Nintendo makes 20% fewer Switch consoles due to chip shortages

Nintendo would produce twenty percent fewer Switch consoles in the 2021 financial year than originally intended. Due to the worldwide shortage of chips, only 24 million copies will be made, says business newspaper Nikkei.

Despite the high demand, due to a shortage of semiconductors, among other things, fewer Switch consoles are being produced than Nintendo would have liked, Nikkei reports. According to the business newspaper, the intention was to ship thirty million consoles at the beginning of this year in the current fiscal year, which runs until the end of March 2022.

In the spring, Nintendo already had production problems. This was due to a shortage of ‘critical parts’, according to Nikkei. Then the company already decided that fewer consoles could be made and a target of 25.5 million consoles was mentioned. However, according to Nikkei sources, the company will not reach this number either; now the expectation is 24 million consoles.

It is unknown how many Switch consoles have been produced in this fiscal year. Nintendo has not confirmed the news. A spokesperson for the game company does acknowledge that the company has been hit by the shortage of parts and that the impact on production is still being ‘assessed’.

In fiscal year 2020, Nintendo shipped 28.8 million Switch consoles, the highest number the company has shipped in a fiscal year so far. In total, Nintendo has shipped 89.04 million Switches since the end of June.