Report: Nintendo doubling Switch production to meet demand

The initial shipments of Nintendo’s Switch console have sold out, and the hardware is now being sold for around $450 by third-party sellers on the gray market. The company sold an estimated 1.5 million systems in the first week. Nintendo is now doubling production to try to meet the demand, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“In the fiscal year starting April 2017, assemblers under contract with Nintendo are now planning to manufacture 16 million or more Switches, up from an initial plan for eight million, said people briefed on the plans,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Even after accounting for inventory, that suggests Nintendo believes it can sell significantly more than 10 million units during the 12-month period, they said, beating expectations of many analysts.”

That would be a huge win for the company, and would go a long way to enticing developers to support the Switch.

“First-year sales above 10 million would clear the threshold that analysts say must be reached to generate interest from outside software producers, who in turn can deliver a fresh stream of titles to keep consumers interested in the device,” the report continues.

Nintendo has been pointing out that the Switch is actually outselling the Wii when comparing the two launch timeframes, but it may still be too early to use these sales numbers to indicate the long-term success of the Switch.

But the system has certainly been supply constrained, and increased production could help turn the initial success of the Switch into something lasting. Nintendo has reported that it has sold around 13.5 million Wii U systems since that console’s launch, and these new estimates indicate the Switch could exceed that console’s sales much sooner than expected.