The Nintendo Switch continues to sell brilliantly thanks to its unique features compared to its rivals the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But this success could be put in jeopardy because of the coronavirus health scare that’s currently afflicting China, and to a lesser extent other countries around the world.
The reason for this is simple: China is a crucial part of Nintendo’s supply chain. While the consoles that get sent to the US are assembled in Vietnam, the parts come from China. And a report from Bloomberg (via T3 and VGC) citing anonymous sources says that we could start seeing shortages of the console as a result of these disruptions by April at the earliest, when the last of the already dispatched consoles and parts have been processed.
Any problems for Nintendo would be yet more of the myriad associated problems caused by the viral outbreak. However, the company itself denies that there will be any issues caused by coronavirus, saying in a statement to Bloomberg: “We do not see any major impact on the shipment to the US currently, but we will remain vigilant and take steps if necessary”.
There are issues faced by retailers who stock these products however. Japanese stores have run out of Switch consoles as well as the Ring Fit Adventure game and its associated Ring-Con peripheral, plus Nintendo has elected to delay the opening of pre-orders for its Animal Crossing: New Horizons edition Switch.
Fortunately this is unlikely to affect the rumored Nintendo Switch Pro, an upgraded version of the console. Unfortunately, this is because Nintendo has outright stated that there will be no Switch console released in 2020.
Meanwhile in the world of smartphones, there are questions over whether Apple will be able to produce its iPhone 12 in time for its September launch. In addition industry conference MWC 2020 was recently cancelled as a reaction to many notable companies pulling out to protect its staff from any risk of infection.
