The U.S. and European markets still have supplies, but factories continue to experience production problems.
Nintendo warned him months ago. The coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) was affecting the production of the Nintendo Switch, which has already impacted the distribution of the console in Japanese territory. However, now it is confirmed that the company has paralyzed the arrival of new machines on the Japanese market. The reason? Problems in the production chain, as published by Nikkei.
According to a representative of the Kyoto company, Nintendo has not been able to respond to the high demand in Japan, although it has reserves for the North American and European market. The factories where the system is manufactured are in the process of recovery, but have not yet reached normal levels, given the unprecedented circumstances in the world. "We were unable to maintain supply," confirm the Japanese.
Nintendo Japan has also posted a tweet explaining that both normal Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite units and the Animal Crossing: New Horizons special will not ship this week for the reasons outlined above. The only exception is for those who reserved their products, which in principle will receive the items normally.
(お 知 ら せ) Nintendo Switch 本体 ( 「あ つ ま れ ど う ぶ つ の 森 本体 セ ッ ト」 含 む) な ら び に Nintendo Switch Lite 本体 は, ご 予 約 分 を 除 き 今 週 の 出 荷 は ご ざ い ま せ ん. 来 週 以降 の 出 荷 予 定 に つ い て は 改 め て お 知 ら せ い た し ま す.
– 任天堂 株式会社 (@Nintendo) April 7, 2020
How the coronavirus has affected sales in Japan
As we published on FreeGameTips, Nintendo Switch sales in the country of the rising sun have been altered by COVID-19 and the distribution problems derived from this situation. Thus, while in week 6 (from February 3 to 9) the units of the standard model exceeded 70,000 sales, just one week later sales plummeted to 16,869 units. Overall, the decline was 100,000 units a week to some 40,000 consoles sold.
Japan has just declared a state of emergency, which means that at least seven prefectures will have to activate social distancing measures. In this situation, the body that classifies games by age has had to stop all its activities until May 6, which could cause video game delays.
