Nintendo has conceded it won’t be able to meet Switch demand this holiday

Nintendo has said it will be unable to meet Switch demand this holiday season as its production efforts continue to be hampered by the global semiconductor shortage.

In a press briefing following the publication of the company’s second quarter results on Thursday, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said he saw no end in sight to the supply issues.

“We can’t produce enough to meet the demand we are expecting during the upcoming holiday season,” he said (via Reuters).

“Currently there is no sign of improvement and the situation continues to be severe so I can’t say how long it will continue.”

Strong demand coupled with global chip shortages means that game consoles have been difficult to come by since the pandemic started last year.

Last week, Sony said PS5 supply issues were negatively impacting hardware sales, but that it remained hopeful of hitting its annual console shipment target of 14.8 million units.

The PlayStation firm has reportedly begun air freighting PlayStation 5 stock into the UK, in an attempt to better meet demand in the runup to Christmas.

Meanwhile, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that a shortage of chips isn’t the only issue stopping Microsoft from meeting Xbox Series X demand.

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“I think it’s probably too isolated to talk about it as just a chip problem,” he told The Wrap. “When I think about, what does it mean to get the parts necessary to build a console today, and then get it to the markets where the demand is, there are multiple kind of pinch points in that process.

“And I think regretfully it’s going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year and into the next calendar year.”

On Thursday, Nintendo said it had cut its annual Switch shipment forecast by 6%, from 25.5 million units to 24 million units, “because of the change in our production plan due to the effects of the global semiconductor shortage”.