Nintendo ramps up production so you can finally buy a Switch

By Will Nicol Published April 25, 2023

Nintendo is ramping up production on the Nintendo Switch amid widespread shortages of the in-demand console, according to a report published in the Nikkei Asian Review.

Recommended Videos

“The Kyoto-based game developer says it expects to produce about 10% more units of the Switch series in 2020, up from around 20 million last year, according to parts suppliers informed of the plans,” the report said. “The company does not make the device itself, but has asked multiple suppliers and contract assemblers to prepare for additional production in the April-June quarter.”

That’s welcome news for people who’ve been wanting to buy a Switch while trapped in quarantine.

As we reported back in February, the outbreak of COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus) in China was wreaking havoc on the world’s electronics production, much of which happens in China.

Since then, much of the world has gone into social isolation and the Nintendo Switch has been in short supply, leading to rampant price gouging online. Even with Switches being hard to find, Nintendo still posted a banner month in March, with its hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons dominating the sales charts. Nintendo Switch sales also doubled from last year to become the bestselling console ever in March.

Speaking to Nikkei, Nintendo explained that the company hopes parts suppliers “will be responsive to the production increase, but for procurement of some parts, the outlook remains uncertain, and we can’t forecast exactly how many Switches can be supplied.”

Digital Trends reached out to Nintendo to confirm its plans to make more Switches. We will update this story when we hear back.

Senior Writer

Will Nicol is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends. He covers a variety of subjects, particularly emerging technologies, movies…

Topics

Gaming

AntonBlast is a Wario Land tribute cranked up to 11

Anton holds his head and screams in AntonBlast.

Sometimes when a major publisher refuses to do anything with one of its best franchises, indie developers have no choice but to step in.

That was the case last year with Pizza Tower, a ludicrous ode to Nintendo's dormant Wario Land series. The indie hit captured the the eccentric thrills of the Game Boy Advance era perfectly and revitalized players' love for a long lost series. This year, that's happening again with AntonBlast. The new indie title is another bombastic tribute to Wario's unique franchise, though it's certainly not riding on Pizza Tower's coattails. AntonBlast is a wild vision of its own that's far tougher and more hectic. It's a lot -- maybe even for me -- but it's an artistic vision executed with a maximalist wackiness that I can't help but admire. AntonBlast will either make you feel very young or very old.

Computing

You can now buy eight RTX 5090s for over $50,000

Comino Grando server.

It's true that we're all waiting for the release of Nvidia's best graphics cards, but ... not like this. The RTX 5090 made a surprise appearance in a GPU server made by Comino, a company that deals with data center design and construction. Although still unannounced by Nvidia, the GPU can now be preordered directly from the manufacturer, but not by itself -- and at a whopping price of around $5,000 per GPU.

Just to clarify: No, Nvidia's RTX 50-series is still not here, and as of yet, Nvidia hasn't even confirmed that there will be an RTX 5090 at all. However, Comino opened up preorders for its next-gen Grando Server equipped with either six or eight RTX 5090 GPUs. This is worrying news for gamers because the RTX 5090 was always meant to be a consumer card. Still, the reality is that the RTX 4090 remained in high demand throughout its tenure because of its AI capabilities, and the RTX 5090 is only going to be even better in that regard.

Gaming

Game spending is up — and you can thank Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

A soldier shooting a beamshamsher in Black Ops 6.

Most of us knew that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 would be one of the biggest games of the year, but it's so big that it's doing a lot to boost games sales across the U.S.

This information comes from Circana (formerly NPD Group), which publishes a monthly report on U.S. video game spending. According to analyst Mat Piscatella, spending on hardware, software, and accessories was up 10% in October compared to the same time last year, and the spike was "primarily" driven by the release of Black Ops 6. Non-mobile video game subscription service spending was also up by 16%.