Bloomberg report says Nintendo is cutting Switch 2 production after softer holiday sales

Nintendo is reportedly scaling back Switch 2 production after holiday sales came in below the company’s expectations, especially in the US. According to Bloomberg’s report, Nintendo now plans to make 4 million units this quarter instead of the 6 million it had originally targeted, and that lower pace is expected to continue into April.

The report says the cheaper domestic model sold well, but US demand slipped. Nintendo hasn’t publicly commented on the claim. Bloomberg also says memory chip prices and supply issues were not part of the decision.

The news hit Nintendo’s stock, which reportedly fell as much as 6.3% to ¥8,835 per share. The stock opened lower in U.S. trading as well. That’s a sharp swing, especially since the company had seen a bump earlier this month after Pokémon Pokopia launched. Many Nintendo fans cried “fake news” on social media as the author of the news report, Takashi Mochizuki, has had his reporting disputed by Nintendo and Sony in the past.

What makes the report notable is that Switch 2 didn’t exactly have a slow start. The system launched last June and set a US launch-week record for Nintendo hardware with more than 1.1 million units sold. By November, it had reportedly reached 10.36 million units worldwide, the best first four months for any Nintendo platform.

More recently, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said Japan was outperforming other regions on the hardware side, helped by the lower-priced model and holiday software sales. So if Bloomberg’s sourcing is accurate, this looks less like a broad collapse and more like Nintendo adjusting output to match where demand is actually landing right now.

The report also lands a day after separate claims that Nintendo is planning a revised EU version of the Switch 2 with a replaceable battery to meet incoming European rules. Nintendo hasn’t confirmed that either.