The record-breaking launch of the Switch reportedly led Nintendo to increase production of the console back in March. A new report suggests this may be happening once again.
According to the Financial Times, sources close to Nintendo have said a production increase has been ordered to help meet demand going into the holiday season. Nintendo itself has yet to confirm such a move, but it will reportedly produce 18 million units for the year that runs through March 31, 2018. That’s a substantial increase over the 10 million that Nintendo has officially said to expect.
Analysts told the FT that Nintendo may be speaking in an “intentionally conservative” way, with Morgan Stanley’s Hirotoshi Murakami suggesting the year’s final tally could be 20 million units. However, Nintendo does face production hurdles; while it may not run on cutting-edge hardware, there are supply constraints on components like its LCD screen.
The report also casually notes that Super Mario Odyssey is expected to launch in November. Officially, it’s only been announced for release before the end of the year; it’s not expected to launch until the fourth quarter, so a November release sounds plausible.
Nintendo exceeded its Switch shipment target once already–despite planning to deliver 2 million units worldwide during March, it ended up hitting 2.74 million. (It also took the unusual measure of shipping some consoles by air.) Its huge launch, which set a record as Nintendo’s fastest-selling system, prompted the company to reportedly order a production increase back in March. At the time, it was said that Nintendo was now aiming to manufacture “at least” 16 million units by the end of March 2018.
GameStop said in March that it believed supply issues could last for the entire year. More recently, it noted that it hasn’t “seen supply even come close to matching demand at this point.”