Nintendo has stocked enough semiconductors to manufacture the Switch. But a deficit is not excluded
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa provided an update on Switch production in an interview with Nikkei. He said the company was able to secure enough semiconductors for “immediate” production.
However, Furukawa warned that Nintendo Switch may still run out of stock this year due to significant demand.
“We were able to get the materials we needed to produce semiconductors for the Switch immediately,” he said. “ However, in Japan and other countries, demand has been robust since the beginning of the year, and there is a possibility of shortages for some retailers in the future. It is difficult to say how we will handle this, but we may not be able to prepare enough for orders in some cases. “
A worldwide shortage of semiconductors began to affect electronics manufacturing last year severely. In the gaming industry, console makers have been battling stock shortages for a year after COVID-19 disrupted key supply chains and increased demand for gaming devices.
In particular, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S consoles can still be complicated to buy – in many stores, they are sold out in minutes. Bloomberg previously suggested that a semiconductor shortage could lead to a game console shortage lasting until the end of 2021. And Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told the Financial Times that the company could not guarantee that demand for the PlayStation 5 will be met by the 2021 holiday season, which falls in November-December.
