Nintendo is, yet again, facing bottlenecks in the manufacturing process that prevent it from producing the number of Switch units it wants to. That’s according to a Bloomberg report, which reveals that lockdowns in Malaysia and the Philippines are slowing down production. Nintendo relies on a factory in Malaysia to print circuit boards (PCBs) while another in the Philippines attaches passive components to the boards. Though Nintendo initially benefited from not centralising all of its production in China, this decision is hurting its production capacity now that China has re-opened while many Asian countries have not.
“The inventory may recover in the summer, but we may see shortages again toward the year-end because Nintendo wouldn’t be able to produce enough units for the shopping season,“Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda told the publication. Nintendo has been facing Switch stock shortages since earlier in the year. Although the company reportedly ramped up production to compensate, these component shortages prevent it from reaching full capacity. In its most recent earnings report, the company recognised this, forecasting to sell 19 million units in FY2020, a drop from 21.03 million in the previous year, all despite the Switch’s surging popularity.
