Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has revealed the company’s contingency plans for the Switch 2, in relation to developing news about US tariffs.
As translated by Nintendo Everything, Furukawa shared these statements to Reuters:
“Nintendo Switch is not only manufactured in China, but in places such as Vietnam and Cambodia as well. We are predicting various geopolitical risks and establishing ways to respond.”
Furukawa also had this to say in relation to the ongoing situation between the tariffs currently being exchanged by the US and China:
“While we anticipate a certain impact, the influence on this year’s financial results is expected to be minimal. We will continue to observe the trends, and thoroughly consider how to respond.”
Nintendo is famously one of several tech companies that uses the services of Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn. While Foxconn is headquarters in China, it famously has a significant number of huge campus factories, where it makes devices for the world’s biggest tech giants.
While it may seem odd for Nintendo to have been prepared this much in advance, they have actually faced this issue before. In 2019, Nintendo was joined by Sony and Microsoft in warning the US government that its China tariffs would harm the video game industry.
Since that time, Nintendo, as well as other tech companies like Apple, started the process of migrating their manufacturing to outside China. It may not be accurate to claim that this happened due to one specific reason, but what’s clear is that the advantage China had to become the world’s manufacturing hub no longer exists there today.
Earlier this month, the ESA reiterated warnings in 2019 that tariffs could harm the video game industry. This time, this industry is in its third year of a wave of layoffs and company closures, so it’s an even worse time for all of this to be happening.
The industry, including their competitors in Sony and Microsoft, actually need the Switch 2 to be successful. Its big releases like the Switch 2 and Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6 that the industry looks up to to help revitalize the business, and end this wave of layoffs and closures.
It’s strange to think about for sure, but a new game console launching is now a matter of life or death for the industry, with the livelihoods of thousands also on the line. So let’s hope that Nintendo has sufficient contingency plans to protect the Switch 2, and that they can readily take on what possible future challenges they might face for its launch.
