Production and Shipments of Nintendo Switch for Japan Delays Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

Japan might be experiencing a little drought soon when it comes to supplies of Nintendo Switch as Nintendo confirmed on Thursday that both production and shipments of their current popular console is delayed due to the Coronavirus outbreak. This delay also includes other official periphals for the console like its Joy-Con controllers.

In relation to this, Nintendo has also reviewed that its popular Nintendo Switch game Ring Fit Adventure is also on a shortage in Japan and shipments are delayed.

To those who are still hoping to get themselves a Nintendo Switch and expecting a new model to be released this year, you might have to choose from the previous released models as it was recently revealed during Nintendo’s financial results briefing that no new model will be released for the console this year.

Although there will be no new Nintendo Switch model will be out on the market this year, a special edition Nintendo Switch design was revealed in theme of the upcoming release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This new design is slated to be released on March 13, just a couple of days ahead of the games official release date which is on March 20. An “Aloha Edition” carrying case will also be made available for the Switch Lite owers.

The recent model, which is the Nintendo Switch Lite handheld was officially released last September 2019. This compact version of the original Nintendo Switch console (first released on March 3, 2017) is only made exclusively for handheld gameplay and you would not be able to connect it to your television. The first version of the Nintendo Switch sold around 52.48 million units worldwide as of December 31 last year. In around three months until December 31, Nintendo solar around 10.81 million units.

In the case of other gaming consoles, Microsoft has confirmed to they will be releasing its Xbox Series X console, while Sony has confirmed the release of the highly anticipated PlayStation 5. Both consoles are expected to released on the market on the 2020 holiday season.

As of this writing, there is still no word of delay in relation to shipment of the PlayStation 4 Console and its physical games.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

Two of the Nintendo Switch’s most successful games, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield were released worldwide on November 15 last year. The two versions of the game feature Pokemon from the Galar region, and players can choose one of the three basic starter Pokemon namely Gookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. This is also the game where the Gigantamax forms are featured, in which Pikachu, Eevee, Meowth, Butterfree, Charizard, Alcremie, and Corviknight will be having their own, said forms in this game. Two legendary Pokemon will also be introduced

Other features in the Pokemon Sword and Shield game include the Max Raid Battles, Dynamax, Gigantamax forms, the Battle Stadium, Poke Jobs, Pokemon Camp, and Surprise trades. This is the second Nintendo Switch game for the popular franchise.

The game has also announced expansion sets as well as a cloud-based Pokemon storage service (Pokemon Home). It was announced during the livestream presentation of Pokemon Direct recently that cloud-based service Pokemon Home is slated to launch in February for iOS, Nintendo Switch, and Android devices in February.

For those who are curious about this service, Pokemon Home will allow players to store and bring over their captured Pokemon from Pokemon Bank, Pokemon GO, Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu!, and Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! to your Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield game in the Nintendo Switch. Players will be able to successfully transfer their Pokemon as long as they’ve appeared in the base games or in their upcoming expansions (slated to be released this June and in the fall).

With the use of this service, you will also be able to transfer Pokemon between the Sword and Shield games as well as their expansions.

Even before the release of the two games, people have already shared their frustration and disappointment over some Pokemon that are missing from the game. Fans say that this is saddening as people expected so much from the game’s developer Game Freak thinking that it would be better than its first Nintendo Switch games of the franchise, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! which were based on the 1998 video game Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition.

The first Nintendo Switch games Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu, and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! was released in November 2018. The release of the games was a huge success as it had a record of more than 11.28 million combined sales as of September 2019. This huge number has made the games known as one of the best-selling games for the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo announced previously that the Pokemon Sword and Shield games will have seven net anime shorts titled Twilight Wings (Hakumei no Tsubasa). The shorts will be produced by Studio Colorido, the same studio that produced Fastening Days, Penguin Highway, and Typhoon Noruda).

While a lot of us are still hype for the new games, a new Pokemon movie has been announced—and is confirmed to be a sequel to the previous “I Choose You” film that premiered on 2017.

The announcement and the unveiling of the new trailer to the upcoming Pokemon anime film titled Pokemon the Movie: Coco happened in the Japanese morning program Oha Suta that aired on January 10. While the previous film was produced in CGI, this upcoming movie will be done in traditional animation.

As of this time, we don’t have much info on what the story of the upcoming film. However, it slated to be released in Japan on July 10. The director for Pokemon the Movie: Coco is Tetsuo Yajima, who previously directed the Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us movie. Long-time Pokemon writer Atsuhiro Tomioka is confirmed to the scriptwriter for the new film.

Source: ANN