According to reports from Siliconera, the Coronavirus is already affecting the production of new Nintendo Switch consoles, Nintendo of Japan President, Shuntaro Furukawa spoke to Kyoto Shumbun yesterday about the global emergency of the virus is “beginning to have more or less an impact on production.” Furukawa also said that “prolonged problems will affect the product delivery plans”. Credits to Naruki.
Things are not looking well for the Japanese giant as their shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange dropped 3.55% by January 31, 2020. Nintendo had recently released an staggering Nine Months Earnings Release. Yesterday, Gaming Instincts reported that Nintendo is close to selling 18 million Switch units, the initial goal for the current financial year, as there are a few months left in the current financial year, Nintendo has raised their forecast of Switch’s sales to 19.5 million units.
Currently, the Switch is being manufactured by Foxconn (Taiwan) and Hosiden (Japan), but several hardware parts are still being made in China, the rise of the Coronavirus might stand in the way of Nintendo’s ambitions. For the time being, Nintendo is trying to avoid a bottleneck in the production of the Switch by hiring new manufacturers in Vietnam.
Nintendo Life reports that Nintendo saw their highest quarterly profit in ten years, thanks to the demand of the Switch Lite, the little console has sold over 52.48 million units worldwide as of December 31, 2019. But the reported earnings might not be enough to face an imminent threat coming from Japan and USA.
The Financial Times analyzes Nintendo’s situation as if they are “Stuck on pause” on the gaming hardware market. It’s possible that the release of the next-gen Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 might prove to much of a competition for the modest hardware. The outlet advises Nintendo to“adapt to a market moving rapidly away from consoles”.
Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for more gaming news.
