Nintendo says memory supply is secure as Switch 2 sales dip 32.7%

Nintendo has secured sufficient memory supply for Switch hardware despite a worldwide spike in component costs, president Shuntaro Furukawa told investors during the company's quarterly financial report, as captured by Reuters. Furukawa said there has been no major change to the memory situation from Nintendo's point of view — a signal that the crisis, while not improving, is at least not getting worse for the Kyoto-based platform holder.

That matters beyond one company's procurement desk. Rising memory prices, driven largely by components being diverted to data centers, have pushed price increases and launch uncertainty across the games industry. With Furukawa confident in supply for now, the Switch 2's price appears safe from another near-term hike in the United States — though Nintendo has previously warned it can't rule one out.

It has already happened once. In September, Nintendo raised the Switch 2's US price from $450 to $500, an increase the company tied directly to rising component costs such as RAM.

What does the price hike mean for hardware sales?

The numbers suggest friction. Switch 2 hardware sales fell 32.7% from the previous quarter. Even so, the console still outpaces its predecessor when launch-aligned, and Nintendo retains its headline superlative: the Switch 2 remains the fastest-selling console of all time.

The quarter's unit tally came in at 2.67 million Switch 2 units, alongside 610,000 for the original 2017 Switch — a figure certain to shrink next year. Nintendo plans to stop selling the Switch 1 in Europe in February.

A Bloomberg report quotes analysts who place the blame for the console slump not on price, but on software: a lack of major blockbuster titles. Little on the platform beyond Nintendo's own Mario Kart World has crossed the six-million-sold barrier. There's one caveat. Pokemon Pokopia's sales are split between publishers depending on region, meaning it has likely passed that threshold in a form Nintendo doesn't report.

Where is the software bright spot?

Software told a stronger story. Overall software sales rose significantly, with healthy year-over-year growth on both Switch 2 and Switch 1 — the older machine benefiting from titles like Tomodachi Life and Rhythm Heaven Groove.

One milestone stands out. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch version of the 2014 Wii U title, has now sold 72 million copies, placing it among the most successful releases in Nintendo's decades-long history.

Timing adds a wrinkle to this quarter's picture. Nintendo reported these results on the same day The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched on Switch 2 as the company's most notable holiday title. The alignment is coincidental to the numbers, though. Any monetary impact from Ocarina's debut won't show up until the Q3 report lands in January.

What does this change for the business?

For now, nothing dramatic — and that's the point. Nintendo has left its Switch 2 forecast unchanged at 16 million units for the financial year, despite the price increase and the quarterly slowdown. The company is betting that holiday software, led by Ocarina of Time, can carry hardware momentum through the buying season without procurement costs forcing another price move.

The signal to watch: whether memory prices stay flat enough through the holidays for Nintendo to hold that $500 price — and that 16-million-unit forecast — when Q3 figures arrive in January.