to the holidays with Splatoon 2, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Fire Emblem Warriors and Mario Odyssey being a few notable releases.