The outbreak of the Coronavirus is already taking a toll on the gaming industry, Nintendo was the first gaming company to talk about the possibilities of the virus seriously affecting Nintendo. Two weeks ago, Nintendo of Japan President, Shuntaro Furukawa talked about how the deadly virus is already affecting the production of Nintendo Switch and its Lite version.
Now Nintendo is anticipating that Coronavirus will harm the supply of new Switch consoles if the virus becomes “widespread and prolonged.”
“We do not see any major impact on the shipment to the U.S. currently, but we will remain vigilant and take steps if necessary,” a Nintendo spokesperson told Bloomberg News. “It’s possible the supply would be affected by the virus if it becomes more widespread and prolonged.”
The situation is not looking well for the Japanese giant as their shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange dropped 3.55% by January 31, 2020. Nintendo had recently released a staggering Nine Months Earnings Release. Recently, Gaming Instincts reported that Nintendo is close to selling 18 million Switch units, the initial goal for the current financial year, as there are a few months left in the current financial year, Nintendo has raised their forecast of Switch’s sales to 19.5 million units.
Currently, the Switch is being manufactured by Foxconn (Taiwan) and Hosiden (Japan), but several hardware parts are still being made in China, the rise of the Coronavirus might stand in the way of Nintendo’s ambitions. For the time being, Nintendo is trying to avoid a bottleneck in the production of the Switch by hiring new manufacturers in Vietnam.
Coronavirus is not only affecting console releases, but Nintendo of Japan had also scheduled pre-orders for Animal Crossing: New Horizons to start on February 8th. Nintendo has now delayed the pre-orders for the game.
Source: Bloomberg
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