In case you haven't noticed, there's been a serious shortage of both the new Nintendo Switch OLED and even the original Switch in the lead up to the holidays, prompting many to hunt for Nintendo Switch OLED restocks and where to buy the Nintendo Switch.
Despite being a somewhat underwhelming update, with many hoping for a 4K Switch Pro, Switch OLED restock is still extremely hard to come by — something that Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser doesn’t see getting better in the short term.
“I will say, the semiconductor components are in short supply, and the future is uncertain,” Bowser said to The Verge in an interview. “There are no major improvements that we’ve seen on the horizon. So I think the challenges will continue into 2022.”
Bowser’s advice? “I’d certainly recommend if you see it, buy it this holiday season.”
Nintendo Switch N64 emulation issues
There is some sort-of good news. The $50 per year Switch Online Expansion Pack, which adds Nintendo 64 games to the mix, has gotten off to an extremely rocky start. Many of the N64 games that the $15 upgrade unlocks suffer from basic emulation errors such as graphical glitches, audio delays and strange button mapping.
The uncomfortable truth is that iffy ROMs and emulators play better than the official, legitimate, Nintendo sanctioned solution. But Nintendo is aware of the criticism and, according to Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser, the company is looking to put things right.
“We take the feedback very seriously, and we’re continuing to look at ways to improve the overall performance,” he told. “For us, it’s about quality and great content at a great value.”
The issues don’t appear to have dampened fan enthusiasm for the retro games themselves, however, with the official N64 controller out of stock until 2022.
What about Joy-Con drift?
Finally, Bowser was pressed on the continuing Joy-Con drift issues that have plagued the Nintendo Switch since launch. Unsurprisingly, his answer mirrored the recent ‘Ask the Developers’ interview on the official Nintendo site.
“As we’ve gone through the first five-and-a-half years of the Nintendo Switch, we’ve observed gameplay, we’ve observed as people have returned units how they’ve worn, and we’ve been making continuous improvements overall to the Joy-Con, including the analog stick,” he explained.
We’re not sure if “five-and-a-half years” was a slip of the tongue, or whether Bowser was referring to the development time as well, but the Switch actually won’t turn five until March.
Nintendo recently stated that the Switch is in the “middle phase” of its life, meaning that a Switch 2 may be some time away yet, even if the original is increasingly showing its age in the shadow of the Xbox Series X and PS5.
Be sure to check out the best Nintendo Switch games as we wait for the Nintendo Switch OLED stock issues to improve, and check out our Nintendo Switch OLED review to see if this console might be worth the wait.
