Despite the massive Switch 2 sales out of the gate, Nintendo's shares have been slipping throughout December, dropping as much as 4.7% yesterday. Why? It seems fears surrounding chip shortages may be to blame.
Bloomberg (paywall) estimates that Nintendo's market value may have already decreased by as much as $14 billion this month, as Switch 2 RAM module costs have leapt up 41% in the quarter.
It's not just RAM either. The console's NAND storage has also seen an estimated 8% price rise, as both SanDisk and Samsung have delayed shipments of flash chips due to "increased demand from large data centres and hyperscalers", according to a recent statement from SSD manufacturer Transcend.
This shortage explains the pricy state of microSD Express cards — the only expandable storage method for Switch 2 — which regularly sit at the best part of $200 for the beefy 1TB option and around $60-$80 for the smaller 256GB. "This is effectively a cost that Nintendo has passed onto the gamer," Pelham Smithers of Pelham Smithers Associates told Bloomberg.
Of course, the holiday season is near-enough guaranteed to be a big one for Nintendo and the Switch 2. Last month, the company upped its sales forecast from 15 million to 19 million Switch 2 sales by the end of the financial year, and its impressive start is nothing to be scoffed at.
But consoles cost money to make, and if memory costs stay on the up-and-up, who knows what the company will need to do to keep its profits moving in the right direction.