The Nintendo Switch hasn't been particularly easy to come by in recent months, with COVID-19 causing a number of supply and distribution issues all around the globe. Thankfully, Nintendo now reports that its console production is starting to get back on track.
The company has highlighted the problems it's faced thanks to the coronavirus in its three-months earnings report published earlier today. The report reads, "COVID-19 created some difficulties in procuring the parts required for manufacturing Nintendo Switch consoles, but the overall production situation has almost recovered."
We're starting to see Switch consoles slowly creep back into stores - just yesterday, Nintendo's official UK store opened up pre-orders for a new batch of machines set to ship later this month - so we should hopefully expect to see more units available going forward. Of course, this will all depend on how well - or not - the pandemic is handled globally in the coming months.
Despite the shortages, though, Switch sales continued to perform well over the last quarter, with Nintendo managing to shift 5.68 million hardware units between April and June 2020. Those sales have elevated the console's lifetime total to 61.44 million units sold.
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 20
Thing is, Nintendo lost a lot of potential sales it could have gotten in the early pandemic times. Right now I feel people will be more inclined to wait and buy the upcoming next gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony. The Switch will obviously still sell but I do feel they missed out on a lot of sales when AC:NH had just come out and people and families were stuck at home. Just my thoughts and opinion ofc. And there's not much to learn from this other than make sure to have a good extra stock of your console, whether that is due to lack of investment in manufacturerers or whatever.
Animal Crossing Joy-Cons restock pretty please!
@Bomberman64
Keeping a product in stock is a balancing act. You can't have too much because you'd lose a lot of money if those units don't sell. The Covid pandemic was an unforeseeable event. It's impossible to react this quickly on a suddenly exploding market while your manufacturers have to stay at home.
Should do some amiibo reprints while everythings going smooth
Idk where they are back in stock because I still can't find anywhere. Been trying to get one for my sister, but no way I'm paying scalpers!
@Bomberman64,
The new consoles will make little to no difference to the Switch, as it appeals to a more mass market, the console has a lot of momentum it will do fine.
@Shulkalot Yes of course it was unpredictable, but it took suprisingly little time for the stock to run out imo.
What about Ring Fit Adventure?
that wonderful to know, now with the production isseus of Nintendo almost solved, now Switch can continue it way to become one of the highest selling consoles of all time.
@Shulkalot @Bomberman64 true! According to Japanese manufacturing guidelines (eg. "Lean Manufacturing") is never good having extra stock that could occupy extra space inside buildings/warehouses.
Not to mention warehouse space isn't cheap.
However the shift to JIT (Just In Time) has broken a lot of the give and take the free market used to have.... Surplus used to mean discounts which fed into the overall economic loop. Since JIT things look much more like a planned economy, worldwide, than a market.
Too bad, now that stocks are readily available, no follow up game that appeals to the mass market like acnh.
Hopefully game development has too.
I won't pretend to know anything about JIT supply chain logistics, procurement, production, etc. but at the end user / consumer level, the scalpers margins are shrinking which leads me to believe that the supply & demand curve is finding a new balance.
So many factors can impacting the supply & demand cruve...confluence of COVID-19 pandemic fatigue, Summer weather, shiny next-gen consoles on the horizon, broad base appeal of AC:NH, overreaching scalpers / market greed, actual increase in supply, etc. 3rd party resellers were moving $500+ Switches back in March / April and couldn't keep them on their virtual shelves. The price of a new Switch seems to now be in the ballpark of $400. Lots of tools to help you snipe the limited stock that trickles into retailers daily if you care to compete with the 3rd party resellers for the $299 retail price tag, but the real and only market has unfortunately become 3rd party resellers on Ebay or Amazon equivalents that have accounted for the overwhelming majority of all Switch units sold in the last 6 months.
I sincerely hope their is an overwhelming surge of supply which will hurt NoA profits but will just crush a 3rd party reseller market. But I don't see that happening for a while, and the holiday season will most likely exacerbate all of these problems again.
Now that manufacturing is almost back to normal, I'm getting impatient for a Joycon 2 overhaul.
Bye bye scalpers
Forget that. I want the full labo VR set for good prices
@Chlocean GameStop was selling full sets for $20 apiece last week. I just bought the VR Kit from Best Buy for $20 as well.
Sometimes you have better luck checking retail stores than anything online. Ring Fit Adventure still averages triple digits online, but I was able to get one at retail price at my local Gamestop.
@KayFiOS I've seen the 20 dollar kit as well, but still no luck on finding the full $80 kit for anything less than $120
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