Today in his annual profit statement, Nintendo cited the ongoing chip shortage as the reason for a steep annual decline in Switch hardware sales… while saying in the same breath that the company’s goals were being met. Well, technically.
During Nintendo’s fiscal 2022, which began last April and ran through the end of March this year, the company sold 23 million Switch consoles, down 20% year over year. Incidentally, this statistic is counted across all three iterations: the standard edition, the handheld-only Lite, and the chic new OLED modelwhich was released last October.
In a vacuum, 23 million is a staggering number, but so is it a case of moving goalposts. Nintendo originally set a goal of selling 25.5 million Switch consoles during its 2022 fiscal year. In November the company reduced that number to 24 millionIn front reduce again, in February, to 23 million, which it exceeded by 60,000. To date, the Switch has sold 107 million units—more than the Wii (101 million), but still far less than the Nintendo DS (154 million).
For the upcoming fiscal year, Nintendo has forecast some more conservative estimates, though it just proved that it can move some numbers in a spreadsheet with very little impact.
“Taking into account factors such as semiconductor supply constraints
Components, we forecast Nintendo Switch hardware sales of 21 million units [for fiscal year 2023]’ the company wrote an accompanying document for today’s report. “The Group earnings forecast is based on the assumption that we are able to manufacture the products in line with our sales planning. However, manufacturing and logistics may be impacted by factors such as barriers to sourcing parts, including semiconductors, and risks related to COVID-19.”
It is unclear whether or not the long rumored “Switch Pro”– a supposed luxury upgrade of the hybrid device capable of running games at 4K resolution – plays a role in this prediction. But if the pressure from semiconductor shortages is already affecting the standard, don’t bet on it. (Experts believe in semiconductor shortages could last into next year.) Nintendo officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still, the Switch outperforms the competition. By the end of 2021, Microsoft had An estimated 12 million Xbox Series X and S consoles sold, which first appeared in November 2020. Experts put Sony’s PlayStation 5, which will also be released in November 2020, at around 17 million. However, both numbers were undoubtedly impacted by the chip shortage that caused this Finding next-gen consoles is a pain in the ass. (Sony reduced their own sales expectations for the PS5 in February, citing chip shortages.) As Mat Piscatella of the NPD Group noted on Twitterthe Switch “sold the most hardware units” compared to its peers in the first quarter of this year.
Last month workers at Nintendo of America Filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which accused a whole range of employment malpractices, including monitoring and retaliation – all it was more detailed in a my box report. Now a former supervisor at a Joy-Con repair shop spoke with my box about a barrage of overwork and poor conditions.
