Typically, Nintendo ships hardware around the globe by sea. But to quickly meet the high demand at launch, it put a number of Switch consoles on aeroplanes.
[Image: Nintendo of America | Business Wire]
A Nintendo spokesperson tells The Wall Street Journal, “We carried some of the Switches by plane in March to serve our customers more promptly.” Nintendo originally planned to ship two million Switch units at launch, but ended up getting 2.74 million in stores.
“Air is a big profit-squeezer because it could cost additional ¥5000 [$59] per unit,” said Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda.
Nintendo has not disclosed to which locations Switch consoles were sent via air, but according to WSJ, analysts believe the flights moved the hardware from factories in China to the US and Europe.
In April, Nintendo says it switched (heh) to moving the hardware via boat, which is cheaper, but obviously takes longer.
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7 responses to “Nintendo Shipped Switch Consoles By Aeroplane To Meet Demand ASAP”
But a humorous gentlemen made a video telling me Nintendo doesn’t build enough of these things to fan the flames of desire and preys on the weak wills of innocent gamers.
I just don’t know who to believe.
It’s true. All of it.
Maybe we should believe those who say instead Nintendo should be building more NES Minis instead…
Don’t the switches have lithium-ion batteries in them? How did they manage to get those shipped by air?
Rather easily. They’re called cargo planes.
Lithium batteries as freight is only banned on passenger air craft.
Here’s the inside scoop. Reggie’s personal Switch broke and Nintendo couldn’t find him a replacement in all of America (all 47 units had sold out) so they had to fly him one over from Japan since he was holding his breath until he got one. Some bright spark decided to use it as publicity for how much Nintendo cares about addressing the supply shortage (minus several relevant details, as per above).
awwww thanks nintendo – so cute guys