There will “Likely” Be a Shortage of Nintendo Switch in U.S. and Europe Due to COVID-19

If you are itching to get a Nintendo Switch this year, you better get it soonest while stocks are still available. In a report released by business news company Bloomberg on Monday, shortages of the popular handheld console will “likely” happen in April for the United States and Europe due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This is because of he delays of production of the console’s components in China as well as its finally assembly in Vietnam.

These delays might affect the units that are slated to arrive in April this year.

Japan might be experiencing a little drought as well when it comes to supplies of Nintendo Switch as Nintendo confirmed that both production and shipments of their current popular console is delayed due to the Coronavirus outbreak. This delay also includes other official peripherals 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 as 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 owners.

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 this month.

Source: ANN