When Nintendo released its quarterly fiscal documents last November, the company confirmed it was projecting 19 million units of the Switch to be sold in the ongoing fiscal year (until March 31, 2023), with number of factors contributing to the lowered projections. Not only is the Switch entering the seventh year of its lifecycle in March, the last few years have also seen a worldwide shortage of semiconductor chips hampering hardware manufacturing on a wide scale.
It seems, however, that Nintendo is now projecting a boost in sales for the console for the upcoming fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. As per a report published by Bloomberg, with semiconductor chips no longer seeing severe shortages (resulting in improvements in supply for other companies as well), Nintendo is allegedly expecting to sell more units of the Switch than in the ongoing fiscal year.
The Japanese company has reportedly informed suppliers and partners that it will be speeding up manufacturing and production plans for the console starting in April. Contrary to analysts’ expectations, Nintendo allegedly expects “sustained demand” for the Switch for “at least another year”, and believes the recent slump in sales has been driven more by supply issues than a decrease in demand.
That said, the company has reportedly not made its clear what its revised target for Switch sales during the upcoming fiscal year will be, and could still lower the projected numbers again should demand fail to meet expectations.
Interestingly, Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda also believes that if Nintendo were to release a Zelda-themed Switch to go along with the highly anticipated launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it could lead to existing Switch owners purchasing another unit of the console. As per recent leaks, it would seem that is indeed what Nintendo is planning.
Of course, with the Switch approaching its sixth birthday on March 3, common wisdom would suggest that the system is very much in the final leg of its lifecycle, which in turn would imply that Nintendo is at work behind the scenes on a new console. Reports have claimed that that is indeed the case, and that the aforementioned Zelda title may very well end up being Nintendo’s final major release on the Switch. Analysts, meanwhile, believe a Switch successor won’t launch until 2024.