Despite selling close to 5 million units worldwide as of the end of July, the Nintendo Switch has been hard to find for many people. Instances of walking into a local retailer and seeing the system in stock seem to be few and far in between.
In spite of these shortages, though, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says that the company has actually “dramatically over-delivered” when it comes to producing Nintendo Switch systems and getting them out to customers.
“As we look at the overall business, we’re constantly looking to do the right thing for the consumer,” Fils-Aime told Mashable in an interview. According to Fils-Aime, Nintendo made 2 million units of the Switch available at launch, which was contrary to analyst recommendations that demand would be much lower.
“We actually sold through almost 2.8 million units, so we dramatically over delivered,” he said. “And yet, demand outpaces supply. So what do some of the consumers on Reddit say? ‘Gosh, Nintendo, if you would’ve made more you would’ve sold more.’ Well, we did make more! And certainly we’re on a pace to supply in the current fiscal year 10 million units.”
What’s more, Fils-Aime said he believes Nintendo has been delivering on what the fans want, just not as quickly as they may like.
“I think if you were to go back and look at some of these comments, you would actually see that the issues have been resolved, but it’s happening at a pace that is later than maybe where the commenters would like the resolution to be,” he said. “But it happens. And the solution is there.”
It’s worth noting that certain factors outside of Nintendo’s control may have slowed down Switch production. Back in May, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Japanese gaming giant uses NAND flash-memory chips for storage capability on the Switch. However, Apple uses the same components in its various iPhone models, according to the WSJ, making the parts somewhat difficult to come by.
At the same time, the Switch is not the Nintendo product to suffer from scarcity. The NES Classic was infamously hard to get following its holiday 2016 release — a fact that was not helped once it was discontinued in April. Nintendo has since announced that it will bring the retro system back in summer 2018, although it remains to be seen if it will be in short supply once again.
In the meantime, Nintendo has the SNES Classic releasing next Friday, which it promises will see “dramatically increased” production for the holiday season going into 2018. So far, the $99 CAD system has quickly been selling out of pre-orders. Best Buy and EB Games sold out in mere minutes, while the Source skipped out of pre-orders altogether after its website crashed due to significant volumes of traffic.
On the Canadian front, the SNES Classic is confirmed to be releasing in Quebec, despite earlier reports saying otherwise.
Source: Mashable
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