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Nintendo Admits It Sometimes Gets Supply ‘Wrong’

Nintendo has admitted it has incorrectly predicted demand for some of its products, leading to supply issues for consoles like the Nintendo Switch and the NES Classic Edition.

Following the announcement of the new 2DS XL console last week, The Verge spoke to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé, who described how the company decides the number of units it will initially manufacture.

“We create a plan, we build our programs against that plan… But based on what we see in the marketplace we make adjustments, and we go from there,” Fils-Aimé said.

“We make estimates on what consumer demand is, and if the demand dramatically exceeds what we plan, it creates some tightness in the marketplace… We get it right more times than we get it wrong. But sometimes we get it wrong.”

Nintendo had initially planned to manufacture 2 million units of the Switch by the end of March, but later decided to increase production in response to early demand.

“As we began the ramp up with our communication activity… We began to see a consumer response that was very positive, and there was a lot of excitement… So at that point we began to improve on our production capability.”

The console still faces some supply issues, despite having sold 2.74 million units in its March release month.

Demand also outstripped supply for the surprise retro hit NES Classic Edition console, which sold 2.3 million units before being discontinued.

Fils-Aime told TIME that discontinuing the popular $99 console was necessary because the company has “a lot going on right now and we don’t have unlimited resources.”

The company said it was confident that supply of its new 2DS XL would be adequate to meet demand.



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