Semiconductor shortage may impact Switch production goals, says Nintendo president

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Nintendo is considering the possibility that it may not be able to meet its projected sales goal of Nintendo Switch systems this year. This isn't due to a lack of consumer interest, but rather the possible inability to produce enough Switch consoles because of the worldwide lack of semiconductors. During a press conference, Nintendo of Japan's president, Shuntaro Furukawa, stated that the company is doing everything it can, but there's rising uncertainty regarding their fiscal year plans being able to be met while the shortage is still ongoing. The projected shipment of 25.50 million units before March 2022 is still on track, but Furukawa implied Nintendo may have to revise those numbers if they run into issues sourcing the parts.

Last year, Nintendo sold a total of 28.83 million Switch systems, with Furukawa crediting the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic for most of those sales. In 2019, it had been predicted that Nintendo would sell around 19.5 million units, which turned out to be greatly surpassed. Even so, Furukawa says that 25.50 million is a high number compared to previous years, especially with the Switch having hit its fourth anniversary just recently.

:arrow: Source (translation courtesy of VGC)
 

Viri

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I dunno if Semiconductor shortage or people buying up GPUs to mine crypto is fucking over PC gamer's chances of buying a new gaming GPU. I sit here sad with my Ryzen 5600x and HD 6850. I refuse to pay those scalper prices!
 
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x65943

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I'm confused. Why are we running out of semiconductors? Does it really take that long to make high-quality ones? Is it a cop-out? Is it some other reason? What's going on here?!?
Watch this video than imagine what it takes to build more of these facilities
There is a shortage for the entire world across all industries - if it was easy to increase production you could do it and make billions of dollars, but it's ridiculously complicated stuff that takes years to setup
 
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Rahkeesh

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We aren't "running out" of semiconductors, its that there's a sudden spike in demand. The demand spike we're seeing is assumed to be pandemic related, and therefore temporary. That's why they don't want to invest to meet demand that may not be there in 5 years time.

Additionally game hardware is pretty low in priority for fabs (because of low volume of orders) compared to things like phones and cars. So they get back of the queue for further orders.
 

XDel

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That's what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket, and your Chinese employee kids are jumping off the roofs to their death. Time to pull out of China and expand your markets into new countries. I know mine would like a few back, though these days we're not much different than China with all our baby slaughter, censorship, propaganda, and what not.
 

zoogie

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The bigger news is this shortage makes the Switch Pro less likely -- they'll just rebrand it to Switch 2 in 2022-23 I think.
 

HarveyHouston

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Watch this video than imagine what it takes to build more of these facilities
There is a shortage for the entire world across all industries - if it was easy to increase production you could do it and make billions of dollars, but it's ridiculously complicated stuff that takes years to setup

Ah, yes. I knew it was a tedious process; I just didn't know how tedious. Still, production of semiconductors could be increased if the world needs them so badly - after all, we're not running out of sand anytime soon!
 

Xzi

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Still, production of semiconductors could be increased if the world needs them so badly - after all, we're not running out of sand anytime soon!
No, production cannot be increased any further, it's already at 110% and still failing to meet demand. A big part of the problem is auto manufacturers, who cancelled orders in mass early last year when people weren't driving much or at all. Then toward the end of the year, when both consumer and enterprise demand inevitably went back up, they started ordering obscene amounts of semiconductors for use in engine/dash computers. This was also right around the time Nvidia and AMD were releasing a new line of GPUs, and Sony/MS were releasing next-gen consoles.

Long story short: the demand was piled on all at once, far outpacing the speed at which new supply could be manufactured. Supply isn't projected to catch up with demand until mid-2022 at the earliest, possibly not until 2023.
 
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Deleted member 514389

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I'm kinda getting sick of that semiconductor shortage bullshit. Is mass production gonna restart someday or are we fucked forever?
For as long as demand stays this high and companies keep being egoistical and lacking foresight: Unlikely.

*SomeCompany:
"Oh hey! We really need to produce y'know ? Better send the same chip order to multiple manufacturers, I'm sure someone will fill our order"

*AllOtherCompanies: "Hey, le'ts do that too!"

*ChipManufacturer: "Hey Boss, erm.. I think we have a problem"

... In a way this is a great mirror of the whole COVID affair.
Due to everyone thinking of /emselvesc first and not taking into account the impact on others, over a year later we still are f***ed...
Great.



Instead of being smart, even corporates choose the headless chicken mentality at these times.
Embarrassing...
 
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The most-quoted reasons for this year's shortage are:
  • Stay at Home Lifestyle and increased Electronics purchase;
  • Limiting China exports on Western countries; and
  • Taiwan drought.
The first two of three are slowly improving with new Government Policies and Vaccinations, so I am confident enough to say it won't last more than another year; I doubt the people who've already just bought a PC for Work at Home will immediately buy another one the next year, so there is light at the end of this shortage tunnel.

Now if we can convince the Gaming Collectors to stop buying 3 of everything, we all might have a chance of owning something shiny and new to play with ...
 
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Ottoclav

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Nobody wants to make more factories to end this fake shortage. Kinda pissing me off too.
its not that they don't want to make more factories, its that building new facilities takes a considerable amount of time, especially when dealing with technology that requires many levels of "clean-room" facilities. Remember, ANYTHING that requires a computer is needing these semi-conductors, and EVERY company is trying to get some. On top of that, if manufacturers are going to build new facilities, then they will be needing robots to make the chips, which require chips to build new robots upon more robots. Meanwhile, several chip factories have experienced incendiary incidents causing more delays in production. GM thought they were going to be releasing their new fleet of EV's, along with VW and KIA and several others Auto manufacturers, ALL needing those semi-conductors. The current supply and demand of semi-conductors is like setting the wise all-knowing Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock on fire and we are listening to the screams.
 

Deleted member 194275

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That's what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket, and your Chinese employee kids are jumping off the roofs to their death. Time to pull out of China and expand your markets into new countries. I know mine would like a few back, though these days we're not much different than China with all our baby slaughter, censorship, propaganda, and what not.
There are some problems on what you talking.

Semiconductors today are produced in a variety of countries, but mostly on South Korea and Taiwan, AKA not China,

About your second point, you are talking from a country that violates human rights badly (and for your comment you are aware of that), and guess what, mine country do violate a lot of human rights too, so if this will be a commercial criteria, we should put like 75% of world population under embargo.

So either way, it is not child labor suicide that is the problem, it is a huge demand that nobody were accounting for, because back in January of 2020 we all thought that this corona thing was just another flu.
 
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RichardTheKing

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Why even bother buying a Switch, when all the good ones (launch-models) are already gone? Just search for one of those on Ebay or Amazon or something.
 

Osha

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Semiconductors.... or is it that nvidia are no longer producing the chips and nintendo either have to pay for its upgrade chip (hence rumours of a shitty pro) or find another supplier.

If Semiconductors has nothing to do with the chip then fuck me, nintendo should have focused more on r&d than taking any tom dick and harry to court.

Its not like the switch isnt trying to make sales the wii u failed to get with all the lazy wii u and older ports.

New console, nothing new from nintednont to play.
Drop the tinfoil hat, it's literally what it says on the tin. It's a worldwide issue and affects every single electronics manufacturer. Plus how do you want em to "supposedly" make a Switch Pro during this shortage anyway, make them appear out of thin air ?
 
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XDel

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There are some problems on what you talking.

Semiconductors today are produced in a variety of countries, but mostly on South Korea and Taiwan, AKA not China,

About your second point, you are talking from a country that violates human rights badly (and for your comment you are aware of that), and guess what, mine country do violate a lot of human rights too, so if this will be a commercial criteria, we should put like 75% of world population under embargo.

So either way, it is not child labor suicide that is the problem, it is a huge demand that nobody were accounting for, because back in January of 2020 we all thought that this corona thing was just another flu.


I did not realize semiconductors were made outside of China. Where I work, that's where ours come from.

And no, this Covid has a HUGE survival rate, it mostly just takes the lives of those who already have sever medical conditions or are over weight, had diet, no sun, etc.

More have died by choices made in reaction to Covid than of Covid 19 itself.

And yes, all countries need to stop the slave driving, but China and N. Korea are obviously the worst.
 

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