Nintendo president apologizes for Switch 2 shortages

For the first time since launch, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa commented on the stock situation with Switch 2 and apologized for being unable to meet demand. This comes as part of the company’s 85th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders that took place earlier today.

The question brought up stock shortages in Japan, but Furukawa indicated that demand is outpacing supply in other countries as well. The initial demand “far exceeded our expectations,” he said.

NStyles was in attendance for the event today and passed along a rough summary of what was said. You can find that below (via machine translation). 

Currently, in many countries, demand for the Switch 2 exceeds supply, and we are unable to meet it. We understand that some shareholders have not been able to get one.

We accepted lottery sales at the My Nintendo Store from April. The number of applicants far exceeded our expectations, and we announced in my name that 2.2 million people applied on X, and apologized.

We then held four lottery sales, but some people were not selected.

We announced that the fifth lottery will be held in July.

Many general mass retailers also held lottery sales. The number of stores selling in stores is gradually increasing.

We will work to supply production systems and try to deliver as many consoles as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the initial demand, which far exceeded our expectations.

Nintendo quickly announced that it had sold 3.5 million Switch 2 units worldwide after just a few days on the market. Here in the U.S., restocks have been limited thus far.