Switch hardware supply to return to normal during summer – software development currently unaffected

The Switch supply situation should soon return to normal. That’s based on a statement made by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa made to the Nintendo general shareholders meeting late last week. As Reported by Kyodo News.

“We could not manufacture (Switch) as planned until May but production has been largely recovering from June. We expect it to normalize around summer.”

Switch stocks hit a perfect storm in the first few months of the year. The pandemic prevented full production of the console, while the very same pandemic turbo-charged demand for the Switch from consumers with more times on their hands. Factor in the best-selling Animal Crossing: New Horizons and you get a console that was almost impossible to buy.

The key problems came down to sourcing parts, but that seems to have eased now, and stocks should be back to normal in the next few weeks. Shareholder at the meeting noted that this had caused lost sales and that reselling at higher prices had been rife.

“I am sorry for causing trouble to the consumers,” said Furukawa. “We want to deliver [the console] to as many people as possible. We will improve the situation as soon as possible.”

That’s great news for the industry, with the console being a key revenue stream now for many. Of course, without the pandemic in the first place sales may not have spiked, so it’s hard to say anyone has really lost revenue from the shortage, but it certainly prevented a bigger boom.

Nintendo also addressed the possible impact on its game development from the pandemic:
“Currently, we do not see any impact on software set to go on sale this year, but there is a possibility that we cannot sell it as scheduled in the event of a second or third wave [of the pandemic].” So all good for now, but Nintendo admits it doesn’t have a crystal ball.

The meeting itself was only sparsely attended with 114 shareholders present, compared to 913 last month.