Demand May Be High, But Production Will Be Low
A microchip shortage spurred by the ongoing battle against Covid-19 means that tech companies are having a harder time than usual finding this key hardware component – and Nintendo isn’t faring much better. Each company facing this problem must find a workaround – perhaps by finding new sources for parts, or adjusting their tech’s reliance on this tech. But neither option is an easy one, so the solution Nintendo went with is simply to produce less. Around 20% less, if a Nikkei Asia report is anything to go by. The site estimates that despite the planned production of 30 million Switches (that’s for all models, OLED Switch included), they can only produce around 24 million by the end of the fiscal year – simply not enough to meet up to the product’s expected demand.
If you were waiting for a price drop before grabbing a new Switch, you may be waiting a while. With demand high and production low, that’s a recipe for increased prices – especially on the secondary market. Unless you’re okay with that long waiting game, it might be best to buy in now, because those prices are only going to go up, if at all.
This news is especially sad for Nintendo’s OLED Switch model, which haven’t even been on shelves for a month. The console is still very new, and damaged sales in this stage of a console’s life cycle are especially troublesome. At the very least, Nintendo seems to be doing well for itself in 2021, with Kotaku citing the company’s exceptionally well-performing releases like Metroid Dread. And with two highly-anticipated Pokemon releases just around the corner, Nintendo should be doing fine just off of game sales alone. Still, the damaged console sales will be a large blow to an otherwise decent year – and with any luck, that damage shouldn’t last too long.
The post Nintendo Switch Faces Production Shortage, Citing Microchip Issues appeared first on COGconnected.
