If you have been hunting down a Nintendo Switch in recent months, it sounds as though the handheld-console hybrid could end up being just as difficult to find later on in 2021 as it was last year. Although the global pandemic that has proven to be one of the main reasons why stock of the console has been so low over the past year is improving, it sounds as though, in the long term, 2021 may still see shortages of the Switch as well.
According to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, the company currently has enough semiconductor parts in stock to begin immediate production on a number of new Switch units. However, that doesn’t mean that the manufacturer will be able to keep churning out Switch consoles at a high rate as the year progresses. “We have been able to secure the necessary materials for the immediate production of semiconductors for switches,” Furukawa said in an interview with Japanese publication Nikkei. “However, in Japan and other countries, demand has been very strong since the beginning of the year, and there is a possibility of shortages at some retailers in the future. It is difficult to say how we will deal with this, but in some cases we may not be able to prepare enough for orders.”
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As a whole, the Nintendo Switch has far and away been the best-selling video game console on the market over the past year. In fact, more units of the hardware likely would have flown off of store shelves if Nintendo was able to keep up with the demand. Due to the aforementioned supply constraints, particularly with semiconductors, which came about as a result of the pandemic, manufacturing has taken a hit.
Fortunately, the fact that Nintendo says it can comfortably create more Switch consoles right this moment should mean that we won’t see any shortages of the platform right away. If the Switch does become more scarce, it sounds like that may happen later on in the year. So if you have been holding off on buying Nintendo’s latest machine, you might want to try to do so sooner rather than later.
Have you picked up a Nintendo Switch for yourself yet? Be sure to let me know either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
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