Nintendo's Switch production will fall 20% below its original projection this fiscal year. The total number of units produced for the console now will only be 24 million through March.
According to a report from Nikkei, the issue comes from a shortage of semiconductors and other electronic parts, as well as strong demand for the console, such as the latest OLED version. Around spring, components such as microcomputers caused production bottlenecks, and Nintendo scaled down its production targets because the company was not able to get enough parts.
The original plan was to produce about 30 million Nintendo Switch units, a record number due to more people spending time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are assessing their impact on our production," a Nintendo spokesperson said. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa admitted that the company was not able to make as many Switch units as it would have wanted because of the uncertainty issues surrounding production. However, he also explained that demand for the Switch is still going strong.
As of August this year, Nintendo had sold a little over 89 million units of the Nintendo Switch, surpassing both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in lifetime sales. Additionally, Nintendo Switch also swept the Japanese sales charts for one week, with the 30 best-selling games coming from one console. It was a feat that hadn't been accomplished since the Famicom in 1988.
On October 8, Nintendo launched the OLED model of the system alongside the new Metroid Dread game. In IGN's Nintendo Switch OLED review, Taylor Lyles said, "After playing with it for a week, I’ve found that the Nintendo Switch OLED Model’s brighter, more vibrant, and slightly larger screen has made me want to take it out of docked mode much more often – and not just when I am about to travel."
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey