Iwata apologizes for Animal Crossing shortages, update on shipments
In a new nine-minute video, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata discussed Animal Crossing: New Leaf shipments and shortages, as well as a special ROM card the game uses.
New Leaf has been seeing widespread sell-outs across Japan. While it’s been fairly successful on the eShop, it has sold tremendously at retail. Shops haven’t been able to keep up with demand.
Read on below for an update on Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s production. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Nintendo will be able to alleviate the shipment situation anytime soon.
– Iwata apologies for New Leaf shortages
– The game saves more items and swapped villages, houses with a special type of ROM card with SLC-NAND to store such big save data
– NAND is flash memory, as used in SD cards, USB key drives, SSDs
– SLC-NAND is durable and has large area for volume
– MLC-NAND sacrifices durability for greater data density
– Supplies for SLC-NAND, controller chip were within estimates
– Sales greatly exceeded estimates
– Replenishing supplies will take several months, won’t be resolved soon
– Nintendo is adjusting production volume allocation between Animal Crossing and other SLC-NAND games, but not giving AC a production monopoly
– Iwata reminds consumers that the game can be downloaded on the eShop
– There are download cards at retail which may sell out, but there will be plentiful resupplies for year-end
– It’s possible to buy download codes online
– Limited-time downloadable presents and Seven-Eleven-exclusive presents will be redistributed at a later date
