The global semiconductor shortage and supply constraints have been a hurdle for all hardware on the market for a couple of years at this point, and the effects of those issues are very much still being felt. Nintendo, for instance, is reportedly looking at a dip in sales for the Switch brought about by the circumstances.
As per a report published by Nikkei, Nintendo is expecting a 10% dip in sales for the Switch for fiscal year 2022 for total sales of about 20 million in the period. That’s down from 23 million the previous year, which itself was down from over 28 million units the year before that.
As per the report, the continuing global semiconductor shortage as well as supply chain issues – exacerbated by COVID-enforced lockdowns in China and the disruption in supply chains due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have resulted in the console not selling as much as expected, with Nintendo unable to produce as much of the hardware as it had initially set out to. In fact, according to the report, if the lockdown in Shanghai, China persists, sales for the fiscal year might even dip below 20 million.
Earlier this year, Nintendo reported that the Switch had sold over 103 million units worldwide, making it the company’s best-selling home console to date, and its second-best selling gaming hardware, second only to the Nintendo DS.
According to president Shuntaro Furukawa, the Switch is still “just in the middle of its lifecycle”, so the Japanese company is clearly expecting its sales momentum to continue strongly for some time to come. How significantly that is impacted by persisting supply issues remains to be seen.
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