Even though the Nintendo Switch has managed to sell like crazy since its debut on the market back in March, there are still a lot of people quite critical of the device. One of the biggest criticisms revolve around the system's supply, and Nintendo directly addressed the issue recently.
Speaking with Mashable, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime spoke about the complaints about Nintendo not having enough Switch units to satisfy demand throughout the spring and summer, saying...
We actually sold through almost 2.8 million units, so we dramatically over delivered. So what do some of the consumers on Reddit say? 'Gosh, Nintendo, if you would've made more you would've sold more.' Well, we did make more! And certainly we're on a pace to supply in the current fiscal year 10 million units.
He's not wrong.
Multiple times ahead of the March release date, Nintendo had verified and reverified that the Nintendo Switch would launch with an estimated global SKU count of 2 million. Nintendo ended up moving 800,000 more units than what was announced ahead of release.
Additionally, the reason more units didn't arrive at launch was because Nintendo ran out of supplies on the manufacturing end. Apple ended up commandeering a lot of suppliers for NAND chips, and it left companies like Nintendo out in the cold, as reported by Fox Business. This greatly constricted the supply chain for distribution and ended up paying off in long-term dividends for Apple's upcoming devices but was a bust for Nintendo in the interim. What ended up happening was that the Switch was in short supply at retail outlets and online e-tailers, forcing a lot of people to have to resort to scalpers in order to get their hands on a Switch (but at a decidedly marked up price).
In June, Nintendo announced that stock for the Switch would be replenished at outlets throughout July and August. The Big 'N' kept true to its word and in July and August, the company managed to outsell both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4.
Riding on the current wave of momentum, Nintendo is hoping to capture the holiday season with the launch of Super Mario Odyssey.
Throughout the year the company has released a bevy of first-party titles, including kicking off the launch of the Switch with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and then followed that up with the launch of ARMS and Splatoon 2.
Reggie told Mashable that Nintendo prefers to keep announcements close to its chest, and that it's about making sure not to announce things too early or too late, but to give gamers just enough to latch onto and talk about, such as the two new Metroid games, including Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS and the new Metroid Prime for the Nintendo Switch.
It appears as if Nintendo has the supply issue under control, so we'll see if the company continues to receive backlash for its decisions or if things will finally mellow out. A lot of it will probably also depend on how well the SNES Classic Edition is supplied to retailers as well.
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