A global supply shortage of semiconductors has resulted in a year-out slump in Nintendo Switch sales. Last year Nintendo saw 20% fewer sales than the year before, while Sony has seen fewer sales during Q4 of this year (January – March) in comparison to last year.
Industry analysts have stated that a large driving force behind the global supply shortage of semiconductors can be traced to the political, economic, and health disruptions that the pandemic has caused. With less available staff, productivity has seen a massive drop in large businesses such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Samsung in Korea, and China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation.
Economically and politically, border restrictions have ensured a higher cost of shipment with no guarantee that shipments will, in fact, arrive on time.
“The Siemens Valor blog recently reported that before the arrival of the pandemic, the average cost of shipping a container was $2,000 – $5,000. Today, shipping the same container often costs close to $30,000, but there is no guarantee that it will arrive on schedule.”
Raw materials that are mined in Russia and in China are additionally seeing delays due to the Ukrainian invasion and enforced lockdown in Shanghai.
Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa echoed the current struggles caused by the pandemic stating quite plainly during Nintendo’s recent quarterly: “There’s no end in sight to the semiconductor shortage at this point,”
Nintendo has said that it expects 21 million units of worldwide shipments of the Nintendo Switch in the current fiscal year (April 2022-March 2023).
