‘Multiple choke points’
Nintendo, particularly its Japanese arm, is a proud company. I’ve been told several times that they won’t blame others for their failures, or make it clear why things are happening the way they are when there’s a shortage issue (which of course, is a monthly occurence for some Nintendo product).
They’re playing it coy with the Switch too, as Reggie explained to The Financial Times when prodded about Switch supply, that “There is not one choke point, there are multiple choke points. I won’t go into any more detail but it’s not just one component.” He goes on further to say, “I’m going to make millions of these units to flow into the marketplace. But what I don’t know is what the demand is going to be. And there is a potential that demand is going to outstrip supply.”
Translation? There might not be a Switch under your Christmas tree if the craze takes off even further than it already has. Switch units are already woefully scarce in Japan, with ticketed raffles becoming commonplace, and all over the world shortages have been known to happen.
I totally get why Nintendo adopts a consistent stance of not throwing anyone under the bus, but some knowledge of why this always happens with them could help some third party help understand how to fix it. Or, could expose a situation where they’re letting it happen — a popular accusation that came to a head during the Wii shortage crisis.
Nintendo [Financial Times via Nintendo Life]
