Coronavirus impacting Nintendo Switch production, says report
The viral outbreak could affect the Switch's strong sales.
The Nintendo Switch is one of the company's most successful consoles.
Nintendo said Thursday that it's sold 52 million Switches since the console's launch in 2017, which is more units sold than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (aka the SNES). Also briefly mentioned after the sales numbers reveal was that the coronavirus outbreak in China may have an effect on production of the Switch.
Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said in a news briefing Thursday that Switch production in China is "seeing some impact from the coronavirus," according to a report from Reuters. He reportedly didn't provide details about the extent of the impact.
The first coronavirus cases in China cropped up on Dec. 31 in the city of Wuhan. Since then, the pneumonia-like illness has infected nearly 8,000 people and resulted in more than 170 deaths. Only five cases of the virus have been found in the US, but the first case of a person-to-person infection was discovered Thursday. Apple, Google, McDonald's and some esports events have seen their businesses affected by the outbreak.
Nintendo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on how much of an impact the virus will have on production.