Buying a new Nintendo Switch is going to be a lot harder right now – Nintendo is slashing production

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It looks like the Nintendo Switch is the latest console to be hit hard by the major chip shortage that industries across the board are experiencing. The popular handheld console maker is having to cut its production by around 20 percent for its fiscal year ending in March.

According to a report from Nikkei, Nintendo isn’t going to reach its original goal for production for this year. The company has been forced to adjust its estimates down to 24 million Switch units produced this year, a 20 percent decrease from the originally projected 30 million.

The cut back in production has nothing to do with sales of Nintendo Switch consoles. The console has been a huge success, amassing nearly 90 million units sold since it was released in 2017.

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Instead, Nintendo is running into the same issue that so many businesses and industries are running into today: supply shortages. Mass electronic chip shortages have been affecting everything from smartphones to automobiles.

During a recent earnings release, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said “At this moment, I don’t see a sign of the component shortages recovering.” In the event that the situation changes drastically, the company may need to revise its outlook again if it cannot produce enough Switch units to satisfy demand, he said.

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Of course, this shortage has been going on for a while now, so why is Nintendo just now starting to feel the effects? The answer to that is likely due to the fact that the Nintendo Switch already had an established supply chain since it has been in production for so long.

But the shortage has finally caught up to the company, and production is going to be limited for at least the next few months. Nintendo is obviously hopeful that this supply shortage gets fixed soon, especially since the company just released the first upgraded version of the Switch since its original release in 2017.

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