Partially confirming a report from last month from Bloomberg, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa released a statement through Nikkei (translated by VGC) during an interview with the Japanese newspaper. Furukawa confirms that semiconductor shortages may impact Nintendo Switch production and retail availability this year.
Furukawa states that Nintendo was “able to secure the necessary materials for the immediate production of semiconductors for Switches.” However, thanks to strong demand in Japan and other countries, “there is a possibility of shortages at some retailers in the future.”
At this point, Furukawa is unsure how the company will address the issue, but he does state that “in some cases we may not be able to prepare enough for orders.” Nintendo has already had issues with keeping up with stock throughout 2020 as demand for the system increased due to the pandemic, and their competitors have been struggling with the same supply issues for similar reasons.
There have been other rumors surrounding Nintendo since at least last month concerning a new Switch model. The model will reportedly use Samsung OLED screens, which will offer 4K resolution when paired with a television. The OLED panels apparently consume less battery, offer higher contrast, have a possibly faster response time, are less flexible, and cheaper to produce.
