Nearly three months after launch, Nintendo is still struggling to meet demand for the Switch. It’s no secret that Nintendo is facing a ton of demand for the Switch, to the point where it reportedly doubled production to keep up. Even that figure might be a tad conservative, however. Nintendo hiked its Switch production to 18 million for its current fiscal year (which ends in March 2018), up 2 million. Why? Allegedly, it’s to prevent “customer tantrums” during the holidays — Nintendo doesn’t want to ship Super Mario Odyssey in November with no systems available to play it.
The console giant is officially sticking to a shipment target of 10 million over the same period. However, numerous analysts believe the company is intentionally lowballing its goals. It might not want to promise the Moon and leave investors disappointed if there’s either a production problem (say, not enough LCDs) or a surprise slump in demand.
If the figure is authentic, though, it suggests that Nintendo has had to keep raising its internal production figures as it realizes that the Switch is a bona fide hit. That’s good news for gamers, as it both increases the chances of finding a Switch and encourages game developers to throw their weight behind the system. With that said, Nintendo also risks a problem it hasn’t had to deal with for years: long-lasting shortages for its main console. We can think of far worse problems to have, but Nintendo probably doesn’t want to risk leaving money on the table (and disappointing fans) if at all possible.
Conclusively, nevertheless, confidence in Nintendo is as high as it’s been in years. Between the success of the Switch and the company’s sudden willingness to capitalize on its franchises by turning them into smartphone games, Nintendo appears to be on the road to recovery. Now there just need to be enough Switch consoles on store shelves to satisfy demand, and Nintendo could end 2017 with a bang.
