According to sources, Nintendo will be ramping up the production of the Switch console to a whopping 30 million units for FY2021. This news comes as the pandemic continues to rage on across the world and the stay-at-home lifestyle starts to become more of a norm. Nintendo is reportedly working with its suppliers to increase the production of the handheld console. These include the SoC manufacturer (NVIDIA), back-end houses based in China and Taiwan as well the display provider (Samsung), among others.
Considering that the Japanese console-maker is looking to launch an enhanced variant of the console based on NVIDIA’s latest Ada Lovelace architecture, this is a bold step. The Switch has already sold over 80 million units as of late 2020, with another 30 million expected from the first quarter of 2021. Seeing how the pandemic is progressing, it’s very likely that most chipmakers will continue to benefit from increased demand for the rest of the year, further extending the semiconductor shortages.
This latest push is a move to secure ample supplies for the next 12-16 months, and then some. Seeing how well the Switch has performed over the last several quarters, it’s unlikely that its strong sales will fade anytime in the near future. It’s presently competing with Sony’s newly launched PS5 and the MS Xbox Series X|S consoles, despite being much older and being limited in its abilities. This can be primarily attributed to the better supply and the wider reach of the Nintendo brand.
Similar to Microsoft’s Game Pass and Sony’s PS Plus subscriptions, Nintendo’s Switch Online service has been wildly popular with a subscriber base of 26 million twice as much as compared to last year. Although there have been many new competitors in the handheld space such as the Aya Neo, the GPD, etc, the Nintendo Switch has maintained a clear lead in the ecosystem.
