Nintendo Increasing Switch Production from 25 to 30 Million Per Year
Not willing to repeat the same mistake with the Wii, Nintendo is ramping up production of the Nintendo Switch. The company reportedly plans to make between 25 and 30 million of its hybrid consoles in its next fiscal year and has already informed some of its business partners.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo is planning to ramp up production of its hybrid console starting in April of 2018. The plan is still in its early stages with the company intending to monitor this year's holiday sales closely in order to make necessary adjustments if the demand points to a further increase in the number of units it plans to produce.
This will prevent the console from experiencing the supply chain disaster that plagued the Wii during its initial release where Nintendo was unable to cope with the massive demand. This, in turn, led to a massive loss of potential revenue and dashed any chances of the console to beat the sales record set by Sony's PlayStation 2.
Starting with its release this past March up until September, the Nintendo Switch reportedly sold 7.63 million units. According to its October quarterly earnings report, the company also plans to sell an additional 9.1 million units before the hybrid console's first anniversary.
This would put total Switch sales to almost 17 million units, surpassing the lifetime sales of its previous flagship console, the Wii U, by a wide margin. However, the Switch still has a long way to go before it can beat the grand total of the over 100 million units the Wii sold over its lifetime or the PS2's 155 million units.
But console sales are just one part of the equation as Hideki Yasuda of the Ace Research Institute revealed that casual gamers haven't been flocking to the Nintendo Switch. This is another area of growth Nintendo can exploit with its massive line of casual titles.