Reggie on how Nintendo handles production, New 2DS XL supply won’t be an issue
The NES Classic Edition was tough to find ever since it launched towards the end of last year. Nintendo didn’t help the situation by announcing its discontinuation. In light of that, The Verge asked Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime about how Nintendo determines how many units of a product to make.
He said:
“We create a plan, we build our programs against that plan. But based on what we see in the marketplace we make adjustments, and we go from there.”
Regarding Switch, Reggie confirmed that Nintendo did indeed increase production following the early response.
“As we began the ramp up with our communication activity, starting with the video we released in October, then the hands-on events that we did in January, clearly we began to see a consumer response that was very positive, and there was a lot of excitement. So at that point we began to improve on our production capability.”
Yesterday, Nintendo announced the New 2DS XL. Reggie doesn’t foresee supply issues with the new iteration of the handheld.
“It’s not a direct, one-for-one effect. Certainly there are some components that are common within a particular platform; so with 3DS for example, there are some common components. A great example: the AC adaptor is the same whether you’re talking about a 2DS or a 3DS XL. It’s the same adaptor. And there are some things that are shared between a 3DS platform and a Nintendo Switch. But what we try and do, is manage the overall business to deliver as much financial results as we can, and also as much consumer satisfaction as we can.”
“We make estimates on what consumer demand is, and if the demand dramatically exceeds what we plan, it creates some tightness in the marketplace. We think we’ve estimated for New Nintendo 2DS XL pretty well, and we’re confident that the consumer who wants to buy it on July 28th is going to be able to do that. We get it right more times than we get it wrong. But sometimes we get it wrong.”
