Nintendo Switch outsold the most optimistic predictions

By Gabe Gurwin September 22, 2017

Nintendo Switch review — Mike Epstein/Digital Trends

The Nintendo Switch has been quite difficult to find since it launched in early March, quickly selling out on sites like Amazon as well as in brick-and-mortar stores. Nintendo increased production of the console in order to better meet demand, but many are still left waiting to get their hands on the console. According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé, however, this doesn’t mean the company is ignoring fans.

Speaking to Mashable, Fils-Aimé said that Nintendo produced 2 million Switch units for the system’s launch window, but analysts didn’t predict that the company would be able to sell them all — during that time, about 2.8 million ended up being sold.

“So what do some of the consumers on Reddit say?” he continued. “‘Gosh, Nintendo, if you would’ve made more you would’ve sold more.’ Well, we did make more! And certainly we’re on a pace to supply in the current fiscal year 10 million units.”

Nintendo clearly wanted to avoid its mistakes with the Wii U, which quickly fizzled out after having a fairly strong start in late 2012. Third-party support for the system dried up as publishers moved to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but this doesn’t seem to be the case with the Switch. On the contrary, more publishers have jumped on board since launch, including Bethesda. The company will release Switch versions of both Doom and Wolfenstein: II The New Colossus, and a special edition of Skyrim is on the way, as well.

Fils-Aimé did concede that Nintendo’s solutions are perhaps rolling out slower than fans would like, as is the case with the NES Classic and SNES Classic systems. Nintendo recently revealed that the NES Classic and SNES Classic will both be sold in 2018, but short supply and third-party vendors have already made the prospect of getting the plug-and-play consoles rather daunting. With the SNES Classic, fans have the only legal way to play the previously canceled game Star Fox 2, which was scrapped in favor of Star Fox 64 on Nintendo 64.

The Nintendo Switch will be a mighty fine present during the holidays this year. In addition to great games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey releases on October 27.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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