This message gives me several thoughts.
- A company like Nintendo easily has the means to predict demand more accurately;
- Chip production will be stained to meet high demand;
- Saying it’s in high demand will drive up demand, now that people will see it isn’t available and everyone in Japan seems to want one;
- After the launch, some were skeptical about the console. I wonder if this is an action taken to mitigate lower sales.
All in all, this ‘apology’ seems more like corporate strategy than anything sincere.
Nintendo, like many Japanese companies, only produces what they know with 100% certainty they can sell. They purposely underproduced the Wii so it constantly sold through retail and absolutely no stock stuck on shelves for long. They don’t actually care about complaints of supply issues, that is intentional.
As a side effect they also get to constantly stay in the headlines as their constant lack of supply keeps being reported. So they get free marketing as well, just by operating as they always have. And with current global supply chain conversations, they get a free smokescreen with the general populace going out of their way to blame someone else.
Nintendo, like many Japanese companies, only produces what they know with 100% certainty they can sell.
Nintendo’s president specifically bragged a month ago, that they were just going to make so many Switch 2, so there’ll always be some on Shelves.
As long as Nintendo exclusive games are well-developed, they can easily get away with this. Especially since they squash any ‘competition’ (read: emulators).
And yeah, most likely Nvidia will take the hits for any supply chain issues, which may run back to TSMC and ASML in due time.
