The past two years have brought semiconductor shortages the likes of which we haven’t seen before, making the acquisition of consoles difficult due to scarcity. And it doesn’t seem to be improving anytime soon, as Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said 2022 will likely continue to bring supply issues for the console.
Despite a strong Black Friday and Nintendo pulling out new methods to get units to locations (such as rail transportation in Europe), it was difficult to find a Switch for the rest of the holiday season, and the company had to lower sales projections from 25.5 million units to 24 million at the beginning of November due to the supply being unable to meet demand.
The reason for the semiconductor shortage in the first place is a complex array of issues ranging from increased supply for electronic entertainment products due to the pandemic to the explosion of crypto mining over the past few years. Given neither of those issues are fully resolved, and people are especially hankering for the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft, it’ll likely be a while yet before the market returns to a stable rate.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
