Report: Nintendo Ramps Up Switch Production to 30 Million This Fiscal Year - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 September 2021 / 4,483 Views
Nintendo is ramping up its production of the Nintendo Switch to around 30 million units this fiscal year, according to a report from Nikkei.
Nikkei is reporting that Nintendo has approached several parts suppliers to increase production. Increasing the supply of a video game platform in its fifth year is not something we normally see in the industry.
The Nintendo Switch has been one of the most successful platforms for Nintendo. The hybrid console has sold just under 84 million units worldwide through April 17, according to VGChartz estimates. The Switch is also tracking around 14 million units ahead of the PlayStation 4 when you align the launches, as well as nearly keeping up with the launch-aligned sales of the Nintendo DS.
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa earlier this year said the company has secured a decent amount of supply of components for now. However, things could change in the future.
"We have experienced higher-than-expected demand this year as well, and there is a possibility that certain products will be in short supply, especially in Japan," said Furukawa at the time.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Current sales suggest that we should see the first 30M year of any console.
It really depends on the software lineup as well as the state of the world in summer and fall. It could very well be a sub 25M year.
No it won't.
Without any real proof to backup, your claim is very nonsense.
Without any real proof to backup, your claim is very nonsense.
I think it is pretty reasonable to assume that the entire gaming sector is seeing this boost it is currently seeing because auf COVID and the related changes in the way of life of a significant part of the global population. If these changes are reversed before autumn there could very well be less demand for consoles as is predicted right now.
so you mean ps5/xbox sex sold well because COVID too? By Autumn there could very well be less demand for ps5/xbox sex consoles as is predicted right now.
This certainly leads more credence to a Switch Pro launching this holiday. Personally, I feel like while that might have been the plan pre-COVID, I think that with the shortages, high demand, etc., they would be better off launching a Switch Pro in March 2022 (specifically maybe that 12th week of 2022, just like ACNH in 2020 & MH:R in 2021).
Maybe Nintendo could then drop the price of the Switch & Switch Lite this holiday, which could help reach close to 30M, especially with a better holiday lineup. BDSP alone will likely sell more than anything Nintendo launched last holiday. Either way, the Switch is showing no signs of slowing down and it is such a great thing to see!
They'd probably need to produce 35 million if they were planning an upgrade this year. I think they're just being cautious about the shortages. It's likely they can cancel orders with little to no penalty if they don't need them.
Nintendo knows how well the switch is selling. If it was out of stock during the holidays, it would be a disaster. But I do expect botw2 before the end of the fiscal year. We'll know for sure if we hear something next month or not.
I don't think we're seeing a switch pro this calendar year. Didn't they sell 28 million switches last year? 2 million more isn't enough for a new version. I think they made like 5 million switch lites in 2019.
And I wouldn't expect a price drop either. It has already been 4 years. If anything, a switch pro would just be 400 dollars and the pricing would stay the same. Prices drop when things aren't selling as well. The switch might see its best year yet in 2021.
Launching a Switch Pro might actually be the only way to get to 30 million shipped. The global chip shortage is affecting everything, but some of the worst afflicted process lines are TSMC's 7-nm, followed by their 28-nm (mostly automobile chips and older smartphone chips), then their 16-nm line: the current Switch/Switch Lite exclusively use that one. However there is some extra capacity in the newest, 5-nm line because right now really only Apple is using it for their A14 and M1 SoC's, But more importantly, and this is just the way things work, TSMC will continue to bring MORE capacity to 5-nm every quarter going forward, while continuing to ramp DOWN capacity in 28-nm, 16-nm, etc. That is how things progress forward. So if Nintendo switches (see what I did there lol) their main chip needs to a new 5-nm SoC, for a Switch Pro or even a across-the-board replacement, it would actually allow them to make more Switches (at a lesser price even).
But if the switch is the only device using 16nm, wouldn't it be really easy to buy more time on that fab? I get that they're phasing out the larger fab processes, but nintendo already dropped to 16nm from whatever the original switch is.
But maybe tsmc told nintendo they needed to have at least 30m units to keep making them. Idk. And even if they do another revision, there's no telling what it will be. Could just be more battery savings. Especially since the rumors come with another 720p screen. 1080 wouldn't add that much overhead if they were really boosting the power. 5nm would be sipping juice compared to 16. And a lot less heat. So pushing it a little harder in handheld mode wouldn't be a problem. Still the 6 hours of battery with similar heat is very possible at 1080.
I'll put it this way. The switch pro released alongside the switch lite... except it was a quiet revision. I just don't believe the switch pro rumors much. I'm thinking another small revision is more likely. But I can't really see either this year.
The current Switch 16-nm SoC is in a very, very crowded line. For one, all PS4 and Xbox One consoles are also 16-nm. There are dozens upon dozens of mobile SoCs, put into 100s (1000s?) of different mobile devices. Automobile chips. Older NVIDIA/AMD GPUs. Simply - a lot is going on there. And like I said, capacity will only go downward on 16-nm as time goes forward; TSMC slowly introduces its newest machines that can fabricate the new processes like 7-nm and 5-nm into its factories, while taking out/retiring older processes. TSMC also of course builds brand new fabs for new processes, like there is a rumor they are building 6 new ones in Arizona, USA, but the bulk of "new" capacity for 5-nm will come at the expense of less capacity of older lines. Like I said, moving to a new 5-nm SoC actually might make a lot of sense from a inventory perspective. Heck, even if the new 5-nm chip is actually the same as the current one, just from being fabbed at 5-nm would probably allow Nintendo to run the Switch completely passively; no more fan would further decrease production costs.
Sounds very believable. After all the DS shipped 30 mil in a fiscal year twice and the Switch is more or less selling at a peak DS pace.
Nintendo can't hold back now
Premium Switch model + the full lineup this year + mass appeal and lingering effects of Covid + Pokemon + BotW2....yeah can't totally discount that this year could be even bigger than last year. First quarter 2021 was up 43% from Q1 2020, and Q4 2020 was a bit low considering they didn't have a single big game for the holidays and this year there could be two absolutely massive games. Throw in a premium Switch to boost sales maybe early Fall, and yeah Nintendo is positioning itself to try to beat it's 2020 sales.
Then in 2022 with perhaps a round of price cuts and another huge round of games (Pokemon Legends, Splatoon 3, gotta assume a 2D Mario will finally hit, and no doubt more) Switch could very well still be above 20 million in 2022.
Seems like Switch is likely to end between 105 - 110 million this year, which means it could be around 130 million by end of 2022....yeah wow it could totally pass PS2 and DS. Anyway, this year is gonna be insane.
Wonder if that means we can expect a price cut...
It appears that the Pro was accidently confirmed as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2RkDevgp4Q
