Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has issued an apology during the company’s 85th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, acknowledging that initial demand for the Switch 2 “greatly exceeded expectations.” The long-awaited console arrived on store shelves early in June, smashing the original Nintendo Switch’s sales record by almost a million copies. Although it seems that the U.S. and the U.K. did not face any supply issues during the launch, other markets — most notably Japan — aren’t as lucky. According to Nintendo Life, one shareholder even asked Furukawa about the reason for the shortage because of how severe the problem seemed to be.
“Currently, demand for the Switch 2 is outpacing supply in many countries, and we’re unable to fully meet it. We understand that even some of our shareholders have not been able to obtain one. Starting in April, we accepted lottery-based purchases through the My Nintendo Store. The number of applicants greatly exceeded our expectations, with 2.2 million entries — a figure I publicly announced in my name along with an apology,” Furukawa said during the meeting [machine translated].
“Since then, we’ve held four rounds of lottery sales, but there are still many who weren’t selected. We’ve announced a fifth round starting in July. Many major retail stores have also resorted to lottery-based sales,” he added. “Gradually, more locations are beginning to offer direct in-store sales as well. As a company, we are working to strengthen our production system so we can deliver as many units as possible to our customers. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the initial demand far exceeding our forecasts.”
The company apparently prioritized the U.S. and Europe, which are its largest markets. According to Statista, Japan only ranks third in the company’s global revenue, so it makes sense for Nintendo to stock up in countries where it will make the most sales. But even though gamers in those areas can easily buy a Switch 2, they did not escape from a few hiccups, including a few units that showed signs of tampering and staples puncturing screens after store employees staple the receipt to the box.
Despite those issues, the Switch 2 is one of the more successful global launches in recent history. While some regions did not escape shortages, this is unlike the arrival of Nvidia’s RTX 40-series and 50-series GPUs and the PlayStation 5, which all suffered from a lack of supply, leading to artificially increased prices and the proliferation of scalpers. So, if you’re in the U.S. and the U.K., you don’t have to worry about getting stiffed when buying the latest Nintendo gaming console — you can easily get one as long as you know where to buy the Switch 2.
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