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Nintendo is currently unable to make enough Switch consoles to meet demand, and is becoming ‘more uncertain’ about its production plans for the coming year amid a global semiconductor shortage.

In a Q&A with investors, company president Shuntaro Furukawa explained, “Demand for hardware continues to exceed our expectations even after the beginning of this calendar year, and production has currently not caught up to this high demand due to the tight supply and demand situation for semiconductor materials worldwide.”

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Semiconductors are used in almost all computing devices, and have seen shortages since last year. Among other things, they’re used in the chips that power all of the major consoles. Furukawa was asked about the company’s goal to ship 25.5 million Switches in the new financial year amid that situation, and it sounds like a somewhat hopeful number.

“Although we are currently striving to produce as many units as possible, the fact is that our production plans are more uncertain than they were at the beginning of previous fiscal years. Our full-year sales plan is based on the premise that we can secure the materials necessary for production, but if we are able to produce more units, we will work hard to meet the strong demand, and to be able to ship and sell those units.”

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Nintendo is far from the only console maker running into semiconductor-related production issues. Microsoft has previously said it expects Xbox Series X/S production to be hit this year, and Sony has even said shortages of PS5 could continue until 2022. President Joe Biden has even signed an executive order pledging to review the supply chains involced in the problem.

Those shortages have combined with Nintendo’s most profitable year ever, having sold 28.8 million consoles in that time (alongside 230.9 million games). The coming year could, according to reports, see the release of a new 4K model of Switch – which would of course be similarly affected by chip shortages. Nintendo’s reportedly expecting another record year, but it remains to be seen if that will be possible.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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