Nintendo plans to sell 15 million Switch 2s during the 2025/2026 fiscal year (ending at the end of March 2026). This is a significant volume, but one that has disappointed some analysts: the consensus was actually 16.8 million units. The company's goal is to match the success of the Switch 1 at its launch; 15 million units were sold during the hybrid console's first 10 months.
Objective: 15 million Switch 2s… and more
The current context is hardly favorable, between rampant inflation in production costs and Donald Trump's customs duties. This explains Nintendo's relative caution and its very early thinking about how to increase the pace if necessary. And this requires solid industrial partnerships. Bloomberg reports that Samsung has lent its manufacturing capacity to Nintendo to multiply the number of chips for the Switch 2.
This decision would allow Nintendo to reach 20 million units sold by next March, provided that Foxconn's assembly follows suit. Nintendo and Nvidia have reportedly optimized the Switch 2's new 8nm chip for Samsung's production systems.
TSMC is the big loser in this story: the Taiwanese semiconductor giant produces the Tegra X1 chip for the first-generation Switch. But clearly, Samsung has made a golden bridge for Nintendo, which allows it to strengthen its position in the chip manufacturing market - even if TSMC remains far ahead.
Samsung is also strengthening its position among Nintendo's suppliers: it also provides the console's memory and OLED screens. Finally, it is rumored that the company is pushing the Japanese manufacturer to consider an OLED panel for a future version of the Switch 2...
Source: Bloomberg
0 Comments