By the end of the fiscal year, Nintendo plans on shipping 2 million Nintendo Switch game consoles to homes across the globe. That’s according to the Wall Street Journal’s Tokyo-correspondent and reporter
Takashi Mochizuki, who says that by the end of the fiscal year Nintendo will have 2 million SKUs on store shelves.
Nintendo CEO says current FY financial guidance assumes 2 million units of Switch to be shipped this fiscal year ending in March
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 26, 2016
As pointed out by GamesIndustry.biz, the Wii U shipped 3 million SKUs in its first month out. So it’s not unlikely that Nintendo could be using conservative numbers (or regional numbers) for the Nintendo Switch when March rolls around.
Additionally, shipping 2 million units by the end of their fiscal year in March speaks nothing of what they would ship for the start of the next fiscal year during the first quarter, which may either be at the end of March or the beginning of April. They’ll likely have a couple of million more units on hand to have a bustling fourth quarter for the previous year and a dynamite first quarter for the new fiscal year. It’s a tactic that Electronic Arts has used quite often to great effect.
The Nintendo Switch is still a bit of a wild card at the moment due to not having a solid line-up of software and also being a bit sketchy when it comes to certain features. Gamers are still wondering whether or not digital backwards compatibility will be a thing and what sort of online multiplayer setup Nintendo will be using for the system.
There are also a lot of questions about battery life, 4K capabilities, controller connectivity (how many of the wireless controllers can be paired with a docked Switch?) and what sort of benchmarks the system will have.
Nintendo is being mum for now, but they’ve managed to create quite a bit of buzz for the new system and its hybrid portability and stationary functionality. Some gamers are excited and can’t wait to pre-order while others are taking a wait and see approach to avoid ending up with a system like the Wii U, which had amazing first-party titles but lacked a lot of third-party support.
