It’s time for some good news no the home console front for Nintendo. It seems that, as the Switch has caught on with consumers and sold out all over the placeālikely thanks in no small part toĀ Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildāthe gaming giant is boosting Switch production to previously unanticipated levels.
According to a report in the Wall Street JournalĀ (based on anonymous sources, so take it with a grain of salt), Nintendo’s original plan for the Switch through the end of the 2017 fiscal year (which starts April 1, 2017) was to produce 8 million units, but based on demand, they’reĀ doubling that number to 16 million units. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll sell all of them, but it’s a good sign thatābased on current demand, rather than pre-launch guessingāthey think there’s a need for that many to be made.
It’sĀ especially good news when you consider that, over its roughly four-year lifespan, the Wii U only saw about 13.5 million consoles shipped to stores. If the Switch can manage to match or exceed that in just the system’s first yearāwith most of them actually making it through into the hands of consumersāthat would be a pretty big change of fortune for Nintendo.
Still, the console has to maintain its popularity beyond its launch window first, so hopefully Nintendo has some good games to show at E3 to make the Switch a compelling purchase during the all-important holiday season later this year.Ā Once we see how that time period shapes up, we’ll have a solid idea of whether the Switch will truly turn things around for Nintendo in the home console arenaāeven if it is half portable.
(via Polygon, image via Nintendo)
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