The NPD results for June, 2017 have gone live and Sony managed to squeeze out a victory over its competitors thanks to the introduction of a limited time SKU in the form of a golden PlayStation 4 that was available for $250. Combined with the PS4 Pro and vanilla PS4, Sony was able to move cumulatively more PlayStation units than the Nintendo Switch or the Xbox One family.
According to Venture Beat the June win was due in large part to the new gold PS4 Slim that launched on June 9th for only $250. After the June sale – during which it was available throughout the E3 festivities – Sony raised the price of the PS4 Slim back to $300.
This was a tactic that Microsoft used frequently throughout 2016 with the Xbox One, dropping the price down to $250 or lower with specific bundles in order to leverage having multiple SKUs on the market at a cheaper price than Sony, allowing them to secure a couple of key months throughout 2016, such as July, September, and October, as reported by PlayStation Lifestyle and Venture Beat.
Nintendo announced back at the end of June that they would continue to suffer stock shortages up until July, thus confirming that they were likely going to lose the June NPD.
From July through autumn they claimed that they would finally have enough supply to meet demand. As noted on sites like Now In Stock, the Switch has been sold out since March and the poor supply chain has meant that a lot of gamers have not been able to purchase a Switch.
According to Express, Nintendo’s senior director of communications, Charlie Scibetta, explained that they aren’t purposefully constraining the production to create artificial demand, saying…
“It’s definitely not intentional in terms of shorting the market.
“We’re making it as fast as we can. We want to get as many units out as we can to support all the software that’s coming out right now… our job really is to get it out as quick as we can, especially for this holiday because we want to have units on shelves to support Super Mario Odyssey.”
Some people believe that Nintendo is purposefully constraining supply, but the only thing that would do is force their software not to sell since the install base needs to be large in order to support expansive software sales.
The biggest hurdle Nintendo has encountered is Apple. The smartphone maker had a large number of chips ordered that they needed for the new iPhones… these are the same chips Nintendo is using in the Switch, thus the parts supply chain was limited and in result the Switch has not been moving anywhere near as much product as Nintendo had originally estimated, as reported by Apple Insider.
Comicbook.com noted that there are lines in Japan that are extending all the way around several city blocks where up to 3,000 people have been lining up to get their hands on a Switch.
ヨドバシ梅田のスイッチ200台にコレ 無理だぞw pic.twitter.com/ybjaOC8wlL
— ONOMA@P (@pachi_pansya) July 15, 2017
Those photos are from July 15th, 2017. So if Nintendo can finally manage to produce enough Nintendo Switch units, maybe for the first time during the summer they will be able to beat Sony and the PlayStation 4 in the monthly NPD charts.
