E3’s over now, and fans are still excited about Nintendo’s lineup of new games coming to the Switch, including Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Prime 4, and the unnamed Pokémon title. Anyone who was still on the fence about buying the Switch is probably convinced to get one by now, especially with the holiday season coming up. There’s just one problem: major retailers in North America like GameStop are facing stock shortages, and a recent prediction by gaming analyst Daniel Ahmad says this will likely continue for the rest of the year.
Ahmad, a gaming analyst at Niko Partners, brought this bad news on Twitter to those who were hoping to buy a Switch later this year:
Expect Nintendo Switch shortages to continue through the rest of the year. Production is still capped right now due to component shortages.
Nintendo has tried to remedy this by boosting their production targets to around 20 million units for this fiscal year, but it might be difficult to reach, and companies like Apple could be to blame.
The reason being is that the LCD screens used to make the Nintendo Switch are the same ones needed for Apple’s iPhones and other products. An increase in demand for Apple products could mean Nintendo will be left with less Switch consoles. And while a lot of people play video games, everyone needs a phone, so companies like Apple are likely to make much larger orders than Nintendo. If Nintendo wants to make sure they reach 20 million units, they’ll have to pay more to secure the necessary parts.